Exciting times for school libraries in Australia!!

I am sharing a message from Karen Bonanno:


Well, what a week it has been here in Australia.

On Monday, the Chair of the House Standing Committee on 
Education and Employment tabled the report from the Inquiry 
into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians in Australian Schools
 — School libraries and teacher librarians in 21st century Australia. 
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ee/schoollibraries/report.htm
It has been a long journey since March 2010 to reach this point.

The Committee has presented 11 recommendations for debate 
by the House of Parliament and we now enter into a three to 
six month response time.

In response to the release of the report I have been working with the 
Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the 
Australian School Library Association (ASLA) to create a wiki 
http://schoollibraries2011.wikispaces.com/
and a Facebook page (the link is on the wiki)
to enable parents, students, teachers, and 
everyone else who is concerned about the state of school libraries, 
to find out more information about this highly topical issue and to 
join in the discussion. I encourage you to share the wiki and the 
Facebook page with your colleagues, your family (every parent 
should be interested in this topic), your friends and anyone who 
is interested in school libraries.

I’d also encourage you to revisit the series of blog posts on 
school library advocacy 
http://www.karenbonanno.com.au/tag/library-advocacy/
and to revisit the webinar presentation on 7 successful 
strategies to develop your advocacy toolkit.
http://www.schoollibrarymanagement.com/presentations.html

Stay tuned as this will be an exciting time."

The report is delivered to my door!!

I am so excited 


to have received a copy of School Librarians and teacher librarians in 21st Century Australia from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment. If you did not receive your own personal copy it is available for download. This report is comprised of preliminary pages, 6 chapters and 4 appendices.

Australian Library and Information Week starts with the Inquiry report being tabled!!!

What is Library and Information Week? 
"We find stuff!"

We catalogue stuff!
We look up stuff!
We research stuff!
We know stuff!

Library and Information Week will be held from 23 - 29 May 2011.

Libraries across Australia can use this week as a focus to promote and showcase their varied resources and services through different programs and events to the community. The week 

provides you the opportunity to introduce new services or publicly canvas issues of importance regarding library and information services in Australia.

The School Libraries and Teacher Librarians in Australia report
has now been tabled in parliament for debate at a later sitting. The full report is at
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ee/schoollibraries/report.htm 

Chapter  6 is of great interest as it comprises the concluding comments.

Have a read:

http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ee/schoollibraries/report.htm#chapters

There are eleven recommendations:
Recommendation 1
The Committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government
partner with all education authorities to fund the provision of a core set
of online database resources, which are made available to all Australian
schools.
 
Recommendation 2: IL Continuum
The Committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government work
with the states and territories to develop a discrete national policy
statement that defines the importance of digital and information literacy
for learning in the 21st century, which can be used as a guide by teachers
and principals.
 
Recommendation 3
The Committee recommends that the Australian Curriculum, Assessment
and Reporting Authority include statistical information about the
breakdown of all specialist teachers, including teacher librarians, on the
My School website.
 
Recommendation 4
The Committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government
support additional initiatives to promote reading, such as a National Year
of Reading. The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace
Relations should collaborate with the Australian School Library
Association, Australian Libraries and Information Association and other
education stakeholders in developing these initiatives
 
Recommendation 5
The Committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government
initiate an Australian-based longitudinal study into the links between
library programs, literacy (including digital literacy) and student
achievement, including their impact on improving outcomes for
socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
 
Recommendation 6
The Committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government
support promotional activities undertaken by ASLA and ALIA that
demonstrate to the school community the valuable work that teacher
librarians are doing in respect of e-learning in their schools, including
those that highlight their leadership capacity
 
Recommendation 7
The Committee recommends that the rollout of the new national
curriculum, which is to be made available online, include a component of
training for teacher librarians.
 
Recommendation 8
The Committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government
commission a thorough workforce gap analysis of teacher librarians
across Australian schools.
 
Recommendation 9
The Committee recommends that the Minister for School Education,
Early Childhood and Youth, through the Ministerial Council for
Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs, establish a
national dialogue, including with tertiary providers, on the role of
teacher librarians today in schools and into the future. The dialogue
should include an examination of the adequacy of the pathways into the
profession and ongoing training requirements.
 
Recommendation 10
The Committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government,
through the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood and
Youth Affairs, discuss ways to enhance partnerships with state and
territory and local levels of government to support school libraries and
teacher librarians.
 
Recommendation 11
The Committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government
partner with ASLA and ALIA to produce a document that showcases
some of the successful partnerships and programs between school
libraries and other libraries, and joint-use libraries. The document
should be made available to government and non-government
education authorities and school principals.



