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International School Library Month, October 2011
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Features
School libraries make a difference! The impact of school libraries on student achievement
IASL's Picture Gallery of School Libraries. Submissions are welcome!
Getting Started: Ideas and Procedures for starting a School Library Association or Section
International School Library Month 2008
Literacy and Learning in your School Library
The theme for 2008 has been translated into several languages -- Download the PDF file for further information.
What people are doing for ISLM 2008
Africa | Australia | Brazil | Canada | China | Croatia | Germany | India | Indonesia | Italy | Jordan | Kenya | Latvia | Pakistan | Poland | Portugal | Qatar | Romania | United Kingdom | United States of America
From Hania Jarallah,
Director of Library and Information Centre, Amman National School
We, at Amman National School in Amman, Jordan, have celebrated the "International School Library Month" for a whole week. It started from 26 Oct.-30 Oct. We had lots of activities, some are:
- Book Exhibition: As the philosophy of our school believes that all students must respect the book and must be encouraged to read a lot in both languages; Arabic and English, we, at the Information Centre and Library organize a book exhibition with reduced prices to encourage students to buy cheaper books. What we do is that we select titles that are useful and fun to read and get them to the exhibition premises and we give all discount that we get to the students. The result was, that the exhibition was very successful and students, parents, and staff rushed to choose what they like and bought lots of titles.
- Several authors were invited to read their books to students from KG to upper grades. The authors used several ways to demonstrate and read their books. Students were happy with this event. We have invited six authors to talk to the students and to have sessions of story reading. One author explained to students the processes that she goes through till her idea is practically turned into a book.
- Sudents did lots of posters and book markers on this occasion, they used some famopus quotations about reading and books, some used phrases and sentences that they created with paintings and drawings with colorful illustrations.
- Elementary school had a daily ten minute time to read silently (Sustianed Silent Reading). Everybody in their section stopped doing anything except reading whtever they liked including teachers, administrators, and workers.
- Book Discussions: Several titles were chosen for each class and were read to the students during the whole week. At the end of the week, all books were discussed and debated.
- Book Signing: Some authors came and signed their books that were exhibited in the book fair and the students who bought such titles were very happy to find that their books were signed by the author.
- "My favorite author, my favorite book, my favorite personality" is an activity done on the last day of the week. In this day, students choose a favorite personality from a book or a favorite title and they dress up with this personality. We saw witches, pirates, gingerbread man, butterflies, princesses, supermen, soldiers and others. Students looked very happy and excited.
- Quizzes: Information contests were done in this week, each class had several sheets of questions that must be answered only by coming to the library. Answers were to be found from books in the library, or by using the automated system of the library, and by using the school site. At the end of the week, all papers were corrected and gifts were granted to the winners of highest scores.
This is usaully an exciting week for the students, parents and staff. They all look forward and wait for this event anxiously.
From George Jakoyo, Kenya School Library Association
- Workshop for primary school teachers in Kisumu, Kericho and Nandi on setting up and managing school libraries
- Launch of Model School Library as Lessos Educational Centre
- Children Reading Camp in Londiani
- Computer Aided Learning: Capacity building workshop for secondary school teachers in Eldoret
- The Internet and Learning: Helping secondary students to get email addresses.
From Ruta Aukspole, English teacher and Project Coordinator, Nereta Secondary School.
The school library of Nereta Secondary School/Latvia, Aizkraukle region took part in International School Library Month with great interest. Our school is small, only about 250 pupils learn here, but there are the activities done by them and their school librarian:
- 10 October- school librarians from Valmiera region/ Latvia visited Nereta Secondary School to get acquainted with our school librarian Rita Truksa`s experience and see how our library helps the pupils in their everyday life;
- 10-20 October -the school library invited our pupils to the exhibition dedicated to the Latvian play-writer, actor and director Adolfs Alunans, who was 160 this year;
- There was a gathering of the winners and participants of the competition` The White Wolf`, 2007-2008. The competition is usually organized for the young readers during which they read books, meet writers and take part in other activities. In the summer the winners meet in a summer camp;
- Classes 9a and 9b have started to collect aphorisms on reading which will be find in the book made by them;
- `Readers` club` has been found in October the children jury of which will organize discussing and valuation of the books read by the pupils of classes 1-9;
- The exhibition `The books published in October` was available for the pupils this month.
From Farhat Jabeen, Librarian, Happy Home School, Karachi.
The following activities are being carried out at my school:
- Assembly presentations on ISLM theme, “Literacy and learning at our school library” through out the month of October.
- Designing of book marks.
