Creating a Website for My School Community

What a week it has been. Admittedly, I haven’t had a lot of time to do research due to being very short-staffed at work and having to take on a second role, but I have been thinking more about what I want to include in our library website, especially after we hosted our first open house for parents on Friday. During the session, we had a slideshow of information that we went through and then demonstrated how to search for books and it was all information I think needs to be held in one place. I have also been looking at the documents Sonia shared over the last two weeks and I found myself nodding my head a lot at what she said, which helped me to frame my thinking a lot.

Currently, our school website is really aimed at prospective parents and current community members click a link which leads them to our library catalogue. Eventually (once we feel ready to share our new site), I would like to see our Libguide site be the link on the school website. This will lead them to our new library website which will include all of the information we currently hold in multiple places or have to send as emails.

As the target audience of the site will be all community members (students, staff and parents), I want to make sure there is something for everyone. I want to be transparent from the start and state that I have not designed this libguide from scratch. In fact as I began exploring this week, I realised communication with my team is critical as I discovered there is already an updated main page that only the head of my department knows about. I had thought she had only created and updated the pages for the students she works with.

As I looked at what we have so far, I realised the need to break the libguide down more by the sections of our school. There are currently no tabs for the students I work with in EY1 - Grade 2, and with such a range of students (3 - 14 year olds), I think it is necessary to break down some of the tabs further so that students, staff, and parents can easily access age appropriate information. I want to add tabs for  Early Years, Primary, and Middle School and then add tabs/dropdowns within that with the relevant information. This should also make viewing the tabs more visually appealing.  

I am going to include screenshots of what we have so far, and my plans/hopes for adding to & editing what is there, as well as new pages so that my intentions going forward are clear.

Main page:

Although we have some basic information about our hours, I would like to also include a link to our book order form and information regarding our current campaign for volunteers. I also want to update our photos and include a link to our email addresses.  One thing I am not sure about is whether to add some news here. As it will be the first page parents see, I want to highlight events, but I am not sure if it will overwhelm the page.

    Current main page of our Libguide                                                      

 The tabs along the top feel very busy and don't reflect diverse ages of our community

Research With Library Resources and Audio and Ebooks:

I want to make a separate tab of links to appropriate sites for our younger students. This will be contained within the EY tab so that our students and parents can see the most appropriate links for their needs. For the audio books, I plan to also include links to some storytelling podcasts as we don’t have much of a range of ebooks for our younger students. I think it would also be useful to include a how to video on borrowing the ebooks.

 I would like to create a separate tab for early years students with links to relevant databases 

 

This is another area that needs to be broken down to reflect the needs of all of our community members      

Search for Books:

This is a tab I especially want to develop. I think this is the perfect place to include some how to videos or pdfs. Things like how to search for books as well as how to log in and view your account, place holds, and renew books.

There are many tutorials for using Destiny that could be added here                                       

Lastly, I want to give a little update for people about how the reduced Covid mandates have impacted my school. I believe it has been a little over five weeks since most restrictions were reduced in Switzerland. This came during our weeklong break from school so we came back to a no mask rule. My team as well as other individual staff and students chose to keep masks on for protection, and within 2 ½ weeks case numbers were extremely high (up to 25% of our staff out with covid, many for the second time) .

We went back to staff needing masks and office staff working from home when possible. Parents were asked to wear masks five days later and our staffing situation has been critical with all specialists being pulled at some point to take classes. We’ve been short a team member for a week and a half (though not due to covid) and I tested positive on Saturday morning after fighting what I thought was another cold all week. Despite this, we are back to masks being optional on Monday. I’d like to say we are over the worst, but it will be interesting to see what the rest of the year brings for schools.

References:

Baumbach, Donna (2004). What should be on a school library web page? Learning and Leading With Technology, 32(1). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ695797.pdf

Morris, Kathleen (MAy 19, 2021). School library websites: Essential features and examples. The Edublogger. https://www.theedublogger.com/school-library-websites-features-examples/

Sonia (March 21, 2022). Final vision project brainstorming. Library studie: Reflections and Responses About Teacher Librarianship.https://booksarecool143770636.wordpress.com/2022/03/21/final-vision-project-brainstorming/

Sonia (March 25, 2022). Target audience : vision project. Library studie: Reflections and Responses About Teacher Librarianship. https://booksarecool143770636.wordpress.com/2022/03/25/target-audience-vision-project/

Making our Program Visible

Image from American Libraries Magazine

There are a lot of changes happening in my school and my program at the moment, and now more than ever, I am seeing the need to advocate more for my department. I think I am very good at sharing what I am doing informally, but I need to start using more visible ways of sharing what is happening in our space and the strengths of our program. For years, I have been very jealous of schools that have a Library website, or blog, and find this area really lacking at my school. Because I am not the department head, I have never felt able to take this on, but with a change in leadership, I am feeling more empowered to set up something more formal. 