In Chapter 6, which contains the concluding comments, I thought that this point below would be a great one to get motivated and moving with-especially as the 2012 Year of Reading has already been announced and organised. 

6.23 One very meaningful way to get the momentum started may be to establish a National Year of Reading program with a range of coordinated activities, supported by all levels of government, the peak library bodies, principals and teacher librarians alike.


The Inquiry Report tabled in the House today can be the beginning of change, if a genuine national discussion is initiated and concretely supported.


Recommendation 6 could be the best of all.  There is much ASLA and ALIA can do with extra funding and staffing to “demonstrate to the school community the valuable work that teacher librarians are doing in respect of e-learning in their schools, including those that highlight their leadership capacity.”  This could see real changes in understandings if well funded. 

From: "Our initial response to the Inquiry Report recommendations" post by The Hub

Kidjutsu- Free Online Comics for Kids

Kidjutsu [kid-joot-soo] has a terrific collection of free Comic Books that can be viewed full screen with out ads. Lots of interesting comics that kids will enjoy from many genres. Browse through by age or genre (elementary-high school). The books can also be embedded on your site. Sign up for a free account. Click on the comic books below to see what some of them are like.


READ  DISCOVER  SHARE
 
Sign up for a free account to read the best free comics on the web. 
Read, browse, vote, and comment on your favorite kids comics.
Kidjutsu is a site that collects kid-friendly webcomics and displays them using an easy-to-use online comics viewer.
Kidjutsu offers a variety of genres and suits a range of age levels. Try these and see what you think.

Comic powered by Kidjutsu

Comic powered by Kidjutsu

Visit the comicteacher

Resources for using comics to teach core subjects

One Community | Rugby League Reads and other educational programs.

"Research has now shown that Rugby League Reads is having a dramatic impact, increasing young readers' engagement and motivation towards reading lessons and increasing voluntary reading by students.

In 2011, Rugby League's One Community will publish three new issues of the Rugby League Reads Magazine, in Term 2, 3 and 4. Also on offer again are the Rugby League Reads readers, a set of eight home readers for the younger years.

Another exciting development for Rugby League Reads is that it is now featured in the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge, which will allow students to progress through their Reading Challenge while covering English Syllabus outcomes and enjoying Rugby League-based texts.
To order Rugby League Reads visit www.rloc.com.au, click on the Rugby League Reads icon and then select Readers (set of eight for emergent readers) AND/OR Magazines (kit of 30 magazines and a CDROM of Teacher activities).
The Magazine kit and CDROM is a #free_resource available to schools however there is a $19.95 cost to deliver the box to your school, plus a $5.50 fee. 

RUGBY LEAGUE READS MAGAZINE AND TEACHER RESOURCE

The Rugby League Reads magazine includes a range of texts taught in Primary Schools including factual and literary texts, with the focus on Rugby League as key reading content.  As well as the magazine, complimenting teacher activities and resources for each club’s text type has been created.  The activities will be underpinned with philosophical frameworks and theories commonly used at schools, including Bloom’s Taxonomy and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences as well as incorporating key Boy’s Education strategies and research.

The magazines are professionally produced and the text in the magazine features NSW Foundation Writing, the model of handwriting taught to students in schools."

David Gallop Trish Crews
Chief Executive Director of Community, Culture & Diversity

Teachers I recommend you also visit the Teacher Zone  Rugby League's One Community are regularly launching new educational resources that they’d love to keep you informed about. They’re also looking for feedback on our resources and finding out what works and what doesn’t to engage our kids at home and in the classroom.

One Community, in collaboration with the University of Technology Sydney’s Australian Centre for Child and Youth, have launched an education resource called 'Dream, Believe, Achieve'.

The program is a teaching resource suitable for the high school curriculum in personal development and health and complements the NRL's 'Eat Well Play Well Stay Well' Primary Teachers’ Resource. EAT WELL, PLAY WELL, STAY WELL. (EWPWSW)

Launched in 2009, Eat Well, Play Well, Stay Well was developed to engage and encourage kids to build healthy lifestyles and make positive choices.

The kit contains a DVD and lessons plans suitable for primary classroom lessons in the personal development and health curriculum area. Aimed at engaging students, the activities are action orientated and include themes from the world of Rugby League.

They also offer an education program to excite and inspire all Australian children
Learning with League is a primary school teaching resource written by the NSW Deparment of Education and mapped for use in Queensland and Victoria.

The resource covers all stages of primary school and incorporates lessons and practical activities in the key learning areas of human society and it's environment and personal development, health and physical education.

