News & Articles

School libraries are reinventing themselves as contemporary places of connection, collaboration and content creation. The trend towards flexible learning spaces that are modular and meet the needs of individuals, groups and classes with multiple creative uses such as maker spaces, coding clubs, and student-led groups, is increasing. Welcoming spaces that support both the curriculum and social development goals of their schools can benefit students in their literacy attainment and reinforce the development of digital citizenship skills.

When students are asked what their school library means to them and what value they place on them, their answers are really compelling. Feedback from Dr Hillary Hughes’ research shows that the library is important to students because in the library they can ‘learn and have fun at the same time’; they can be themselves, they feel safe and that they have the opportunity to think and learn (Hughes, Franz, Willis, Bland & Rolfe, 2019).

Future-focused school libraries led by teacher librarians support the educational vision and philosophy of their schools and contribute to student learning in unique and specialised ways. Teacher librarians are more than managers of information, they are uniquely placed to provide professional expertise as both managers and users of information services and leaders of curriculum planning.

Digital learning technology plays a vital role in schools and has been indispensable as a means of remote learning in the COVID-19 pandemic response. We saw the incredibly agile and collaborative response of technology directors, teacher librarians and classroom teachers, in leading the shift of delivering learning from the physical classroom to the online environment.

We’ve heard many stories from wonderful teacher librarians about their adaptability, resilience and creativity in developing strategies for engaging students and maintaining connections while in isolation. Digital storytelling, developing research guides and how-to videos, curating content lists, embedding scaffolded support into learning management systems and learning spaces, and introducing click and collect book options are some of the many strategies employed by teacher librarians to continue providing essential services to the school community while the physical space was unavailable. Their efforts are truly remarkable.

The phrase that ‘libraries are at the heart of the school’ was developed by Caroline Roche, the Chair of the School Libraries Group at CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) in the UK. Caroline Roche founded the Heart of the School website, a wonderful resource that she developed ten years’ ago to share best practices and help other librarians. The Heart website took off across the globe and has kept the phrase that ‘libraries are at the heart of the school’ at the forefront of our thinking and very much in our hearts (Roche, 2018).

Our heartfelt thanks to the extraordinarily talented and passionate school library community that we are honoured to work alongside.

References

Hughes, H., Franz, J., Willis, J., Bland, D., & Rolfe, A. (2019). High school spaces and student transitioning: Designing for student wellbeing. In Hughes, H., Franz, J., & Willis, J. (Eds.) School spaces for student wellbeing and learning: Insights from research and practice (pp. 97-119). Springer.

Roche, C. (2018). Making the library the true heart of the school. Connections Magazine, 105. https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-105/making-the-library-the-true-heart-of-the-school/