- Decoration of all class bulletin boards on the ISLM theme.
- Composition writing competition for students from grade six to ten on the following topics: a) An autobiography of a book, b) A book is a good friend.
- A group of students to carry out a survey by interviewing parents. The focus of interview will be: Differences in the choice of books read by them and today’s generation.
- Students selected as ‘Eager Readers’, who were keen school library visitors through out the last academic year, to visit Dawn, the national newspaper printing house on October 22, 2008.
- Grade eight students to present a talk show and a skit on Library versus Electronic Media on October 21, 2008. Also on the same day a talk to be presented by an ex-student on the benefits of being a voracious reader!
- Grade seven students to visit a well known public library, the DHA library, on October 21, 2008.
- Book Fair at the school premises from October 23 to 25, 2008.
- Poster competition for students from grade three to five on the topic of ‘cultural heritage of Pakistan’ based on the research carried out at the school library. And the topic for students from grade six to ten will be ‘design your dream school library’.
- Exhibition of students’ work from grade three to ten. That is posters, reports of the visits, composition, bookmarks, quotes from the parents’ interviews will be displayed on October 25, 2008.
- Certificates will be awarded to the winners and participants of various ISLM activities on October 31, 2008.
- Visit www.happyhome.edu.pk to view the ISLM activities at my school.
From Nur Ali Barkat Ali Tejani, Programme Officer, Learning Technology Department, Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan
Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan (AKES, P) is an institution of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), which promotes education, health, housing, economic enterprise and cultural awareness in a number of countries in Asia and Africa. Within the Aga Khan Development Network, Aga Khan Education Services is responsible for the promotion of education and has educational institutions and programmes located in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda and Afghanistan. AKES is a direct provider of schooling from pre-primary to higher secondary and facilitates access to tertiary education through the provision of hostels, scholarships and educational support services.
Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan (AKES, P) provides educational access to more than 65,000 students with 189 schools, 4 hostels, over 200 community-based initiatives and 100 public and private partner schools across the country. It is one of the largest private networks of education institutions in Pakistan and was among the earliest of non-governmental education providers in this region. With over 60% female enrolment in Aga Khan Schools, AKES, P has played a critical role in the development of women in these regions and has been a torch bearer in the promotion of women development.
Aga Khan Education Service Pakistan (AKES, P) realizes the importance of integrating information technology in the process of learning for both the teachers and students. It has been a pioneer institution in Pakistan for introducing computers in schools. To acknowledge the importance of technology and specially information and communication technology, AKES, P provides lots of opportunities to its teachers to enhance their knowledge and skills for the use of IT in the process of learning and teaching. AKES, P has outlined the following vision for learning technologies
“Using libraries and technologies resources to promote independent learning, critical thinking, creative abilities and consciousness among students to make them the caring citizens of this global community”
The vision clearly indicates the use of technology beyond traditional ways and promoting its use as a tool for creating consciousness and enhancing independent learning abilities. The learning technology program focuses on mobilizing learning resources (libraries and computers) for achieving the vision.
The following objectives have been established for the Learning Technology Programme.
- Creating programs for utilization of Library resources in school
- Promote use of library and technology resources to strengthen the culture of learning and collaboration
- Facilitating the use of technology to strengthen the culture of learning and collaboration
- Creating effective mechanisms for using technology (libraries and computers) in overall school development planning and administration
- Developing models for technology integration
In connection to the Learning Technology – Library Programme the International School Library Day is being celebrated for the third time in Aga Khan Schools in Karachi. Several activities have been planned from following Aga Khan Schools to celebrate the event.
Aga Khan Higher Secondary School, Karachi [PDF file]
Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan School [PDF file]
Aga Khan School, Garden [PDF file]
Aga Khan School, Kharadhar [PDF file]
From Renata Sowada, Teacher-librarian, 53rd Primary School library in Czestochowa
Our most important school events of ISLM 2008 were:
- Competitions:
- for creation of a poem (in memory of Halina Poswiatowska; Polish poetess),
- Jan Brzechwa in poetry (Polish poet),
- a best bookmark,
- Power Point presentation about a school library - Exhibitions
- Janina Porazinska; a poetess
- The world of information - Meetings
- All Poland reads for kids (all-Polish activity) - First visit in school library of pupils from the first class
From Renata Sowada Ph.D.,
President of Librarians Section, Polish Teachers Union, Czestochowa Branch
School librarians from Librarians Section, Polish Teachers Union, Czestochowa Branch celebrated International School Library Month 2008.
- We organized many exhibitions, competitions, meetings connected with this holiday. Last year we celebrated School Libraries Week in October, so this year we had an experience to plan our activities for longer time than one day, as it was in previous years.