National Simultaneous Storytime is just around the corner...

Celebrate Library Information Week

Join in the 

National Simultaneous Storytime is an important annual national literacy campaign that guarantees more young Australians will 'Get Reading'. This year, reading takes place on Wednesday 25 May at 11am AEDT and we would love it if you could join us by sharing 

"Feathers for Phoebe" by Rod Clement, a wonderful Australian tale about self-esteem, self-acceptance and learning that appearances aren't everything. For more details:click on the image below.

 

 *   PowerPoint and PDF versions of "Feathers for Phoebe" will be made available to registered participating sites on 24 May (ie. the day before the event) to assist with presentations to large groups.

 *   Podcasts and Interactive Whiteboard Activities will be made available to registered participating sites on 24 May to assist with NSS activities and participation by people with hearing and vision impairments.

ALIA would love lots more schools and school libraries to register for this event and to participate – so far this is who we have http://www.alia.org.au/storytime/participants.html

Joyce Valenza serves us up Spartan Guides.

Guide for Teacher Librarians  by Joyce Valenza 

Curating and remixing the tools that define current professional practice.

Joyce Valenza is an awesome powerhouse of energy and enthusiasm. The amazing, indefatigable Joyce Valenza runs the library at Springfield Township ...(Library Zest) 

Joyce Valenza, teacher-librarian at Springfield Township High School, Erdenheim, Pennsylvania, has been modeling evolving tech-integrated practice for more than 30 years.....(Bolch, 2010) 

Read an interview given by her last year to Tech & Learning contributing editor Matt Bolch.

If you are on twitter you must follow JoyceValenza.

Joyce has many interests: School library media, Youth information-seeking behavior, Young people and technology, Virtual libraries, Online learning, Information literacy, Database use, Searching skills, Evolving role of the teacher-librarian, Internet2 in libraries, Web 2.0/ Library 2.0, Youth services, blogging and social networking.......

  

Joyce also welcomes you to visit: 

Research Tools, a site I use with learners for instruction in the inquiry/research process.

  New Tools, a toolkit of new options in information and communication technologies.

 Databases and Pathfinders, include both free and subscription resources to support research in a variety of disciplines.

Try The Hub for important school library updates.

New statistics available on school libraries in Australia from The Hub 

 

What is The Hub on PhotoPeach

The most recent and comprehensive statistics collected on Australian school libraries was done in March 2010 by the Children’s Book Council of Australia and includes information on:

* BER Libraries

* Comparison of Educational Sector School Library Budgets in Survey (not just BER)

There is a summary of the  information from the survey made by the CBCA summarised by Marj Kirkland, National President available on this page.

Conditions in libraries are found to be poor in the surveys and they highlight major problems with library staffing and budgets. Find out what a sad state our libraries are in.


After the "Inquiry into school libraries and teacher librarians in Australian schools"
the previous Chair of the Committee of Inquiry, Sharon Bird, asked for some brief descriptions of successful TL programs, just 4-5 paragraphs,describing a library where programs have been successful, things that work, success stories for student learning, supporting what has been asked for in hearings. ASLA and The Hub will work jointly on this effort.


Please consider adding a "success story" to the oztl wiki.


As the previous chair, Sharon Bird said: " I appreciate that it will be another task on top of busy lives but if we want the general public to read the report and understand what it is we are talking about then some of those real examples would be very useful."

AusLit is now available free to all school staff and students in Australian schools.

AustLit available free to Australian schools.

 AustLit is a not-for-profit education and  information resource  

Database size: 

- 712,437 works 

- 127,269 agents 

- 29,085 subjects

Teaching Australian Literature (TAL) recently announced that access to this resource for the study and teaching of Australian literature will shortly be available free of charge to the staff and students of all Australian schools.


Access will be managed by the relevant educational authorities in each state and territory. Contact details for these organisations will be posted on the Access AustLit page as soon as they are available. At this time New South Wales Department of Education and Training  Contact: TBA

Some of the Works available include:

• The Broken Shore by Peter Temple showing holdings at Australian libraries, courtesy of the National Library of Australia's Libraries Australia service.
• A Working Forest: Selected Prose by Les Murray, showing the fully indexed contents with hypertext link to each item.
• The Rising of the Court and Other Sketches in Prose and Verse by Henry Lawson, linking to the full text of the novel
• Lilian's Story by Kate Grenville showing a work with a range of versions and numerous publications. The versions include translations of Lilian's Story into languages other than English
• The periodical Overland, listing its editors and giving a brief organisational history
• Record for the Arthur Upfield website with a link to the archived copy at PANDORA
• Arthur Wilson's Songs of Australia : Adapted to Appropriate Melodies, showing link to the digitised copy and the national Library of Australia.
• Voss by Patrick White, showing a work with a range of versions and numerous publications. The versions include translations of Voss into languages other than English

Check out the example of what you can access re: authors Victor Kelleher

Aus-e-Lit Project

The Aus-e-Lit Project has been developing a number of new services that will extend AustLit by supporting broader searches and by allowing users to collect and annotate relevant internet resources.

