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International School Library Day 2006 Date: 23 October 2006 Theme: Reading. Knowing. Doing.

What People Are Doing for International School Library Day 2006

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Australia

From The School Library Association of Victoria, SLAV
The School Library Association of Victoria stages a number of activities to support ISLD.
SLAV offers a range of annual awards to teacher librarians and library teams to acknowledge their outstanding contribution to learning and teaching. This year sees the inaugural School Leaders Award being made as well as the John Ward Award, The SLAV Research Fellowship and the SLAV Innovators Grant.
The association encourages members to work with fellow teachers to develop an entry for the Victorian Webquest of the Year Awards which we offer in conjunction with Victorian Education Channel (part of the Victorian Department of Edcuation and Training). With valuable prizes of interactive whiteboards, this is a wonderful opportunity for teacher librarians to collaborate with their teaching colleagues and bring together valuable web resources to support their students' learning.
The winners of all the above awards are announced at the International School Library Day Awards Dinner in the Ballroom of the Rendezvous Hotel. Comedian and media personality, Damian Callinan, will host the event and ensure that members catch up with friends and celebrate with and honour members of the profession in a wonderful atmosphere.
There is no excuse for International School Library Day to go unnoticed in any school in our state. This year we are delivering digital screensavers / wallpapers for teacher librarians to use on their library webpage or school network. Members can also download three full-colour posters from the SLAV website which can be used throughout the school to remind students and staff that school libraries are Essential for Learning.

From Maria O'Brien, IASL/ISLD Organising Committee Member & Manager Library Services, Eltham College of Education, Victoria.
ELTHAM College of Education is marking International School Library Day in a number of ways.
Firstly, we are taking part in the Bookmark project. Our Grade 5 and 6 classes are corresponding via the teachers with 2 schools in British Columbia, Canada. Over the past several months the students in each of the schools have asked questions of each other, via the teachers, about life in the other country; likes and interests, the types of houses people live in, what school is like, what people wear, what kinds of pets they keep, the wildlife and weather of each country and many more questions. It seems that as far as our schools are concerned our lifestyles are not too different. Many of the things the students do and like are the same.

We have all made our bookmarks, had them laminated for longevity and have posted them to each other. At the time of writing this message we are still eagerly watching our mail boxes for the packages.

The year 10 students at ELTHAM College of Education are corresponding with a school in Venezuala. Although officially part of the bookmark project, the students decided not to do the bookmarks, but to correspond with each other by email instead.

Our biggest celebration at ELTHAM will be on October 26th when we will be entertained by a professional storyteller from New Zealand. Most of the students from Grade 6 to year 10 will be treated to a variety of performances that will be aimed at their particular needs and interests. The younger students are studying myths and legends this term and will eventually be writing their own stories. Similarly, the year 10 students are studying writing and storytelling and will focus on the telling about self. The performances will provide an opportunity for our students to make a donation to charity. The money will be collected and given to the Student Council who will then forward it to One Umbrella, the organization that it is supporting this year.
ELTHAM College of Education.

From Margaret Headlam, Teacher Librarian, The Hutchins School, Tasmania.
We have 35 Year 5 boys at a Boys School on the banks of the Derwent River in Hobart, Tasmania, who made very colourful bookmarks with a book review on one side and art on the other. They made the bookmarks with the art teacher and were very attached to their work. They were reluctant to send them to Fairview Alberta, Canada. Now we are looking forward to receiving the book marks from the school in Canada. You never know, we may have more exchanges with them during the year.

From Jill van den Bosch, Teacher Librarian, Scottsdale Primary School, Tasmania.
Adjacent to our school we have a child care centre, for pre-school aged children. They come to our school library once a fortnight to change books, have a story and sing songs. They have very few books in their own collection so I have put together a collection of 20 or so suitable books, each with a book plate saying: "Reading is fun. We hope you enjoy this book. A donation from Scottsdale Primary School on International School Library Day, October, 2006." A Grade 2 class will come to the library with the children on 23rd to present them with the books and to read the books with the youngsters.

From Karen Lindsay, Teacher Librarian, Narooma High School, New South Wales.
I am currently on exchange from Victoria, BC, Canada. Because this is the final term of school here, it seems like a good time to showcase all the resources we have added to the collection this year. My assistant and I have pulled all the new books and will be displaying them by subject area for teachers and students to look at. We hope this will increase their use. Of course, there are lots of fiction books, too. Each table will have a sheet for school members to create a wish list for next year, and another to request loans for the next day. The Food Science faculty has loaned us an urn, so there will be host water for tea and coffee all day. We will serve biscuits at recess. Parents have been invited via the school newsletter, and I have alerted the Narooma News. In recognition of our good fortune here we are holding a "gold coin" donation for a school library in Papua New Guinea. However small our budgets are there are many places in the world much worse off than we are. Have a wonderful day on 23rd.