- We organized competitions for students (for a Power Point presentation about their school library) and for teachers; librarians (for a photo of Week of Libraries celebration, that had taken place in May 2008 in Poland).
- We organized a meeting of librarians with a theme of ISLM 2008.
- We edited a school librarians quarterly with articles about school libraries activities.
- We organized the 5th Regional Librarians Conference in Czestochowa for school librarians and librarians from public, pedagogical, scientific and church libraries on 21th October, 2008. The theme of this Conference was the theme of ISLM 2008.
- We participated in a Holy Mass on behalf of librarians in Saint Anthony Church in Czestochowa.
- All our activities are continuously described in web magazine e-Kurier NB.
From Elisabete Fiel, Director of Library, Escola Secundária de Campo Maior, www.minerva.uevora.pt/bib-es-campo-maior/, http://biblioteca-escm.blogspot.com/
The Library Month is celebrated at Campo Maior High School Library. These are our main events / activities on the 27th October:
Besides, the training sessions for users are still taking place at our School Library. Our motto is: "X-Files - Looking for a needle in a haystack" - Info literacy Sessions.
From Maritza Pinto Ferreira Dias, School Library Coordinator - We're a group of schools, named "Agrupamento Vertical de Escolas de Macedo de Cavaleiros". We've got a "trunk" full of activities that will happen in the three school libraries of the group, in October, INTERNACIONAL SCHOOL LIBRARY MONTH.
Here they are:
Activities to be developed in October, all month...
- Activity release "Collecting on Reading";
- Activity release "Reading Trunks" and "Reading Seeds";
- Meetings for user formation (organization of information and documents in the school library);
- Meetings: introduction and search in Literacy Guides;
- Meetings for application, having recourse to Literacy Guides;
- Implementation of ways of getting suggestions
From 27th to 31st October...
- Book fair;
- Meeting: "Literacy and Learning in School Library", dynamized by the School library Interpublic Coordinator, Dr Rosário Caldeira (29th October);
- Activity "The Public Library Comes To School" (31st October);
- Invitation sending, inviting parents to visit the school library that their children attend;
- Press release to local and regional newspapers and local radio.
From Manuela Maria Baptista, Library Coordinator, Escola E.B. 2/3 de Rio Tinto nº2, http://bibliotecando.zip.net
The school library at our school (Escola EB 2/3 de Rio Tinto nº2) wants to celebrate the occasion by promoting the following activities:
- Participation in IASL Bookmarks Project;
- Presenting / offering a "Guide on how to do written assignments";
- Publicizing the library's computerized catalogue;
- "Discovery visits" to the school library for 5th grade students in cooperation with teachers who teach Project Work, Civics, "Tutorial Study"and / or Portuguese;
- Release of the National Reading Contest;
- Offering souvenirs related to the occasion to members of the city council, Parents Association ... and inviting them to visit the school library;
- Celebration of the "International Library Day" (27th October);
- Sending information to the local press and to the newspaper "Primeiro de Janeiro".
From Ana Borges, School Library Coordinator, Escola S/3 Dr. Bernardino Machado – Figueira da Foz, www.plataformadapalavra.blogspot.com
During the International School Library Month we are promoting, in our school library, the follow activities:
- “Let’s discover the library” – Meeting for users formation (organization of information and documents on the school library and application of literacy guides “How to search information”);
- “Reading Challenge – In October find the pleasure of travelling in to the reading world”- reading contest;
- “The book’s sounds” - time for read sharing
From Grace A Garcia, Philippine International School - Qatar, Doha
I would like to share our action plan/ISLM ctivity outline of our school. I would like also to share this with you that our school failed to be included in the list of schools to be matched for the Book Mark exchange project of the organization because we were not able to meet the deadline of submission. But with our eagerness to bring a new experience to our students we tried to reach one of the schools overseas to partner with us and we are so grateful to them when they accepted the idea and they also believe on the set goals of the said activity. We made an arrangement to them on how and when we will be sending the bookmarks. Our partner school is with Ms Lilian Liberty Ventura, School Librarian, St. Croix Central High School.
