Education Network Australia (edna) is Australia’s leading online resource collection and collaborative network for the education and training community. I note the section on events and conferences has a calendar devoted to library conferences and events. Great to see the IASL 2008 conference has already been listed in their directory together with local and other international happenings.
Thank you, edna.
Recently Australians went to the polls to vote on the national government for Australia. The result was a significant win to the Labor party who had been in the position of opposition party for 11 1/2 years. It did not take long for the Prime Minister Elect, Kevin Rudd, to make moves, especially on an election priority - Federal Labor’s Education Revolution. Within two days of accepting victory Mr Rudd and Labor’s Deputy Leader, Julia Gillard, where found in a school library advocating Labor’s digital education revolution. Mr Rudd challenged his team of ministers to visit one public school and one independent school over the next couple of days.
Teacher librarians in Australia were encouraged to make sure that any visit to the school involved a visit to the school library. The Hub, a group campaigning for quality school libraries in Australia have been on the rumble!
Standards of excellence, whether the standards relate to the professionalism of a school librarian or to the attributes of a learner, need to be promoted to a wider audience than just school librarians, teacher librarians, library media specialists, librarians.
Some examples for you to consider - Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians (ASLA/ALIA) that focus on the professionalism of a school librarian. Standards for the 21st-Century Learner (AASL) that focuses on teaching and learning.
These standards have been developed by the national professional associations in Australia and America. If you have standards at your national level please make comment so we have the opportunity to gather appropriate resource material.
The IFLA World Library and Information Congress is traditionally held annually in varying parts of the globe.
The 74th IFLA General Conference and Council will be held in Quebec, Canada - 10 to 15 August 2008. The theme is “Libraries without borders: Navigating towards global understanding”.
Mark the 3 - 6 August 2008 into your diary for the IASL 2008 Annual Conference to be held at the University of California, Berkeley, California, USA. This will be the 37th Annual Conference incorporating the 12th International Forum on Research in School Librarianship. The theme is - World Class Learning and Literacy through School Libraries.
The 9th International School Library Day was celebrated worldwide on 22 October 2007.
All IASL members were encouraged to get involved and spread the word about ISLD. IASL President, James Henri, stated, “Let us all grab the opportunity to promote the value of school libraries to the world. We are blessed to have a quantity of research that demonstrates that a well resourced library in partnership with a full time professionally qualified school librarian is probably the single most resource efficient way to boost student learning that ultimately empowers students to become efficient independent learners.”
Vice-President, Dr Diljit Singh, reminded members that ISLD was first celebrated in 1999, under then-President of IASL Blanche Woolls. It has been 8 years since we have been celebrating ISLD and it has had an impact on the school library communities around the world. Dr Singh stated, “Each year, there has been a different theme to highlight the many ways we can view the role of the school library. This year’s theme is “Learning: Powered by Your School Library”, and as ISLD Coordinator Rick Mulholland points out, it is an opportunity to show that the school library plays an important part in learning.”
To find out how many school libraries and school librarians celebrated then read their stories on What people are doing on ISLD 2007.
At the IASL 2007 conference the incoming president, James Henri, issued a challenge to the membership. His challenge is based on the idea that when you take up a position you have to make your first act an important one. He believes there is nothing more important than the need to embrace our colleagues in IASL Zone C category countries. James states, “The reality is that the vast majority of folk who have responsibility for school libraries in Zone C could never afford to join IASL. That is just not good enough. At the same time many potential members in Zone A countries often seem to be unclear about what IASL can do for them. My challenge is to take another view on this. I challenge people in Zone A to share your expertise and your prosperity with Zone C.”
The President’s Challenge for 2007-2008 comes in the form of the concept of IASL Partner Schools. Partner Schools are schools that commit to donating an amount of USD 1,000 per annum for two years to enable Zone C school librarians to join the association. These schools will be able to use the name IASL Partner School for their own promotional purposes.
“My challenge is to find 50 such schools in the first year” — this is the challenge to make a difference.
