SLAQ / IASL 2010 Conference

Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
27 September - 1 October 2010

Diversity Challenge Resilience
SCHOOL LIBRARIES IN ACTION

Wednesday 29 September 2010 -
Presenters, topics and abstracts

Concurrent session 3 | Concurrent session 4 | Concurrent session 5

Concurrent session 3

CS3.1 – Creating a positive digital footprint – Cathy Oxley, Australia.
Responsible and ethical use of the Internet is not something that teenagers, in particular, consider to be important, and serious consequences are beginning to emerge as a result of careless and offensive online behaviour. Teachers and teacher-librarians have a duty of care to make students aware of the potentially devastating effects of thoughtless, inappropriate or malicious online behaviour, and to guide them into making wise choices when interacting in a digital world.

CS3.2 – Teacher-librarian collaboration in building the curriculum for an IB World School – Madhu Bhargava, India.
Many schools are in the transition stage from passive learning environment into active ones. Teachers, librarians and administrators are forced to rethink about the curriculum in terms of content and teaching methodology because of advancement of technology and competitions. The paper would demonstrate the need of collaborative work of teacher-librarians and class room teachers. It would analyse the need of students and faculty for viable information skills offering librarians a new entrée into the classroom curriculum. Librarians are designing a variety of outreach programs to work more closely with teachers to integrate information skills into the curriculum. A case study of structured collaborative program which is working effectively in an IB World School in India will be presented.

CS3.3 – Commonalities in content of International children’s book awards – Dr Janet Hilbun, USA.
Children’s book awards give us a mirror of the culture of a country and the books that children enjoy. While the majority of school librarians are very familiar with the books that win awards in their country, very few are cognisant of books that win awards in other countries. This paper examines major awards for children’s books in as many countries as these awards could be determined. This examination will looks at numerous aspects of these books—genre, format (picture, chapter book, graphic novel), age and gender of protagonists, theme, philosophy and/or spiritual beliefs, personal values, traditions and customs.

CS3.4 – Promoting a reading culture in school community – Dr Anna Martins and Alexandra Marques, Portugal.
The main purpose of this paper is to present how an intensive collaboration between the National Portuguese Reading Plan and the School Libraries Network Programme plays an important role in the promotion of reading literacy, as a baseline to develop all kinds of other literacy abilities, empowering the role of school libraries and the collaborative work between the school community and the school library, by reporting one of the most significant projects, which shows the relevance of this partnership. School libraries are a privileged structure in the school for the skill development, not only to access information, available locally or remotely, enabling students with critical thinking, transforming information to knowledge, supporting curricula, but also assures an important role in readers training and in the promotion of reading habits, which is a basis tool for lifelong learning.

CS3.5 – Integrating information literacy through independent learning projects – Dr Rebecca Jones, UK.
Two information literacy skills pilot projects are being undertaken at Malvern St James School with Year 6 and Year 9 pupils during 2009/10. The projects encourage the development of independent learning skills, with pupils planning, managing and executing both the research and practical elements of their project. Each pupil sets their own aims and objectives and it is the process skills as well as the project that is assessed. The projects examine pupil motivation levels, if pupils can use research to inform their practical project and how pupils respond to opportunities to undertake self-directed learning.

CS3.6 – The twin purposes of Guided Inquiry: guiding student inquiry and evidence-based practice - Lee Fitzgerald, Australia.
This presentation will focus on the twin purposes of Guided Inquiry as a means by which open-ended student inquiry can be carried out and scaffolded, as well as providing a means by which evidence of student learning can be gathered during the inquiry, using reflection sheets. Guided Inquiry is becoming very well known around the world as a way to scaffold student research tasks which allow transformation of information, rather than the more common transport of information so often encountered in school assignments. To demonstrate the second purpose of Guided Inquiry, as a vehicle for evidence-based practice, using the SLIM (School Library Impact Measurement) Toolkit, made available by Dr. Ross J. Todd, of Centre for International Scholarship in School Libraries, (CISSL), Rutgers University, New Jersey, Lee will briefly discuss the 2008 NSW Association of Independent Schools’ project. She will show how she has taken the feedback provided by Year 11 Modern History students to provide evidence of student growth to deep knowledge of their topics, as well as difficulties and successes encountered.

Concurrent session 4

CS4.1 – Using social networks and ICT to enhance Literature Circles – Andrea Walker, Hong Kong.
The purpose of this paper is to describe and demonstrate how social networks such as Facebook and Goodreads, and ICT tools like laptops and iPods can support and enhance Literature Circles. The innovation described is run out of the library and aims to promote reading for all students regardless of their reading ability. The approach seeks to encourage and support language learning through the use of ICT tools and social networks. It aims to stimulate participation and discussion outside the classroom. The approach brings English teachers and teacher-librarians together to tap student interest in social networking and their ICT expertise. In other words, it aims to motivate them through connecting more closely with their worlds and ways of learning.

