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International School Library Month 2009

School Libraries: The Big Picture

The theme for 2009 has been translated into several languages -- Download the PDF file for further information.

What people are doing for ISLM 2009

Australia | Canada | Croatia | India | Indonesia | Ireland | Pakistan | Poland | Portugal | Romania | Russia | Saudia Arabia | Slovak Republic | South Africa | Turkey | Ukraine | USA |

2009 -- Bookmarks for older students School Libraries: The Big Picture [PDF 760 Kb]

2009 -- Bookmarks for younger students School Libraries: The Big Picture [PDF 761 Kb]

2009 -- Poster for older students School Libraries: The Big Picture [PDF 962 Kb]

2009 -- Poster for younger students School Libraries: The Big Picture [PDF 961 Kb]

Australia

From Karen Bonanno, Executive Officer, Australian School Library Association.
As school libraries around the world celebrate the International School Library Month theme, School libraries: The big picture, teacher librarian, Nareeda Tillman exemplifies exceptional leadership in her school community. Her professional knowledge has been put to extensive use with the development of a new unit offered to students at Mindarie Senior College, Western Australia. The Courses of Study, Workplace Learning, Unit 1A has been designed to meet the needs of a student group by providing an investigative activity which provides opportunities for employment.

The Australian School Library Association Inc. (ASLA) and Pledger Consulting Pty Ltd (LinksPlus/Weblinks) have pleasure in announcing Nareeda Tillman from Mindarie Senior College, Western Australia as the Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year for 2009. This award carries a $1,500 cash prize from Pledger Consulting Pty Ltd and $500 Weblinks/LinksPlus products.

Nareeda has an absolute passion for her role as a teacher librarian by encouraging information and communication technologies (ICTs) in lifelong learning, prioritising resource allocation through technology, responding to students’ needs and adopting a worldwide trend towards personalised learning. She believes in a very practical application of pedagogy so that it has an immediate and beneficial effect on the information literacy and information needs, skills and interests of learners.

The college’s associate principal, Rick Gendle, states that “the management of library staff hours and rosters might be a nightmare in any other school, but Nareeda accomplishes all this with ease and ensures that students are encouraged to use their library on these extended hours. In such a school, the use and nature of ICT and their role in its curriculum needs to be very flexible. Access to technology has to be accommodating and take in all students’ particular course and timetable requirements; portability, multi-task IT and user training and independence have been Nareeda’s focus here”.

Having been involved in collaborative curriculum development since the school’s conception, Nareeda has a unique view of the whole school curriculum.

The Australian School Library Association Inc. (ASLA) and Pledger Consulting Pty Ltd (LinksPlus/Weblinks) also congratulate the state and territory nominees for the Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year for 2009.

Sue Martin, Burgmann Anglican School nominated by the Australian School Library Association (ACT)

Lee FitzGerald, Loreto Kirribilli Senior School nominated by the Australian School Library Association (NSW)

Deb Smith, Lansdowne Crescent Primary School and Illawarra Primary School nominated by the Australian School Library Association (Tasmania)

Darlene Hill, North Bundaberg State High School nominated by the School Library Association of Queensland

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Canada

From Karen Lindsay, Vice-President Advocacy, BC Teacher-Librarians' Association -- Media Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Karen Lindsay, VP Advocacy, BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association
Telephone Number 250-479-5942 ext. 239
Fax Number 250-479-6677
Web site address http://bctladear.blogspot.com/2009/09/facebook-drop-everything-and-read-bc.html

BC Teacher-Librarians Challenge the Legislature to Drop Everything and Read!

Victoria, BC, October 5, 2009

October 26, 2009 is National School Library Day and the third anniversary of the BC Drop Everything and Read Challenge. DEAR started as a small challenge between BC school libraries in 2007 and has since grown by leaps and bounds. The simple but powerful idea is to promote the importance of literacy by having as many students and adults as possible read at the same time on the same day.

Last year, the Premier, then Minister of Education Shirley Bond and several MLAs participated in the Challenge. This year, Victoria School Librarian Karen Lindsay and the BCTLA are challenging the Legislature to participate in the DEAR Challenge as well. Imagine the message it would send to the entire province about the importance of reading if Members of Parliament took out their books to “Drop Everything and Read" on October 26!

Organizer Karen Lindsay’s dream is to have everyone in BC put down their work, turn off their computer screens, pick up a book, magazine or newspaper, and read quietly for 20 minutes on October 26. Picture offices where calls go to voice mail just for those few minutes. "You have reached L & G Real Estate. We are Dropping Everything to Read until 11:20. If this is an emergency, please call (a designee’s cell number). Otherwise, why don't you read along with us?"