From Lisa Hill, Director of Curriculum, Mossgiel Park Primary School, Victoria.
For the past two weeks students is years 3-6 have been busy making bookmarks about their favourite authors. These beautiful bookmarks - and a favourite book by an Aussie author - have been posted off to primary schools in America and Canada, and these schools are sending bookmarks back to us. As part of this project, students have also learned some new ICT skills. They have learned how to use a digital voice recorder to record a greeting, explaining about their favourite books. Some students have also learned to upload the voice file to the laptops, to rename the files, and convert them to audio files which can be played on a CD player. Some have even helped to burn the files to a CD, which has been sent off with the bookmarks so that the other schools will know what an Aussie accent sounds like!

We have also just voted for our favourite books in the Children's Choice YABBA Awards and are eagerly awaiting the results to see if our most popular book is a winner.

Earlybird Library Monitors will be receiving a special presentation as a thank you at Monday's assembly.
Lisa's School Stuff

Thank you to Rick Mullholland of Canada for his work in coordinating this terrific activity.

From Jan Radford, Teacher librarian, Delany College, New South Wales.
Our students enjoyed swapping lists of our favourite reads with schools around the world for ISLD a couple of years back, so we are doing it again this week, starting with a big fanfare on 23 October. As our students come from all around the world, we are thinking of their home countries, especially Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, Italy and Asian countries at this time. From the beginning of November we will post our faves by Year Group (years 7-12) on our library website. We welcome you to access these. Last time we received lists from other libraries and we were amazed to see how many titles are read worldwide. Please contact us if you wish to join us in our venture. Let us celebrate together - Library email address.

From Jane Lang, Head of Information Resources, St. Catherines's School, Victoria.
St Catherine's School is a K-12 girl's school in Toorak, a suburb of Melbourne. We celebrated by hosting morning tea in the Nicholas Library for the Senior School staff. We developed a book mark acknowledging ISLD and listing the services we offer on the back. We also had door prizes for staff - with books being the prizes of course! In the Junior School we hosted a morning tea in the staff room with balloons and book marks and home-made dips.

From Liz Beck Teacher Librarian, Newman College, Lavalla Campus, Western Australia.
Students had a variety of craft activities which they could make as gifts; a large display board with resource genres; Australia Post Education Officer visit to talk about Stamp Collecting; a fun competition of "quess the staff member".

From Denise Stephenson, Head of Library Services, Calvary Christian College, Queensland.
We have to celebrate this day later than the rest of the world because Queensland schools have a Pupil Free Day on the 23rd. We will use the ISDL site to collect information of where the schools that have participated are situated in the world and use this as a chance to check out the mapping skills with the older Junior grades and put together a display with messages, pictures and a world map in the centre. The children will work in groups to put together information about countries mentioned on the ISLD web page.

It would be great to have photos on the web pages of libraries throughout the world so that the children have something visual as well as information. The children would like to see what libraries in other schools are like with displays in a different language, and how the libraries are set up.

From Nola Uzzell, Teacher Librarian, Settlers Farm K-7, South Australia.
This is the first year we have celebrated ISLD. We used it to highlight just how lucky we are to have a fabulous library, which has been rebuilt after a fire nearly three years ago. We had a feeling that many of our children just take the resources, services and facilities for granted and assume that all children have access to the same kind of libraries.

We used the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) in our library to look at pictures on the net of school libraries in less advantaged parts of the world, including a particularly graphic example from rural South Africa, so that comparisons could be made. Our students then identified something that they really valued about our library in relation to the three aspects of the ISLD slogan - "Reading. Knowing. Doing." Each class then took three photos of students from their class in the library that illustrated their ideas. These have been made into a movie using Photostory and will be used to promote the library and its services in the community.

Celebrating ISLD gave us all the chance to stop and reflect about what is really important about school libraries (and teacher librarians) in supporting rich learning for our students.

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Belgium

From Ingrid Cornelis, School librarian, Heilig-Grafinstituut.
On October 23rd our new Open Learning Centre will be officially opened. We have a long library-tradition (about 76 years). To keep up with the demand of new sources besides books and magazines the school decided to make the library into a modern location where teachers and pupils can come and use all kinds of information.
Website and Contact information.