CS4.2 – An analysis of IASL conference presentations – Dr Marcia Mardis, USA. (Research Forum)
The IASL conference provides members with a variety of presentations that encompass trends and innovations in school librarianship. Each conference identifies a unique overarching theme and subthemes; participants tailor their presentations to the specific demands of the conferences through professional papers and research papers. No systematic analysis of the papers’ content has been conducted. The July 2006 issue of School Libraries Worldwide (SLW), IASL’s peer-reviewed research journal, contained an article that presented distributions of papers published between 1995-2006 (Oberg, 2006). This research report assessed the degree to which SLW’s contents provided support for school library professionals engaging in evidence-based practice. Likewise, the researchers aimed to characterise the papers published in IASL conference proceedings in an effort to determine the topics addressed. This project analysed the last decade of papers published in IASL conference proceedings based on the approaches and metrics used in Oberg’s 2006 study. The method used in this study can be a model for similar analysis of program content for national and/or local organisations. Professional development for school library professionals can be limited and maximising conference opportunities can be vital to the IASL mission of “promoting effective school library media programs as viable instruments in the educational process” (IASL, 2007).

CS4.3 – Provision of school library resources in a changing environment – Anna Brown and Busi Dlamini, South Africa.
Before 1994 education in South Africa was divided along racial lines, with whites receiving the best quality education. This also applied to school library provision. After 1994 education was completely restructured with the aim of providing quality education for all. At the same time a radical new educational system was introduced. The overwhelming demands made by these developments meant that school library development has been neglected. In the present situation, there are still wide differences between schools due to historical and socio-economic factors. The Gauteng Department of Education has had a library and information unit (now called the Multimedia Unit), also responsible for school libraries, from the beginning, but school libraries were not funded. On two occasions fairly large sums were allocated for acquiring library resources for schools, but these were in the nature of ad hoc windfalls. From 2006 schools were encouraged to use 10% of the budget allocated by the Gauteng Department of Education for learning and teaching support material (LTSM) to acquire school library resources, but this was not formalised. Finally, in 2007, formal notice was given to schools to spend this money on school library resources. As by far the majority of schools do not have teacher-librarians, the Multimedia Unit realised that they needed support with the requisition of school library resources. Most schools in Gauteng have been allocated the function of managing their own finances, but the finances of a number of poorly-performing schools are managed centrally by the district offices.

CS4.4 – How much do traditional literacy skills count? – Barbara Combes, Australia.
New technologies are becoming a ubiquitous part of our society. First we had the mobile phone, PDAs and the Blackberry. These have now been replaced with multi functional devices like the iPhone which can provide directions and information about almost every aspect of our daily lives. These and other discrete devices such as kindles and ebooks represent technology’s replacement for the print/paper based information sources such as newspapers, brochures, books and catalogues. In the future, such mobile devices will provide our students with full text access to information and recreational reading that extends far beyond the physical reaches of our physical collections. While in the early stages of technology evolution and still relatively expensive to own and maintain, these mobile devices are definitely the way of the future. However, there are issues associated with these new devices apart from cost. Emerging research is telling us that the literacy skills required to successfully navigate and make meaning from text, images and mutlimedia on screen are different from the traditional literacy skills of reading, writing, viewing and listening. While good traditional literacy skills are essential, making meaning from information presented on a screen is more difficult and requires new skills that are inevitably tied to the information literacy skills set that teacher-librarians embed in their collaboratively designed curriculum programs.

CS4.5 – The Information Search Process (ISP) and the research essay – Helen Reynolds, Australia.
Queensland Academy for Health Sciences is a senior secondary high school offering the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP). As part of the Diploma, students are required to complete a referenced research essay of 4,000 words. For most, this would be their first experience of such a challenging undertaking. Problematic were the varying levels of student information literacy expertise, especially in the area of research. The challenge was to provide students with the tools to enable them to complete the essay within the guidelines set down by the IB Organisation. Kuhlthau’s ISP was adapted to provide students with a research structure.

CS4.6 – Collaborating across new media and gender – Hazel Edwards, Australia.
Gender transitioning, with a punk music setting was always going to be controversial. Especially in this internationally ‘first’ YA novel with a trans co-author Ryan who had transitioned from female to male (ftm). However we did not expect the speed of social media which made ‘f2m: the boy within’ a fascinating case study in online collaboration techniques. These included Skype plotting, webchats, guest blogs, book trailer and Twitter, by the co-writers in different countries, and the YA readers and reviewers. Authors are not solo creators. Professionally, they may work at home, but are linked internationally, by new social media.

