Engaging and Empowering School Libraries

School libraries - too essential to lose

Today I talked to guests Sean McNamara, CEO of CILIP Scotland, Dr Dorothy Willaims, Emeritus professor from Robert Gordon University and school librarian Anne De’Ath about the essential role of school libraries and librarians within education looking at the impact of school library closures across Scotland. 

Great School Libraries Campaign website https://www.greatschoollibraries.org.uk/

 

Some of the research that Dorothy was talking about:- 

Lance  K.C. and Kachel D.E. (2018)  Why school librarians matter: What years of research tell us.  Phi Delta Kappan, 99 (7), pp 15-20.   Available at:  https://kappanonline.org/lance-kachel-school-librarians-matter-years-research/

Teravainen, A & Clark, C. 2017 School Libraries:   A literature review of current provision and evidence of impact. National Literacy Trust, 2017 https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/school-libraries-literature-review-current-provision-and-evidence-impact-2017/          

Williams, D A, Wavell, C and Morrison, K  (2013) Impact of school libraries on learning.  Critical review of published evidence to inform the Scottish education community. https://scottishlibraries.org/about-us/our-publications/special-studies/impact-of-school-libraries/  Or  https://scottishlibraries.org/media/1211/impact-of-school-libraries-on-learning-2013.pdf  (Also available via the School Library Association website and RGU’s OpenAIR repository)

Research portals to USA studies

• Overview of USA studies https://antiochlis.libguides.com/schlibcert/research
• The Lance studies - https://www.lrs.org/data-tools/school-libraries/impact-studies/
• The Todd studies - https://cissl.rutgers.edu/research/impact-studies/

School Library Association - Impact of school libraries.   Links to research reports, summaries and infographics from the School Library Association’s webpage: https://www.sla.org.uk/impact

Membership information https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/aboutmembership

Supporting school libraries from the top. Can senior leaders make a difference?

Do head teachers have a responsibility to ensure that their school library and librarian are understood and valued in their schools? We talked to two esteemed leaders in education. Richard Gerver, an award-winning speaker, bestselling author, and School Library Association President, and Peter Middleton Headteacher of Oswestry school about the critical role senior leaders have in supporting their school library and librarian.

My membership packages can be found here https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/aboutmembership

 

ChatGPT for teachers and school librarians.

What is ChatGPT and AI? Where do you start with it? Is it a passing fad or here to stay?

Tonight, I am joined by Domonic Sunderland Headteacher of Capella House School to chat through some of the possibilities for teachers and school librarians. 

If you want to join my Webinar on Wednesday 18th January here is the link for more information https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/service-page/chatgpt-and-ai?referral=service_list_widget 

Today is a special edition as I am on my own with only one guest. If you join me normally, I have two co-hosts and usually 2 or 3 guests. But due to the fast-moving pace of ChatGPT and AI I didn’t want to wait to get everyone together so here we are.

School libraries and digital resources on a budget

(Start at 4.54 to miss set up chat). Elizabeth, Sabrina and Ruth chat with school librarians Emily, Hayden and Susan about the importance of digital resources and the school library. Here is a link to some of the free resources we discussed during the chat.

https://wakelet.com/wake/dKdRDqTmVe5ZFth6a8BHx from school librarian Clare Brumpton

Search coach https://www.bigtechwire.com/2022/06/14/microsoft-announces-new-search-coach-feature-in-microsoft-teams/?amp=1

Carot2 https://search.carrot2.org/#/search/web

Unpaywall https://unpaywall.org/ 

If you want to know more about how I can support school libraries check out my website https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/ 

Host: Elizabeth Hutchinson - School Library Specialist (https://www.twitter.com/Elizabethutch)

Co-hosts Sabrina Cox 💙🎓📕 (https://www.twitter.com/WyrmbergSabrina) Ruth Maloney (https://www.twitter.com/RuthMaloney30)

Speakers Emily Stannard (https://www.twitter.com/copyrightgirl) Hayden Gigner @ The Forge Valley School LRC (https://www.twitter.com/ForgeLrc) Susan Merrick (https://www.twitter.com/merrilibrarian)

Educating and training our library educators

(Start at 5.47 mins to miss set up chat) Elizabeth, Ruth and Sabrina chat with Krystal Vittal, Deputy CEO of Suffolk libraries, Briony Birdi, Senior lecturer and dissertation supervisor at Sheffield University, Corin Peacock, a student at Sheffield University studying librarianship and Rachel Huskisson, school librarian about the different routes to a professional qualification.

We discussed why it is important to have a qualification, its benefits and the confidence it gives you. Whilst also touching on the importance of learning about other areas of the library profession. 

Apprenticeship information https://www.cilip.org.uk/general/custom.asp?page=LISApprenticeships#:~:text=The%20Level%203%20standard%20covers,to%20resolve%20their%20specific%20query  

If you want to know more about how I can support school libraries check out my website https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/ 

Reading for recreation, reading for learning and reading for life. The school librarians role in supporting reading.

(Start at 4.55 mins to miss set up chat) Elizabeth, Ruth and Sabrina chat with school librarian, Clare Brumpton and teacher, Gaurav Dubay about reading. We discussed the importance of reading for recreation, how to support students reading for learning and give ideas for engaging reluctant readers in reading for life. Listen out for my snowman gaff... proves it is a live show! 

Here is the link to the article we mention - School libraries and reading development 

If you want to know more about how I can support school libraries check out my website https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/ 

ebooks and audiobooks in school libraries

(Start at 4 mins to miss set up chat) Elizabeth, Ruth and Sabrina chat with Raff Grasso, a teacher librarian from Melbourn and Haley Higgins and Alison Mercer-Cifola from Bolinda. We talked about ebooks in school libraries. We covered having a school collection and how to promote them. Using the public library collections and the increased use of audiobooks. We cover diversity and how this medium supports health and wellbeing as well as catering for visually impaired readers. Will it make you want to download a book or two? 

https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/ 

 

Thoughts and tips for stock selection for school libraries

(Start at 4m 55sec to miss set up chat) Elizabeth, Ruth and Sabrina chat with Alison King, Will Lack and Jim Mcleod about selecting stock for your school library. We covered diversity, how to find hidden gems and how to choose genres we don't read ourselves. Thanks to Jim I have just downloaded my first ever horror story... Will I be a convert?

https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/ 

https://www.gingernutsofhorror.com/contact-feature.html# 

https://www.ukreadingroadmap.org/