Our school has a website, Facebook page, and Twitter account, but all of these are run by our Communications department and staff don’t have a lot of input into this. As a department, we use Destiny to share out our databases and to create collections of resources, but it is very limited in what we can share (only our resources and databases we use) and the look and layout. And although collections are great, I find it very cumbersome for community members to have to search through. Plus, we have no way of sharing news or upcoming events with the community.

The Destiny homepage is very visually unappealing and you can only organise links in alphabetical order

We know most people want to have an easy search for information and this is where I think a library website is critical. Community members shouldn’t have to read a message sent to them and then click links to different pages to get everything they are looking for. A library website would create a ‘one stop shop’ that has all of our information together, in a visually appealing and dynamic way.

  Share books within the collection          (Screenshot taken from Scotch libraries)

 Using Symbaloo to share databases and online links   (screenshot of ZIS Research Hub page)

Clear headings with drop downs so the pages isn't too cluttered (screenshot from Brisbane Grammar School)

We have had a subscription to Libguides for a couple of years, but it was only used in our high school. Our upper Primary/ Middle School Librarian has begun developing pages for the classes she works with and my goal is to develop this for my students as well as the parent community. This will be a site that will need regular updates, but I think that if I can get the framework going this year, it will be something I can maintain going forward. This week I have been looking at different school library websites to consider what I think is most important to share with my patrons and ways to layout the site.  I’ve also begun watching the tutorial videos on Libguides to learn how to use the site.

For now, I know that I want to include the following on my pages:

• New books that have been purchased as well as book recommendation pages (to go along with our paper brochures)

• Links to databases that we use

• Information about our space  )our hours, what we offer, etc) and catalogue (how to access it, set up a family account, how to videos for using the accounts).

• When relevant, links to websites or resources that support a current unit of study.

Eventually, I want to include news that highlights events we have had/ upcoming events, as well as highlight learning that has been taking place in the space.  I’m also thinking about how to share teaching resources with staff so that they also begin to use the site.  It is going to take time to set up, but I think if I can get the main framework set up, I can continuously develop the site into something the community goes to first when looking for information about our library.

References:

Banks, Marcus (2017, December 19). Ten reasons libraries are still better than the internet. American libraries. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2017/12/19/ten-reasons-libraries-still-better-than-internet/

Brisbane Grammar School (2022, March 18). Library: Home. BGS library. Connecting learning and ideas. https://libguides.brisbanegrammar.com/libraryhome

Harker Libraries (2022, March 18). Lower school library. https://library.harker.org/lowerlibrary

Inter-Community School Zurich (2022, February 28). Learning resources home. https://icsz.libguides.com/c.php?g=662718

Scotch College. Middle library - reading. Library.Scotch. https://library.scotch.wa.edu.au/middle/reading

Shekou International School (2022, March 2). Online reading: Home. https://sis-cn.libguides.com/onlinereading

Springshare. Get help with libguides, cms, & e-reserves.  https://ask.springshare.com/libguides/

Zurich International School (2021, October 5). ZIS ls research hub: Home. https://libguides.zis.ch/research

Taking Risks and Trying New Things are Part of Being a Teacher Librarian

 "Every person, organization, and even society reaches a point at which they owe it to themselves to Hit Refresh -- to reenergize, renew, reframe, and rethink their purpose." (Satya Nadella as cited by Salman Haider, 2019).

This quote has summarised perfectly how I feel and have felt coming into the 2021/22 school year. I started my Teacher Librarian Diploma feeling like something needed to change at my school, and feeling like I needed to reenergise and rethink how I was running my program. We’ve just completed our two weeks of ISZL Reads! and I can’t say whether it was the effects of covid planning, the influence of this course, or the combination of the two, but I have definitely seen more technology being used during our reading fortnight than ever before. Not only that, but during discussions with staff and parents, I find myself considering how different tools or resources could enhance my teaching or support of the community and I am more aware of the conversations regarding technology use happening around me. As a result, I am feeling a new energy and purpose for what I am doing, and a greater need to advocate for my program.

ISZL Reads! Choice board for read alouds

Gaining the Confidence to Take Risks

I think the greatest effect these past 9 weeks have had is on my confidence towards using technology.  In the past, I may have uploaded a simple video, or created a static Pages poster or bland power point presentation to share information. However, since starting this course, I’ve been trying out new presentation tools like Canva and even made a choice board to share read alouds with my students. On Thursday and Friday, I hosted and recorded Zoom assemblies for my students with storytellers in New Zealand and Kenya, something I would have been absolutely terrified to do in the past. Although I had some support on hand, I managed to try these out and even trouble shoot some issues without needing someone else to take over.