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Brazil

From Katharina B L Berg, Regional Director - Latin America/Caribbean
This will be the first year that we will participate so we have decided to get school libraries of the city of Sao Paulo together and enjoy a day of workshops, ideas and fun. Next year we will be more prepared to work with teachers and students. If you have any good ideas, please let us know.

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Canada

From Pat Ropchan, Teacher Librarian
We are making this a week long celebration this year and are combining it with our annual Marti McKay Week (an artist in residence week). We are starting off with an assembly and are providing cake after lunch for all students and staff to celebrate National Library Day (Canada) as well as International School Library Day. The library is currently running a photo contest for the event (a photo of "you" reading on a journey) with prizes to be announced that day. ISLD Bookmarks are being created for everyone. Our elementary students are participating in the bookmark project and have been matched with a school in Africa. We are having different Alberta authors that week, one every day from Monday through Thursday (Lorna Bennett, illustrator; Marty Chan, author and playwright; Darcy and Duanne Jahns, authors, and Glen Huser, author). As well, we are having a book talk event by and for grades seven students and are contemplating a literature fair for grade eight.

All in all, it will be an exciting week.

From Deb Cowland, Teacher Librarian.
This is an exciting time. I have set-up projects at both of my elementary schools in Langley, B.C. We have been matched with a school in Australia for the Bookmark Project. We are having a Book Fair in the library during that week and we will be submitting some Reading, Knowing, Doing theme work to the email project as well. Some Grade 5, 6 & 7's will also be attending an author presentation from award winning Canadian author, Pamela Porter. Perhaps the most exciting project to be inspired by ISLD is Books for Thailand. Our students will be sending books to a school in Thailand where they are still rebuilding after the tsunami. Students and staff are working together to make this an amazing celebration of school libraries.

From Chris Evans, Secretary, Vancouver Teacher Librarians Association.
The following is jointly hosted by VTLA and Friends of the School Library (a Vancouver parent organization).

Celebrate National School Library Day!

Special Presentation: The School Libary's Role in Developing Today's Information Literate Students by Marlene Asselin and Keith McPherson.

Please be our guest and come to our National School Library Day celebration on Thursday, October 26. We have a very presentation by Dr. Marlene Asselin, Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at UBC, and Keith McPherson, Director of Language and Literacy Education Research Centre. They will explore the Teacher-Librarian's and the School Library's role in developing today's information literate students, and they will demonstrate some new activities that will focus on developing essential information literacy skills.

Venue: Kitsilano Secondary School Library, 2550 West 10th Avenue.
When: Thurdsday, October 26.
7.00 pm Wine and cheese, book display from CCBC.
7.30 pm The School Library's Role in Developing Today's Information Literate Students.
We hope you can join us.

From Chris Evans, Teacher Librarian, Tyee Elementary School, Vancouver.
As I buy new materials in the late spring and early fall, I get them self ready, and tape a 5 cm wide strip of paper inside the front cover as a reserve list. On National and International School Library Day, the whole day is set aside for a New Book Display. The books are spread out on all the tables and classes are booked in for short periods to browse the books and add their name and division to the reserve lists of books they would like to borrow. The following day the books start circulating according to the reserve list. You can limit the number of books the students put their name on, and/or limit the students to being 1st for 1 book, 2nd for 1 book, etc. This ensures the last few classes to come do not have to wait until next year to get a reserved book.

From Katherine P. Miller, Teacher Librarian, McGirr Elementary School, Nanaimo.
We made hundreds of bookmarks, which we decorated and sent to our partner school in New Zealand. We hope to receive some from them. We also visited their school's website and discussed the similarities and differences between school in New Zealand and school in British Columbia.

Photographers from two of our local newspapers came and took pictures of the students enthusiastically showing off their bookmarks.

I am sure there would be many more wonderful, educational activities if teacher librarians were not so strapped for time. Cuts to budgets and teacher librarian time have really limited what teacher librarians are now able to offer to the children.

