Library Review – First Groupwork
International School Bangkok’s Main Library Review team – 12 teachers, teacher-librarians and technology coordinators from all three divisions, met for a first half-day session today to begin to develop shared understandings about the work ahead. We began with a series of readings (previous post) in four broad categories, focusing on
- “Where we’re at” in Libraries today – selected articles from “School LIbraries Worldwide” with a focus on Ross Todd’s “Youth and their Virtual Networked Words: Implications for School LIbraries“
- Technology Trends – “The Horizon Report“, Joyce Valenza’s “A Few New Things” and Michael Smith’s “Web2.0 & School LIbraries”
- Social Netorking and the library, and
- Design considerations – articles from disparate ALA sources, including Doug Johnson’s “Some Design Considerations”
We also looked at an updated version of Judith Sykes’s 2002 “School Libraries of the Future” powerpoint (yours truly carefully excised the Y2K-era backgrounds, typewriter & helicopter sound effects and distracting random fly-in entries – and added current terminology and local images).
The result was a high-energy, intense half day of discussion, analysis and conjecture, with all parties professing to have gained something from the experience. For us teacher-librarians, it was a too-rare opportunity to expand the conversation about libraries to a wider stakeholder audience, and we were thrilled to have had the opportunity to broaden our colleagues’ horizons on the scope of work in which we’re engaged.
Now to follow this up with Next-Steps Action. We will be working toward completing an internal “audit” early next semester, capped by a consultation visit by an outside expert. Details in the planning stages now. Stay tuned…
