Category Archives: School Libraries

International Women’s Day

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We have combined a celebration of World Book Day (Thursday 6th March) with International Women’s Day (Friday 7th March).

Our library book displays include cracking reads to kickstart reading for pleasure and a selection of our choices can be seen on the library Padlet here

There is also a padlet – a visual reading list on Gender, Identity and Feminism (padlet.com) This also includes books by and about women with some recommendations of fascinating biographies and autobiographies.

Two particularly thought-provoking and enlightening non-fiction reads, available in the library and as e-books are:

  • Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
    by Caroline Criado Perez
  • The Authority Gap by Mary Ann Sieghart

The Women’s Prize for Fiction organisers have just announced the first Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction as a way of promoting women’s writing in this field. The books are available in the library. Read more here.

The 16 title longlist has been announced.

The full list in alphabetical order by author surname is:

The website explains:

The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction is a major new annual book prize that celebrates exceptional narrative non-fiction by women. The Prize promotes excellence in writing, robust research, original narrative voices and accessibility, showcasing women’s expertise across a range of fields.

The Prize will be awarded annually and is open to all women writers from across the globe who are published in the UK and writing in English. The winner receives a cheque for £30,000 and a limited-edition artwork known as the ‘Charlotte’, both gifted by the Charlotte Aitken Trust.

Women’s prize for fiction winners (padlet.com)

There is also an interesting reading list from Foyles booksellers who asked women authors for their recommendations:

To celebrate International Women’s Day this year, we asked the authors we admire to share their recommendations, and they delivered! From defining novels of the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, to international bestsellers of the modern day—expect themes of motherhood, translation, rage, and resistance, amongst this essential reading list.

International Women’s Day Reading List (foyles.co.uk)

Y9 Research Skills Course – information and digital literacy skills to support project-based learning

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Background

In 2016  we moved away from a curriculum focused heavily on content to a more skills based approach in Y9. With greater emphasis placed on developing independent learners throughout their school career from Y9 to Y13, I put a proposal to my line manager, Deputy Head Academic, to plan a short research skills course for all our Y9 students, led by the professional librarians. The aim was to teach them information and digital literacy skills to support the enquiry-based projects they would be undertaking throughout the year. This was also intended to lay the foundations for the research skills needed for the HPQ (Higher Project Qualification), EPQ (Extended Project Qualifitcation) and Extended Essay of the International Baccalaureate, higher up the school. The lessons are taught in groups of around 15 – 16 students and and are very interactive.

These skills are essential for life beyond the classroom and projects and coursework. It is crucial for the whole of society to be digitally and media literate. Universities and schools are important drivers in developing students’ digital capabilities. The JISC Digital Capabilities Model is very instructive in this area and includes 6 elements: 1. ICT proficiency, 2. Digital communication, collaboration and participation 3. Digital learning and development 4. Information, data and media literacies 5. Digital creation, problem solving and innovation 6. Digital identity and wellbeing.

Digital capabilities framework, ©Jisc, CC BY-NC-ND

(https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/building-digital-capability)

The JCS Conference 2019 – Digital Literacy in Schools: building capabilities provided librarians and teachers with a wealth of information and discussion on this subject and you can explore the presentations here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson 1 (Discovery and search skills) – 55 minutes

  • Learn how to use the library catalogue – look for and find a book in the library
  • Interactive ‘Research Race’ in teams
  • Exploring aspects of the AccessIT catalogue (Reading lists, reservations, loan history etc)
  • Accessing our e-book platform – Browns Books for Students VLeBooks

Lesson 2 (Evaluation) – 55 minutes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Evaluating information – thinking critically.
  • Authentic and fake websites: Looking at information on websites. (Disclaimer, About Us, FAQS, Legal, domain names. Using the C.R.A.A.P test to evaluate sources). There are so many models for evaluating sources and although the C.R.A.A.P test isn’t perfect the students do find it memorable and a useful checklist).
  • Discussion of newspaper bias/advertorials/Opinion pieces etc
  • Card sort game
    – pros and cons and characteristics of different sources
  • Exploring the e-Library resources

My thanks to the librarians at Middlesex University for sharing this excellent idea.  They have developed a wide range of hands-on activities which form useful bases for discussion and group work. All their resources are found here:

http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/MDXGames

 

We’ve had some interesting discussions about what a parody is and the meaning of the word ‘veracity’. It’s interesting to observe that the students are not as proficient at spotting fake websites as they assume they are. We emphasized the need to cross-check information elsewhere and to critically evaluate information not simply go on a gut feeling about a website or source.

Lesson 3 (Academic Honesty and Referencing) – 55 minutes

  • What is plagiarism? What is Academic Honesty?
  • Referencing your sources
  • Discussion of academic honesty and avoiding plagiarism.
  • How and why to cite sources.
  • Using Word to generate Bibliography and references.
  • Showing students that many online resources provide the citation for them to import into the Bibliography.

For this final lesson we have found the Newcastle University Study Skills for 6th Form website very useful – we’ve run the plagiarism quiz and video with our classes and found it very accessible and fun for the younger year groups.

After the research skills course the Y9 students use study periods known as ‘Lab Time’ to research and write 3 mini projects relating to History, Science, Art, English and Geography. There is a large element of choice in these projects so that the students can explore topics that interest them. This is also an opportunity to use the digital resources on our extensive e-Library to research the projects as well as the library printed book stock and magazines and journals.