I am also glad to give you an update about the celebration. The book character coloring for grades 1 to 3 is finished with 4 selected best works in each grade level. We posted their projects on the wall along the corridor of the school for public viewing. The giant/big book making of grades 4 to 6 were judged and best books are kept in the library and can be read by library users and those books are featured as books of the month. Thirty bookmarks of the high school students and 20 bookmarks from the elementary students were selected for bookmark exchange. Best three bookmarks from each level(First year to Fourth year high school and Grades four to six)will be recognized during the awarding ceremony which will be held on the last thursday of this month. Last week also of this month is the film viewing of the high school and elementary students. English teachers and the librarian chose a film that will promote literacy and learning at the school library. Students will be asked to make a reaction paper about the film watched. For the awarding ceremony we will be giving out certificates and stuffed toys with the ISLM tag to the winners as their token. Teachers and staff will receive the ISLM bookmarks The month surely will end with the whole school community andbeyond supports the school libraryand advocate reading and information literacy.
From Peter Damo, contact person.
Person in charge with the project: Farca Victoria, school librarian
School name: Technical High School of Aiud (that reads in Romanian: “Colegiul Tehnic Aiud”);
Location: Town of Aiud, Alba County, Romania;
Students age level: 15 – 19 years old;
Estimated number of students involved: 60 to 120;
Here below you may find a brief presentation of the activities we intend to organize:
- School Library website design and launching: http://biblioctaiud.wordpress.com ; information is going to be published regarding the role of the school library in education, culture, and society. Teacher in charge: Ramona Humeniuc;
- “Learning and training through your library” Symposium involving both teaching staff and students in the High School Aula on 22nd of October 2008 from 14:00 hours. People in charge: school inspector Oana Badea; headmistress of Town Library ‘Liviu Rebreanu’ Jenica Satmarean; headmaster of Cultural Centre ‘Liviu Rebreanu’ of Aiud Ioan Hadarig; newspaper writer Dorel Lazar;
- Essays in Romanian and drawings by students. Teacher in charge: Ioana Moldovan;
- Visiting another school library. Teacher in charge: Dana Pungea;
- English books exhibition. Teachers in charge: Dana Pungea and Peter Damo;
- Poetry composed and recited in English by students. Teacher in charge: Peter Damo;
- Essays in Romanian by students; Teacher in charge: Cosmin Georgiu;
- “Books through proverbs and quotations” Teacher in charge: Ramona Buta;
- “Study in your library” Exhibition of drawings and posters. Teacher in charge: Iudita Szabo;
- Making bookmarks by students. Teacher in charge: Csilla Jenei;
- Advertising materials making by students. Teacher in charge: Cristina Bogdan
Main organizers and responsible persons:
High School Headmaster, prof. Ioan Zurgalau;
High School Deputy Headmaster, prof. Iulian Vintu;
High School Librarian, Victoria Farca;
Prof. Ramona Humeniuc;
Prof. Dorina Lugigan
From Laszlo Kiss, teacher librarian, Mikes Kelemen High School Library and President of ABR-Covasna County Section
Brief outline of the ISLM activity:
- International Bookmark Exchange Project. Our partner is Creative Secondary School from Hong Kong / China. We participate with 62 students in this project.
- International E-mail Exchange Project. Our partner is Sanford Middle School / Alabama / USA. We participate with 28 students from the 6th grade in this project. Each of our student will have an American partner. Each Thursday we (the two school librarians) shall send a topic and the partners will work together.
- School Librarian Meeting. We -the Covasna County Association- shall celebrate together with the Harghita County Association the ISLM. This will be on 31th of October. The two librarian associations are sections of the Romanian Librarian Association (ABR).
From Lucretia Birz, Librarian, National College of Horea, Closca and Crisan, Alba Iulia.
For International School Library Month we propose to achieve the following activities:
- Initiated a research with the title: "preferences for the reading of students"
- Granting qualification for the "most faithful reader"
- "Teenagers yesterday-today's teenagers" - purpose of this project is carrying out a debate on adolescence from watching a movie. The project is in collaboration with teachers of psychology(Atanasiu Adelia and Moldovan Dumitru).
- Organizing an exhibition of old books found in the library collection.
From Oana Jianu, Librarian, Teachers Training Center Bacau, Romania.
Brief outline of the ISLM activities:
- Bookmark Exchange Project –80 bookmarks; our partner this year – Lateef Ojo, British International School, Lagos, Nigeria; + exhibit with bookmarks from the last year project.
- School librarians meeting (65 participants) – as coordinator of school librarians from my county.
- Promoting ISLM in schools and in local mass-media, distribution of informative materials.
- Storytelling – 10 pupils aged 10 reading stories for kids from kindergarden.
- Beginning of an educational project named Reading Maniacs (stimulate reading through games and fun activities with books – for 18 pupils aged 9-10).
