Professional Development for the School Librarian

Reflection 2:
Activity:  Attend and document an event


2015: The Year Ahead In Youth Literature

Tuesday 2 December, 6pm – 8:30pm

The Courtyard, State Library of Victoria

Cost: $18 per person 

Hosted by the Centre for Youth Literature

This event hosted by the Centre for Youth Literature was an opportunity for local and international publishers to showcase some of their upcoming teen literature titles. The publishers involved were Bloomsbury, Egmont, Harper Collins, Penguin, Pan MacMillan, Ford Street, Text, Walker Books and Allen and Unwin. Each publisher was given a strict 5-minute limit to promote their latest publications, which allowed the event to progress very smoothly and was enough time for each publisher to mention their most noteworthy titles.

Some choose a machine gun approach and mentioned as many books as possible with, perhaps a 30 second description of each. Others chose to focus on just a couple of significant titles and spoke at (relative) length on each. It was a perfect way to get quick and convenient information about some of the major titles for next year.

I have to admit to some doubt in the beginning that it would be a productive night as I wasn’t really sure whether there would be enough titles and publishers to make the outing worthwhile. However I need not have feared, it was a satisfying selection of titles, in fact I was hard pressed to keep up with the ones mentioned.

The advantages of these events are numerous. Firstly having an insight into forthcoming titles assists with budgeting and pre-ordering. It also allows the librarian to develop displays and plan promotions to create anticipation with patrons. It helps to be known as an expert about books and reading by being the ‘first to know’ about what’s coming up. In a school, children rely on your expertise and you can influence their reading behaviours significantly with your knowledge.

Knowing who might be popular in advance is also an advantage for arranging author visits, in some schools these are an important part of the curriculum. A recent small-scale American study on author visits has suggested that after a visiting author… “ there were increases in student mean scores in reading interest, reading efficacy, writing interest, and positive attitudes about revision” (Schoolvisitexperts.com, 2015). More research is planned for next year.

Author visits, in my experience do really excite children and inspire them to read. It keeps reading and writing in their sights as an important and worthy activity. This can be particularly important in a boy’s school where the status of literacy can be swamped by other more valued events.

This PD session also provided me with a potential new title for our students to study that would fit with the cross curricular priorities of the Australian Curriculum. Input like that is of real use to teachers and helps them deliver the curriculum. This in turn strengthens the Teacher Librarian’s place in the school hierarchy and opens the door to collaborative efforts that help sustain the library.

Another advantage is meeting up with like-minded colleagues. This can be a real boon especially if you work alone .The organiser allowed plenty of time for this and although I didn’t take full advantage I will definitely screw up my courage next time. Librarianship is a collaborative industry and sharing helps us to all perform better.

Overall this was a useful professional development activity which of benefit to me.

References:

Schoolvisitexperts.com, (2015). School Visit Experts | Creating Programs That Kids, Teachers & Librarians Love. Retrieved 17 January 2015, from http://schoolvisitexperts.com/