The event was a huge success last year. Dozens of schools representing thousands of students participated in the DEAR Challenge. Many schools across BC organized special events. Local celebrities - athletes, firefighters, police officers, politicians, parents - came in to read, "big" kids read to little ones, and group read-ins were held on playing fields. The response was uniformly positive, so positive that several schools decided to make silent, free-choice reading part of their weekly routines. Reynolds Secondary School in Victoria has had daily silent reading in their timetable for six years. On DEAR Challenge day, they read twice!

BC Teacher-librarians want to draw attention to the importance of reading in the development of a successful human being. People know that the more you read the better you get at it, and that the ability to read with understanding is vitally important to success in the world. Reading improves vocabulary, increases general knowledge about the world, improves one's writing, and is a great way to relax. Not so obvious is its ability to increase the reader's capacity for empathy, stimulate imagination and create new connections in the brain. No wonder reading is so closely linked with economic and social success in adult life – and the Internet has only increased our need to interact with text!

That is why the BC Teacher-Librarians' Association is so committed to this Challenge. It gives kids across the province not only the chance to relax with books of their own choosing, but the opportunity to see the grown-ups around them model how important reading is in their lives.

Want to participate? This year's blog is at http://bctladear.blogspot.com/2009/02/dear-drop-everything-and-read.html To take the event "viral" the BCTLA has a Facebook page at http://tinyurl.com/ktj3ea On Twitter, search BCTLADEAR.

To see some of the participation and endorsements from last year go to http://bctladear.blogspot.com/2008/10/bc-school-trustees-association-has.html

Drop Everything and Read Poster [PDF format]

From Lisa Weaver - Celebration at North York Central Library Auditorium [PDF format]

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Croatia

Croatia ISLMFrom Marija Loncar, School Librarian, Primary School Kamen-Sine, Split

Missal of Hrvoje Vukcic Hrvatinic Workshop

Correlation - in the 5th Grade - Croatian language-KIP (Library-Information area)

What has encouraged us to do this workshop?
Celebrating the month of book 15.10-15.11 as well as the days of bread
Due to curriculum students of 5th Grade should be familiar with Croatian writings, including Glagolitic script. With this workshop we emphasize the importance both of writing as a means of communication among people and books. The guideline of human knowledge throughout history.
The Missal was build in Split and it has significant heritage value.
We chose one page from Hrvoije's Missal which we will shape in the dough.

About Hrvoje's Missal
Hrvoji's Missal was created in the beginning of the XV Century in Split. Croatian Duke Hrvoje Vukcic Hrvantinic ordered the Missal from Glagolitic priest Butko, who wrote it.
This mose beautiful and most illustrated manuscript of the Croatian Glagolitic medieval. It was written on parchment and contains 247 sheets, which are decorated with 96 minatures. The most famous miniature from the Missal is one of Duke Hrvoje himself. Hervoje's Missal is now in Istanbul in the library of Topkapi Sarai.

Objectives:

  • Emphasize the importance of scripts in human history
  • Emphasize the importance of maintenance and promotion of rich Croatina cultural heritage
  • Promote active learning and reading
  • Develop creativity and teamwork among students

Work before the workshop - Students were:

  • searching for more information about history of writings and press, exploring knowledge resources such are libraries and Internet
  • using the dictionary of foreign words (meaning of words: Missal, parchment, initials, miniature, illumination) Encyclopedia in English (using the dictionary) and Croatian language
  • reading journals
  • using non-book materials (use of CDs and DVDs)

Using the found material we made the worksheets. The students were divided into 5 groups and each group got work sheet material

1st Group - Members of this group modeled dough at carton ribbons. Then they carved Glagolitic letters using the templates

2nd Group - Members of this group first modeled dough on carton of certain dimensions, carved outline of miniature from the template and then they painted all with tempera

3rd Group - Members of this group modeled dough on big wooden tablet then they put those letters on the tablet as they were painted and lines created.

4th Group - Members of this group made Coat of Arms which is located in the lower left corner of the page. First they cut paperboard of certain dimensions and then they applied dough that they had carved and painted using the template.

5th Group - This group ws assigned to make a great decorative initial letter located at the beginning of the text.

Results:
We presented the workshop results at exhibition in library and in schooloffice of Croatian language. The works that students made also present a kind of didactical material for Croation language course as well as history, helping nowaday studetns as well as future generations.
We attend to present and promote the work through the school journal.

Benefits of workshop:

  • Contribution to acquisition of dynamic knowledge
  • Development of students' curiosity and research spirit
  • Development of students' creativity
  • Participatin in teamwork

REFERENCES

MILAN PELC, LETTER - BOOK - PICTURE: INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF INFORMATION CULTURE, ZAGREB, 2002.n
PROCEEDINGS OF THE XVIII SPRING SCHOOL OF CROATIAN SCHOOL LIBRARIANS, SIBENIK, 2006.n
KNOWLEDGE TREE NO. 98, ZAGREB, 2006.n
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Last updated 29 October 2009 (KSB)