From Pascovici Elena, French teacher, Sc.cu cl.I-VIII nr.3 "Mihail Sadoveanu", Falticeni
- Bookmark exchange with Morgan Elementary School (Surrey, Canada)-the bookmarks are made by the students of 2 primary classes (II C and IV D)-teachers: Marian Mihaela, Ilie Paraschiva
- Exhibitions:-“New books in our school library”; “Book covers”-made by the students of the VIIC form (teacher: Filip Olimpia); “Bookmarks” made by the IVA,B forms (teachers: Iacob Mihai, Corut Elisabeta)
- “How to study in our school library “(dictionary, atlas, magazine, album)-practical activity.Teachers: Soldanescu Paraschiva (III A form), Paval Luminita (IIIC form, Loghin Felicia (IIID form), Baciu Elena (IVC form)
- Contest for the students: “I’m the school librarian for 1 hour”
- “My first meet with our school library” (IA, I B, IC primary classes )-teachers: Dascalu Nicoleta, Oslobanu Elena, Coca Nicoleta
- “Learning from the fairy tales” (IIA, IIB, IIC, IID primary classes)-teachers: Negura Margareta, Butnaru Ana, Ilie Paraschiva, Filip Elena
- “The school library-my best friend”-compositions, acting (III B form) Teacher: Morosanu Maria
- “How to keep and protect the books of our school library”-practical activity –IV B form, teacher: Corut Elisabeta
- “The little writer” (contest for the students of V A form)-teacher: Filip Olimpia
- “Learning in our school library” (debate with the students of V,VI,VII,VIII forms)-teachers: Stoleru Cristina, Iftimoaia Catalin, Craciun Cristina
All the activities are coordinated by our school librarian, Mrs. Baltazar Adriana
From Beverley Humphrey, Learning Resources Manager/Learning Gateway Coordinator, Woolwich Polytechnic School, London
This year I have decided to celebrate International School Library Day with a bang! In the UK it falls on 6th October and I have created a project called the Write Path which will centre on this day. Five children’s authors (Julia Jarman, G P Taylor, Theresa Breslin, Alan Gibbons and Mark Robson) have written the first paragraph in a story each and these stories will be travelling around the world with 10 11/12 year olds in each school working in pairs to complete the next paragraphs. There will be an opportunity for schools to link up via instant messaging or a video link and the students will be introducing themselves and telling their peers what their favourite book is. The last paragraph in each story will be composed by English teachers in my school to tie up all the ends neatly. We are creating a website for the project and the completed stories will be published both online and hopefully in paper form in a booklet with information about the schools and photos of the pupils involved. Students will be asked to vote on their favourite paragraph from each story and a Wicked Writers award will be presented to one school who will receive a trophy and a signed copy of a book from each of the authors. Schools from the following areas are taking part:
UK -- Enfield, Hadleigh, Newcastle, Stockport, Thamesmead, Havant (to be confirmed)
America -- New York
Asia -- Bangkok, Beijing (to be confirmed), Jakarta, Saigon
This should be an exciting (and exhausting – I will be up at 2a.m. on the 7th to contact one school!) day and our boys are really looking forward to it. We could have involved many more schools so I think it will have to become an annual event and next year will be even bigger and better!
From Chris Gibson, Library Media Specialist, Middle School 80, Bronx, New York
My ISLM activity is to host a teacher luncheon to promote awareness of the school library media center. There are a lot of new teachers in my building. For most, this is their first year teaching. The luncheon will include food, raffle prizes, a Power Point presentation and a few handouts on library brochures. As an advocate of library services it is important to establish a good working relationship with all teachers, especially the new ones.
From Lilian Liberty E Ventura, Librarian, Myra Orendain, Librarian, Sharon Prudoff, Media Specialist, LMC Chairperson and Chermaine Hobson-Johnson, Principal, St Croix Central High School, St, Croix, US Virgin Islands
Thirty-four grade 9 to 12 students participated in the bookmark making project which was held Oct. 27 to 30 at the schools' Learning Media Center (LMC). The students were provided with basic art materials, but they were encouraged too to bring any material they would like to use in their bookmarks. Some brought old magazines, brown papers, tissue papers, sequence, glitters, dry leaves, and many more. Everybody was excited to come during their lunch hour to finish the project they have started the first day. "Read", "Learn", "Study", and "Reading" were the famous words the students incorporated in their creations. Email addresses were written at the back of the bokmark in the hope of making the bookmark project a venue for fostering friendship and a medium to practice language communication skills and literacy in the long run. Everyone looks forward to the possibility of developing further camaraderie and exchange of cultural experiences with the students of the partner school Philippine International School in Qatar.
Last updated 4 November 2008 (KSB)