In Y10 and Y11 all our students undertake the HPQ (Higher Project Qualification) which develops independent study skills further and the librarians support this research with refresher workshops on the e-Library resources and how to find  relevant books and articles.

We are working on greater analysis of the impact of this course but we have noticed a marked increase in searches undertaken on the library online catalogue and book reservations  placed online. We will also be looking at the quality of Bibliographies and the referencing of the projects. We modify the course each year to keep it up to date and respond to feedback from the students.

Useful Websites

FOSIL Darryl Toerien, Head of Library at Oakham  has done a huge amount of work on inquiry learning and I would like to adopt the ideas in the FOSIL model over the coming years. See the Framework of Skills for Inquiry Learning.There is much to explore on the FOSIL website including resources licensed under Creative Commons.

CILIP Information Literacy Group

JCS Conference 2019 – Digital Literacy in Schools: building capabilities

JCS Conference Presentations 2018 From Digital Literacy to Independent Learning

The School Library Association

CILIP SLG

IFLA How to spot fake news infographic

 

Reading for Pleasure – enthusing your children!

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Many thanks to the lovely keen parents who attended our talk in the Library this morning. We could talk for hours about reading for pleasure but it was really interesting to hear what works for you.

Here is our general philosophy on young people’s reading and some of the things we do to promote reading for pleasure:

  • Emphasise the importance of free choice in reading material
  • Offer a wide and varied book stock including fiction and non-fiction, print and e-books
  • Are never judgmental about young people’s choice of reading material
  • Acknowledge that reading the newspaper, the BBC News website, a comic, graphic novel, Sports magazine etc are all forms of reading for pleasure
  • The Rights of the Reader says it all!
  • Competitions – Extreme Reading Photo Comp, Get Caught Reading, World Book Day Opening Lines Competition, author visits
  • Tutorial book chats with the LibrariansPeer book recommendations – multiple copies and whole tutor group read and discuss
  • 3rd form book and follow up discussions
  • Carnegie Book Award Shadowing
  • Book Openers on the backs of toilet doors
  • ‘Book Chat’ – breaktime book club
  • ‘Currently Reading’ signs for staff – to start a reading conversation with pupils, staff and visitors.

What can you and your family do this summer holidays?

  • Share book recommendations with your children
  • Have a summer family reading club – each member of the family choose a book and all read everybody’s selection
  • Take part in the Extreme Reading Competition and tweet or email us your photos
  • Take the 6 Book Challenge
  • Listen to books and plays on the radio
  • Read that book lurking at the bottom of your TBR (to be read) pile!
  • Read a book before watching the film
  • Challenge your child to read a book outside their normal reading choices and read one of theirs!
  • Follow @welly_library and tweet us your book recommendations

We welcome all your suggestions and got some great inspiration from the parents this morning!

‘Enquiring Minds’ – Conference Feedback (CILIP School Libraries Group Conference 2014)

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The CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals)  School Libraries Group Conference in April was an excellent opportunity for professional learning. The programme was varied and inspiring and the opportunity to share ideas with school librarians from a wide range of different schools invaluable.

Here is a presentation on the Conference delivered by Sue Bastone, Conference Programme Director and Head of Learning Resources at LVS Ascot, to the Rugby Group Librarians at their recent meeting.

Here are some brief thoughts on the key messages I took away from the conference:

  • Importance of reading aloud. Teachers and librarians should increase the times they read out loud to pupils. It’s also important for pupils to read out loud to each other. I took the opportunity to read an excerpt from ‘The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole’ to a 3rd form tutor group during a discussion on diary reading and writing last Saturday. It was not something they knew but they seemed to enjoy it and we had a lively discussion. They will be submitting 12th May Diaries to the Mass Observation Archive.
  • Illustrators. We had two fascinating talks by book illustrators about their work. Jim Kay showed us how he created the brilliant illustrations in “A Monster Calls” and talked about how pictures can be a  good way of taking in information and remembering things for people like him. Something that came across strongly was an illustrator’s striving for perfection and never being content with their work. I’m keen to invite book illustrators to come and talk to our Art students and also to Shadow the Greenaway Book Award (awarded for illustration).
  • All schools should have a reading for pleasure policy. Pupils should be reading widely and often for pleasure and information was one of the key messages of Patricia Metham’s presentation. Patricia is the Lead Inspector for English for OFSTED. Her inspiring talk emphasized the importance of school libraries and librarians to English and literacy levels. She also stated that librarians should be involved in curriculum committees and planning.
  • School library award: Warwickshire School Library Service are doing excellent work in the area of school library self-assessment. Their pilot scheme enables school libraries to audit their services  and obtain 3 different levels of awards. (Librarians assess a range of criteria on 3 levels: Developing, Establishing or Enhancing). This is something I would like to follow up at Wellington.
  • Connell Guides  As a direct result of the Conference the Library now has a full set of the Connell Guides to English Literature.  These attractive, well-written, pocket size books are extremely useful to students of English. The online content accessed via the e-library contains additional material such as essays and quizzes. 

Lucy Atherton, Senior Librarian, Wellington College

A library in every school, please

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Article from the Independent newspaper blog 11th June 2012

“A library in every school please”

There is no law in England requiring schools to have a library.

The Society of Authors, which represents over 9,000 writers, is campaigning with other organisations for school libraries to be a legal requirement.

CILIP – the professional body of Librarians and Information professionals in the UK is running “Shout about School Libraries Campaign”