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Metadata to enhance diversity, connection and belonging
By Catherine Barnes
Issue 123, Term 4 2022
School libraries are dynamic, innovative and exciting places, but they are also a place for diversity, connection and belonging. Ben Chadwick (2020) explains: ‘Some things are fundamental to providing a library service. Of course, you need a decent collection of resources, but you also need to sup
School library spotlight: One Arm Point Remote Community School
By Mel Rowsell
Issue 115, Term 4 2020
fortable simply reading for pleasure, and where students and staff can be confident that the information they find is current, unbiased and accurate. School libraries have the opportunity to connect both staff and students to a wider world of information. In a small remote community, I hope to see o
School library spotlight: University High School, Melbourne
By Stephanie Ward
Issue 123, Term 4 2022
s your favourite thing about SCIS? Connections is my favourite thing about SCIS. It has been really important for me, it’s helped me see what other school libraries are doing. One of the big projects that we were undertaking when I first started in the library was the genrefication of our fiction
Unique libraries: The School of St Jude in Tanzania
By Rebecca Hansford
Issue 119, Term 4 2021
hich comprises boys’ O Level and co-educational A Level (the final two years of secondary). Each of the schools has its own library. In Tanzania, school libraries are few and far between. The staff in our three libraries have a challenge on their hands – to provide our students with quality libr
Positive promotion of the school library
By Jae Rolt
Issue 93, Term 2 2015
After I was named Australia's Favourite Librarian people began asking what it is that makes me so popular with my students, families, colleagues, and community. Whilst the ideas here work for me, they may not work for everyone. Sometimes you need to try other ways to find what works for you and yo
What do our students really want?
By Megan Stuart
Issue 101, Term 2 2017
If there is one professional group familiar with the fear and excitement that disruptive technology can bring, it is library staff. Over the course of nearly four decades teaching in schools and libraries, I have witnessed incredible change and welcomed exciting progress in the way information is a
School library spotlight: Rolleston School
By Kay Morfett
Issue 105, Term 2 2018
What is your job title, and what does your role entail? How many people work in your library? I work at Rolleston School as the librarian. My role is 25 hours a week, split over five days. I have a teacher in charge who is really wonderful and supportive and, aside from a brilliant group of stude
Ten ways to transform your library into a flexible learning space
By Liza Moss
Issue 107, Term 4 2018
Warners Bay High School is a large co-educational comprehensive state high school, south of Newcastle. The school library serves around 1,300 students and 100 staff. Like many schools, it has a building known as the multipurpose centre or MPC. While it is true that its uses may vary among assemblie
School library spotlight: Galston High School
By Jade Arnold
Issue 107, Term 4 2018
What is your job title, and what does your role entail? My official job title is teacher librarian. My role within the library is multifaceted. As the manager of the library, I am responsible for acquisitions, resource management, and research services, and I manage two school administrative and
A not so secret garden
By Kathryn Williams, Heather Harrison
Issue 112, Term 1 2020
‘Once upon a time’ we had a dream to turn part of the library into a storybook garden. Walk through the doors today and that dream has become a reality. The striking entryway consists of stacked, oversized book sculptures that hold a scrolled sign welcoming people into the space. Central to the gar
School library spotlight: Northcote High School
By Richard Smallcombe
Issue 126, Term 3 2023
What is your job title and what does your role entail? I’m the library coordinator at Northcote High School. It is structured in two parts. There’s helping students find books, checking books out, general day-to-day, and then there’s also looking after the library budget, collection developmen
Stopping the slide: improving reading rates in the middle school
By Narelle Keen
Issue 99, Term 4 2016
At each end-of-year assembly, I give out our Champion Reader Award to students in the junior college who have borrowed more than 120 books throughout the year, and to students in the middle and senior college who have borrowed more than 50 books. In our junior college, we always have large numbers
The value of podcasts for school library staff
By Amy Hermon
Issue 110, Term 3 2019
No one likes to feel foolish, and I don’t know anyone who wants to admit that they don’t know something. This is how I became such a fan of podcasts and decided to create one of my own. I was never more aware of my kryptonite than sitting in my first class in library school. With nine years of ex
Marketing your school library
By Andrew Downie
Issue 110, Term 3 2019
How many times have you heard a school library professional make a comment such as, ‘My school leadership team doesn’t understand my role or the value it brings’. As a teacher librarian with long experience working both as a teacher librarian and in an education sales environment, this question is
Improving literacy levels in remote Indigenous communities
By Karen Williams
Issue 111, Term 4 2019
We are all about exciting, engaging, and connecting kids to the wonderful magic of books. We’re about opening a door — for young minds and imaginations — to a world without limits. The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) is an Australian organisation that works to reduce low literacy rates among A
Developing low-budget literacy programs in schools
By Sue Bursztynski
Issue 109, Term 2 2019
Writer in residence Last year I retired after many years in the library and classroom, and focused mostly on my writing. However, as I was missing my students, I signed up as a volunteer with the Ardoch Foundation. Ardoch is a children’s education charity focused on improving educational outcomes
Even better than the real thing? Virtual and augmented reality in the school library
By Dr Kay Oddone
Issue 110, Term 3 2019
As a child, I spent hours gazing through my stereoscopic View-Master, clicking around the film cartridges that revealed 3D images of nature, superheroes and classic stories. The View-Master allowed me to escape into an imaginative world in a different way to books or television. Holding it up to my
School Library Spotlight: St Stephen's School
By Lise Legg
Issue 120, Term 1 2022
1. What is your job title and what does your role entail? My job title is Head of Libraries at St Stephen’s School, which is an independent, co-educational Uniting Church school from Pre-kindergarten to Year 12. The school was established at the Duncraig Campus in 1984 and the Carramar Campus in
School library spotlight: Val Wardley
By Val Wardley
Issue 122, Term 3 2022
What is your job title? What does your role entail? I am the Library Administrator at Clyde Fenton Primary School and Casuarina Street Primary School, which are both in Katherine in the Northern Territory. I have lived and worked in the Northern Territory since 1997, and have spent most of this
New and revised SCIS subject headings
By Renate Beilharz
Issue 128, Term 1 2024
The following changes to SCIS Subject Headings List were approved by the SCIS Standards Committee November 2022 – October 2023. Key BT – Broader term NT – Narrower term RT – Related term UF – Used for SN – Scope note SEN – Special example note In – Indexing note