Wangari Grace presenting to ISZL students from Kenya 

Andy Wright presenting to ISZL students from New Zealand 

This week I was also involved in a one to one meeting with representatives from 21st Century Learning, who are currently conducting a tech audit of our school.  I feel like I was able to contribute valuable insights into the school and our library program in particular because this course and the weekly discussions we’ve had has made me much more aware of what I can/could be doing with adequate tech resources.  From simple things like access issues in my building due to electrical plug placement, to being able to discuss what tools would be most suitable to use in our space, to a change in the language I am using to discuss my program, I feel much more engaged with technology than I ever have before.

Looking Out for Opportunities

I think one of the greatest takeaways for me has been reconsidering the way I reach out to the staff at my school and support their learning. We are in a big transition as a department, and covid has badly affected the collaboration within some areas of my school.  I am now walking away with some really nice ideas for re-connecting with staff and providing less formal ways to reach out to them.  As we begin to review our timetable and find ways to address a staffing shortage on my team, I want to bring in plans for lunch time meet ups or unconferences and ‘walk and talks’ as suggested by Soren.  Finding ways to connect like-minded individuals will help increase interest instead of making it feel like one more job that they are too busy to do.  I’m also really drawn to Shannon McClintock’s newsletters and want to bring these back to the space.

Reaching out to the Community

A critical aspect of my role is advocacy, and what better way to advocate than by reaching out to the community and sharing how they are accessing the space and the program.  Erin’s post on fostering a reading culture gave me many great ideas for bringing the student voice into the library.  A student mentioned last week that he had watched a video of me on Seesaw showing how to give a book talk and it prompted a discussion with the class about recording our own book talks and displaying them in the library. I have also been experimenting with IMovie combining videos and pictures and adding text to make a more interactive presentation of student documentation.

Another thing I have realised is that I need to be more proactive in promoting the library to parents. Although we don’t have our own website or blog at the moment, I can use our school social media channel to promote the library, and did so this week as we welcomed families into the space.  I’ve made posts to go in the parent bulletin and made a more visual poster to be added to schoology pages. By using different mediums to reach out, I can ensure the wider community know what we are doing.

In the past, I would have relied on a simple written text to share some information, maybe including an image or two. By seeing the ideas you have all shared with me, and following different blogs more closely, I have naturally started thinking about how I am presenting and sharing information with my community.  It is up to me to advocate for and promote my library and one of the best ways to do this is by reaching out in different ways, using visually appealing methods for promotion. I am finding myself excited to create posters, play around with different presentation tools, and reach out and share the great things that we are doing.

Poster for parents created in Canva

I can’t wait to see where people go in this next phase of the course.  Thank you all for your inspiration!

References:

G., Erin (February 24, 2022). Supporting teachers with ict: A tl’s Role as a leader, a collaborator, and a learner. Adventures in Becoming a Teacher Librarian. https://erinthelibrarian24.wordpress.com/2022/02/24/%ef%bf%bc/

Haider, Salman (December 1, 2019). Hit refresh: Quote by microsoft ceo satya nadella and its relevance for libraries and librarians. Librarianship Studies and Information Technology. https://www.librarianshipstudies.com/2019/11/hit-refresh.html

International School of Zug and Luzern (March 11, 2022). It is so wonderful to see parents back in the iszl zug campus library! International School of Zug and Luzern Facebook Page. https://www.facebook.com/iszl.ch/posts/10158570478788461

McClintock Miller, Shannon (2019). Tech talk! A new way to share with our teachers & community! Vanmeter library voice. https://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/p/shannons-instagram.html

Mrkich, Soren (February 27, 2022). Bottom up change. LIBE 477. https://teacherlibrariancourse.blogspot.com/2022/02/m-e-o-g-t-n-t-o-p-h-b-u-c-i-have-taught.html

Rudolph, Keri. (February 12, 2022). LIBE 477 fostering a reading culture - Students lead the way. Lifelong Learning. https://blogs.ubc.ca/rudolphk/2022/02/12/libe-477-inquiry-project-fostering-a-reading-culture/

Addressing Inequitable Access to Quality Libraries

 When I saw this week’s topic, I thought about some of the posts I have seen over the years from a friend who has run schools in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. I decided to also reach out to some librarians working at schools in other African countries (Uganda and Zambia) alongside the research I was completing regarding public school libraries, to see if the experiences were similar. In the end, I realised that schools around the world face many similar issues, regardless of their location, although they are much more pronounced in developing countries.