From Elizabeth Paterson, Cataloguer Librarian, Library Automation, District Learning Resources Centre.
Book launch - A special guest will be one of our Board members.
MENU
Extracts from the print catalogue:
Oranges are not the only fruit (A fresh fruit salad)
Quiche of death (M.C. Beaton)
From the AV catalogue:
Chocolate
From our authors:
Julius Caesar Salad (W. Shakespeare)
The old suitcase of brownies (Lillian Boraks-Nemetz)
From the Cataloguing department:
RataDewey
And a few proposed dishes unaccountably not taken up:
From Circ:Blood sausage; Bibliotek aux Fines herbes (we have a large French language collection)
From our authors - Gamekeeper's Tart (Lady Chatterley); Leaves of Lemon Grass (W. Whitman); Liver Twist (C. Dickens)

We hope to make this Literary Feast an annual event with more guests. Next year's event will be called Readers' Digest.From June Reed, Library Technician.
We are running a weekly reading week called "Random Acts of Reading". There will be an author or library trivia question of the day over announcements. The K-2 classes will have an opportunity to make a bookmark with rubber stamps at the activity table. Each class will have library challenges in the library (K-2 will be shown how to find books in the E section under the author's last name and will have a story read to them; 3-8 will have library challenges at the computer stations on finding books by different search methods). All classes will receive a bookmark for the week and are encouraged to read. In the past I have run a scavenger hunt with the non-fiction books so students can learn more about the dewey decimal system. Participants have always liked this activity.

From Leslie Ikeda, Teacher librarian.
The local newspapers were contacted and informed about some of the cool happenings in our school libraries in S.D. #43 (Coquitlam, B.C.) so they will be publicized on or near October 23. These activities included Bookmark exchanges with other countries, an author reading, sharing of blogs, and what was happening in bookclubs. As a result of this contact, a reporter interviewed one of our teacher librarians in her library and, hopefully, this article will come out as well.

From Carole Wilson, Teacher librarian, Tomekichi Homma Elementary School, Richmond.
We exchanged bookmarks, school photos and information with a school in Atlanta, Georgia. Our school will have a bulletin board on display with materials sent to us from this school during ISLD week. My students were very excited to connect with another school and share reading suggestions with them.

From Rick Mulholland, Teacher librarian & ISLD Coordinator.
Our celebration started with about half our classes making bookmarks for our buddy school, Henley Primary School in Nelson, New Zealand. We eagerly await the mail with their bookmarks for us.

All students will attend an author presentation by Lee Edward Fodi. His second novel has been nominated for our Surrey Book of the Year (through our school district and local public library).

During the day, the parents are invited to visit the library to see the many new books that have been purchased using their large donation last year and to see the projects that kids are working on in the library. We will end our celebration wiht a piece of cake decorated with the ISLD logo.

On behalf of the ISLD Committee, have a great day.

From Lois Klassen, Teacher Libarian.
A parent of one of the students has a cake baking business. She made a cake in the shape of an open book and I invited the school staff members down during the morning break to thank them for their support of the library and its programs, and to make them award of ISLD.

From Sheilagh Martin, Teacher Librarian, Canyon Heights Elementary School, North Vancouver.
A celebration of libraries and literacy - Monday 23rd October - Artist for Kids Gallery, Leo Marshall Centre - Guest speakers: Pandoras Collective...established to promote literacy and self-expression in our community.

A gala celebration will be held in the Artist for Kids Gallery, with guest speakers from Pandoras Collective. Members of this energetic and funky group will inspire with a performance of poetry and self-expression. They will be sure to delight!

Please invite your administrators and teachers to join us at our celebration of ISLD. We will also be inviting our superintendents, trustees, administrators and parents to attend.

Shameless self-promotion! This event was a celebration that left everyone feeling like they had been to a great therapy session or yoga class! Wine and sushi helped to create the mood.

From Randi Hermans, Teacher Librarian, Evans Elementary.
The grade 4 class that I see each week for a 45 minute prep class was linked with a grade 4 class in Auckland, New Zealand for the ISLD Bookmark Project. Today the grade 4 class at Evans Elementary in British Columbia, Canada will be receiving fantastic bookmarks from across the world. The class also sent us a large photo of their class holding the bookmarks they made and a special book.

From Jo-Anne Naslund, Education Librarian.
Reading Power, Media Awareness, Blogs and School Libraries -- Roles and Responsibilities of the Teacher-Librarian by Sylvia Zubke, President of the Vancouver Teacher Librarians' Association to be held in Scarge 310, 12.15 to 1.15 pm, Monday 23rd October.

Come celebrate National School Library Day! Join Sylvia Zubke, who will provide an overview of the collaboratively developed document, Roles and Responsibilities of Teacher-Librarians. This document was prepared in response to the recommendations presented in Dr. Ken Haycock's A Review of the Role of the Teacher-Librarian and the School Resource Centre in School District #39. The extent to which the role description can actually be met is linked directly to adequate budgets, facilities and staffing.

This event, sponsored by the UBC School of Library Archival and Information Science in collaboration with the Education Library in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia, was attended by faculty and students in education and library science at UBC.