Concurrent session 5

CS5.1 – Smart collections -- Pru Mitchell, Australia. (Research Forum)
This paper reports on a joint proof of concept project undertaken by researchers from the Flinders University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in partnership with information managers from the Education Network Australia (edna) team at Education Services Australia to address the question of whether artificial intelligence techniques could be employed to help with creation and consistency of learning resource metadata and improve the efficiency of digital collection workflows. The results show some success with automated subject categorisation on a small sample, and the researchers conclude that automated classification based on artificial intelligence is useful as a means of supplementing and assisting human classification, but is not at this stage a replacement for human classification of educational resources.

CS5.2 – The school library and e-learning platforms -- Monica Morscheck, Thailand
The teacher librarian should be the most effective weapon for collaborative teaching and learning within a school. Teacher librarians do struggle to find time to effectively plan for the cooperative teaching and learning activities. Often school libraries run their own website as they struggle to offer a digital 24/7 library service for users. The isolation of the library website makes it easier for the teacher librarian to manage the information delivery but isolates the content. The teacher librarian managed website is often not an effective tool for cooperative planning and teaching. This session will look at how the teacher librarian can use e-learning platforms to deliver a digital 24/7 library service, and, in addition, offer a great collaborative space for effective cooperative planning and teaching. Examples of practice in two schools will be presented. The first school is a New South Wales government high school which uses Moodle as the e-learning platform. The second example is an international K-12 private school which uses StudyWiz as the e-learning platform.

CS5.3 – Teacher-librarian – public librarian connections – Mandy Lupton, Australia. (Research Forum).
Cooperative relationships between school libraries and public libraries have the potential to enrich school students’ learning and advance lifelong learning in the wider community (Fitzgibbons, 2000; Kearns, 2006; Spillman, Grandcourt, & Todd, 2006). However, Bundy (2001) identified limited research in this area in Australia, which is still evident 9 years later. Therefore the research outlined in this paper, aims to investigate the current situation and the potential for developing further collaboration between teacher-librarians and public librarians. It is supported by a literature review of Australian and overseas research relating to cooperative relationships between school libraries and public libraries. This paper will provide an overview of the study, to be conducted early 2010 in Queensland (Australia). It will include a brief literature review and outline of the aim, design and implementation of the study. It will also present initial findings, from the teacher-librarian perspective, about current levels of interaction between school and public libraries and the factors that contribute to hinder or hinder interaction. In conclusion, drawing on the study’s findings, we shall offer initial recommendations for developing innovative and productive relationships between school and public libraries. We shall also indicate avenues for further research about school library-public library connections.

CS5.4 –Information skills in a technologically disadvantaged environment -- Anna Ditshego, South Africa.
Information literacy education is one of the essential learning areas that must be implemented in schools. I believe that the functional school library must be a source of information for the school community especially the learners. Information skills is a skill that will enable the learners to be lifelong; learners being able to use the library and all the resources including Internet. Information skills can be taught separately under the learning area information literacy education together with the other relevant skills e.g. cognitive skills, information technology skills (in advanced school media centers) or it can be fostered within the context of curricular information and media use. It is crucial that this information skills education is  taught and implemented at foundation phase level so that learners can learn the skills at an early age and be comfortable with using the library and the resources.

CS5.5 – Nurturing lifelong readers – Gerri Judkins, New Zealand.
I grew up in a house of many books. My father was interested in New Zealand history and natural history and throughout his 92 years collected books which I feel privileged to have inherited. He fostered my brother Michael’s similar interest with Peter Buck’s The Coming of the Maori, and James Cowan’s The New Zealand Wars and Pioneering Period and a book he gave all the grandchildren too, Powell’s Native Animals of New Zealand. Michael went on to become a prolific journalist, historian and biographer. Of his more than thirty books the first, published in 1972, was Moko: Maori Tattooing in the 20th Century with photos by Marti Friedlander and the last, in 2003, was The Penguin History of New Zealand. In talking about nurturing lifelong readers and, referring to our students, our staff and ourselves - school librarians, I will cover:
• The Southwell Library Programme
• The Lit Club and the Kids’ Lit Quiz
• Writers in Schools and the NZ Book Council
• Storylines and The Waikato Children’s Literature Association
• SLANZA and IASL
• Studying children’s literature and a New Zealand picture book research project

CS5.6 – Cybersafety in school libraries : creating digital citizens – Greg Gebhart, Australia.
Young people are now fully immersed in Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and other social networking sites. It is their main form of communication and the time spent connected electronically will continue to grow with a new range of mobile technologies such as iPhones and portable gaming devices becoming affordable for most young people. Children now use the Internet as their number one source of information. This change in children’s practices and access to information has provided many challenges for libraries. The role of the library in schools is reshaping and the need to be up-to-date with the technologies that children use has become more important. However it is not just access to information that has changed. It is the type of information and the different ways children access this, combined with their ability to also create their own content online. This session will cover a range of key issues that can impact on young people, including cyber bullying, sexting, access to inappropriate content, online stranger danger and identity theft.

Last updated 20 September 2010