An experimental Federated Search (requires access code)  provides results from both AustLit and a selection of external databases

Responding to the growth of internet resources and the potential of open-source software to discover, organise, describe, and share these resources, the Aus-e-Lit Project will deliver a suite of online research tools to AustLit users in June 2011. A collaboration between AustLit and The University of Queensland eResearch Lab, the Aus-e-Lit Project has developed a Federated Search and a Full-text Search that enhance the standard AustLit search with a snapshot of resources available at a selection of relevant databases.

AUS-E-LIT VIDEO DEMONSTRATIONS are available to support your understanding.

Qr code quest_table

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Qr code quest_table

View more documents from gwyneth jones.

Caring for our books

A Book Speaks

When you drop me on the floor

 I get stepped on - my sides are sore;

Torn-out pages make me groan;

I feel dizzy if I'm thrown;

 Every mark and every stain 

On my covers gives me pain; 

Please don't bend me,

 if you do I don't want to talk to you;

 But we will both be friends together, 

If you protect me from the weather

 And keep me clean so that I look 

Like a tidy, neat and happy book.

 http://www.ourclassweb.com/center_activities/readers_workshop/rw_poem_a_book_speaks.pdf

Do you find time for some of the daily five program in your library?

The Daily Five is a management system for teachers that engages students in authentic literary tasks while they are not in a guided reading groups or working with the teacher. These five tasks include reading to self, reading with someone, listening to reading, word work, and writing. The system was developed by well-known leaders in the world of education, Joan Moser and Gail Boushey (also known as "The Sisters").


The Daily Five is a series of literacy tasks (reading to self, reading with someone, writing, word work, and listening to reading) which students complete daily while the teacher meets with small groups or confers with individuals.

Explicit modeling practice, reflecting and refining take place during the launching phase, preparing the foundation for a year of meaningful content instruction tailored to meet the needs of each child.

The Daily Five is more than a management system or a curriculum framework; it is a structure that will help students develop the habits that lead to a lifetime of independent literacy.

Read The Daily Five from Oxford Elementary School 

GoAnimate.com: The Daily 5 by caitcamp


Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Further Reading:
Beth Newingham's websiteThe Daily 5 site

Have you heard about Second Life but not yet visited? Intersted in Information Literacy?

  In this presentation you can see how to explore Information Literacy in Second Life:
Second Life official website. What is Second Life?

 Second Life is a free 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and create using free voice and text chat. Educators worldwide are discovering the limitless academic possibilities of Second Life. There are many educational virtual worlds available to visit. 

6th Online Conference -Your School Library

School Library Advocacy: Evidence & Image 

Your School Library’s conference on Advocacy, Evidence and Image will help teacher librarians develop strategies to explain the value of the library to administrators, colleagues and parents.

Your School Library’s Sixth International Professional Development Conference will include presentations by:

Gary Hartzell
Stephen Krashen
Keith Curry Lance
Carolyn Foote
Tricia Adams
Jerry Hurst
Maureen Twomey
Georgia Phillips
Sharon Bird, MP
Lisa Perez
Buffy Hamilton
Sarah Pavey


Join in and support learning for all students by a qualified teacher librarian.

Coming up very soon: State Library Day

March 12th 2011

Moving forward: Digital citizenship and re-defining 'classroom'

Accredited Professional Learning Event.

State Library NSW

Even if you can't make the development opportunity you have every reason why you should join.

Join the State Library to access a great range of 

online databases.

Access to databases from home you must be a New South Wales resident and must also be registered as a State Library client. If you are not a registered client of the Library, you can apply online. You will need to allow up to 10 days to receive your Library card before you can use these databases from home.

To use the online databases, you must be registered as a State Library client and agree to the following Conditions of Access.

 

Related articles

• Browse by subject - Electronic Resources - State Library of New South Wales (sl.nsw.gov.au)

2010 Professional Teachers' Council NSW Media Award

Nominated by ASLA (NSW)
Maralyn Parker wins the 2010 Professional Teachers' Council NSW Media Award

Read the winning article:
“Writing on the wall for library revolution”

 

Congratulations on such a stimulating and valuable article. The 80 comments following the article are also well worth a read.