From Gerald Brown, IASL Honorary Ambassador - with permission from Manitoba School Libraries.
In celebration of Manitoba's School Libraries

The Honorable Peter Bjornson, Minister of Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth declared 23 October as Manitoba School Library Day for all 700 schools across the province. In addition, he, among other government officials, participated in reading and discussion programs in several schools during the day.

However, the highlight for most teacher-librarians and educators was the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Instructional Resources Unit (IRU) of Manitoba, Education, Citizenship and Youth. Under the guidance of Myrtle Taylor Lewis, the first Departmental Librarian appointed in 1946, this libray grew from a single room in the Legislative Building to house the largest collection of education resources in the province.

The IRU's multi-faceted mandate is to provide a foundation for student learning through the provision of resources and services that support curriculum implementation, educational research and professional learning.

The activities of the IRU focus on educational outcomes: improvement in teaching practices and student learning; the increased use of research and practice to improve decision-making in the classroom and in educational administration; and an emphasis on resource-based learning as an educational model in schools.

As we celebrated these milestones, the Minister spoke about the importance of school libraries and their impact on student achievement. John Tooth, Manager of IRU, noted that the decisive aspect of student achievement occured through the development of new-century literacy skills. Students developing information literacy, through a process of inquiry: planning and questioning, gathering and making sense, producing to show understanding, communicating, and reflecting on their learning, was a key focus of the exhibits at the reception that was held for approximately 200 people at the afternoon celebration.

An outstanding PowerPoint was presented showing the history of the IRU and the people who have contributed to its growth and development over the years. Other exhibits showed landmarks in the development of resource management and school library development in the province.

To learn more about the IRU, consider checking the IRU website.

Heartiest congratulations to the staff at IRU, and the Minister for marking both ISLD and the 90th anniversary. We wish them continued success in school library and information services development across the province and across all the curricula.

From Alan Clark, Teacher Librarian, Spectrum Community School, Victoria.
This year we served a cake (with the School Library Day logo) to students. We also had a vist by an amazing speaker, Tim Tingle, who captivated an audience of students in grades 9-11 with stories about the Chocktaw people. I think that ISLD is a great opportunity to highlight what is happening in the school library.

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Caribbean Area

From Luisa Vigo-Cepeda, Publication and Public Relations Coordinator, Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL), which includes school libraries and school library associations.
We are planning diverse innovative activities in school libraries in the Caribbean region, particularly those geared to the development of information and knowledge skills, based on critical thinking and problem resolution. We are urging school libraries in the Caribbean to join the festivity and to report on activities planned and held.

ACURIL was established in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1969.
It aims:

• to advance the role of libraries, archives, museums, and related information units in the Caribbean as integral components of the information society;
• to provide opportunities for unity within diversity, understanding, cooperation, discussion, research and development among its members and other related institutions;
• to ensure access to information in order to meet the educational, economic, socio-cultural development and recreational needs to all the residents of the region.

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Croatia

From Ivana Vladilo, School Librarian.
In the school library there is an exhibition of bookmarks from librarians collection with bookmark history. NETgroup of school librarians promote a repository of school librarianship - Project of 5 enthusiastic Croation school librarians. Greetings to the librarians all over the world.
Website link.

From Suzana Pracaic, Librarian, The Primary School Krapina.
Warm greetings from Krapina-zagorje District - we are delighted for taking part in the ISLD. On ISLD in our school "Ljudevit Gaj" in Krapina we had some activities such as:

• taking a survey about reading books from fifth to eight grade;
• we invited Mr. Horvat Josip, the mayor of Krapina, to visit our school library and we want to thank him for financial support of the school library
• we had group work in Informatic and English class and our project was about presentation of ISLD in the world from the year 1999 till 2005; every group had a special assignment for each year and they had to make a presentation in PowerPoint
• participating in the National quiz for reading stimulation "In honor of Nikola Tesla";
• translating the text in our school library during the class of German language;
• the beginning of action "let's read Gajevci", collecting books and money for increasing of library fund so that we could read more.

During the "Month of Croatian Book", the greatest cultural manifestation in Croatia (15 October to 15 November) we will have many other activities:

• literary meetings with Miro Gavran and Ivica Jembrih
• visiting the theatre in Zagreb
• visiting the book fair INTERLIBER
• project about Nikola Tesla

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Egypt

From Serge Ntune.
My name is Mawo Serge and I am the librarian in St. Joseph's International School located in Egypt in Sharm El Sheikh. This is our first time that we are celebrating this day and our activities for this day will include debates, bookmarks project, literature competition and book fair.

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Last Updated 2 November 2006 (KSB)