Access to Books

Time and again, I have seen posts from Librarians talking about access to physical resources for their libraries. These are always in lower income areas, where the funding imbalance between them and schools in more well-off areas or private schools is large. This also occurs in schools across the African continent. According to Paton-Ash and Wilmot (2015), many of the schools in Gauteng Province, South Africa, rely entirely on donations. Unfortunately, the result is libraries housing collections that are outdated, beaten up, irrelevant to the patrons, and containing biased information. And these are the schools that even have a library, which is not entirely common.  According to T. Scott Zuor (personal communication, March 6, 2022) and J. Canillas Daley (personal communication, March 2, 2022), most schools in Uganda and Zambia don’t have libraries and may rely on public libraries, if there is one in the area. 

Access to Technology

Another access issue is with regards to technology tools and internet access. T. Scott Zuor (personal communication, March 6, 2022) stated “The difficulty with using devices is first the expense involved to acquire the device and second the expense and availability of internet connection. Furthermore, in countries like Eritrea, according to C. Webster (personal communication, February 27, 2022), “Technology was a challenge as we rarely had electricity and did not really have internet.”  Considering this was a private school for the children of the diplomatic core and multinational companies, it had far more funding than public schools.  According to Paton-Ash and Wilmot (2015), very few public schools in their study had computer labs, and most were lucky to have a single computer.  Fortunately, things are beginning to improve in Zambia where, according to Chisunka-Mwila et al (2019), all eight of the schools in their study had at least one computer, although multiple computers were usually not housed in the library space.

Access to Trained Staff and an Adequate Space

In many cases in public schools, there is a lack of trained library staff and often a lack of understanding about the importance of school libraries. Furthermore, the spaces being used for libraries may be old classrooms or inadequate rooms that may not be manned enough to provide adequate hours to access the spaces.  In South Africa, this has sometimes meant large numbers of students have to rely on the services of the public libraries in the area because they are unable to use the library in their school.

How Can We Address these Inequalities

In many developing countries, there is a clear imbalance between what private and public schools can offer. Many private schools have access to funding, qualified library staff, and adequate spaces that support both physical and digital collections. This means their students are provided with modern and relevant digital and physical library collections as well as often being able to provide quality devices, often being a one to one school. The students in these schools are provided with a very different education compared to their local counterparts, despite living in the same place, and we see a gap in education increasing even further.  Given the high cost of devices and access to internet, I am not convinced that supporting technology is the way to go at this time, until the issue of reliable and affordable internet access can be addressed.

So how can we address these inequalities and ensure that students from developing countries don’t fall even further behind?  I think the responsibility lies with all of us - from the people donating books to these schools, to the consumers of tech products and the companies that make large profits off of them, to the many, often considerably wealthier ex-pats living in these countries which enables them to have a much higher standard of living than others.  

• Technology companies like Apple often hold the market for schools and make huge profits every year.  Perhaps we consumers should be pressuring them to give some of this back in the form of funding for infrastructure to provide internet access as well as computers and tablets for schools in regions that need them.

• Think carefully before you donate books.  If you wouldn’t keep the book in your own library because it is outdated, biased, in bad condition, or has dangerous information, it is not appropriate to donate.  Instead, support charities like Book Aid International, Global Giving or the African Library Project that takes gently used materials or cash donations to purchase books directly from publishers.

• International Schools and other private schools in developing countries should consider how they can support the local communities in through their libraries.  Perhaps this is passing on books to the local schools, or inviting the children in to use browse their collections or attend literacy events, or by giving access to paid databases. Another option could be mentoring local staff.

• Support programs that help to train library staff or build libraries in developing countries.  Programs like Libraries Without Borders,  African Library Project, or take part in the IASL Support a Member program.

References:

African Library Project (n.d). https://www.africanlibraryproject.org/

Chisunka-Mwila, Chitundu P. et al. (2019). The provision of library services, to primary school going children in Zambia: A case of selected primary school libraries in lusaka. Library and Information Association of Zambia. http://dspace.unza.zm/handle/123456789/6806

 

Duncan, R., Kayoro, C. (February, 2022). The Role of African School Libraries in Supporting Quality Education. Publishing Research Quarterly 38, 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-022-09866-5

GlobalGiving (2022). Help build a school library in zambia. https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/school-library-zambia/reports/

International Association of School Librarianship. IASL Support-a-member program. https://iasl-online.org/awards/sam_app.html

Paton-Ash, Margie & Wilmot, Di (February, 2015). Issues and challenges facing primary school libraries in selected schools in gauteng province, south africa. South African Journal of Education 35(01), 1 - 10. https://doaj.org/article/7c99e9f0e4094564bbde0682f645be18