Genrefying non fiction – a few quick tips
Just start
I get it, a non fiction collection, especially one that hasn’t been touched for a while can be extremely overwhelming. But all it takes is that first step.
Category: For Librarians (Page 1 of 15)
Book Week 2023: Resources, Links and Ideas
Book Week is arguably the biggest event in the school library calendar. Book Week gives us an excuse to celebrate reading, Australian literature, school libraries and the people who bring books to children – from booksellers to school library staff, parents, teachers and beyond.
The theme for Book Week 2023 is Read, Grow, Inspire.
Professional Learning Opportunities June 2023
I have to be honest, this is a very short list. Between being sick, behind with the massive amount of work I need to do at work and just wanting to sleep a whole lot more these days, I put this together just before it hit your inbox, so it is a little leaner than usual. If there is an event or awesome post you have heard about and I’ve missed it, please let me know. Take care out there.
The Importance of Non Fiction
I’ve been writing about how I have been reinvigorating the non fiction collection in my secondary school library. But why? Aren’t school libraries culling their non fiction and students turning to online sources? I believe that non fiction still plays a vital part in the school library for all ages. Here’s my thoughts around the importance of non fiction, why it deserves pride of place in any school library and how to get it right in your school library.
Professional Learning Opportunities May 2023
It’s May. Already. But don’t worry. It means new month with awesome research, articles, webinars, podcasts and more on topics from AI to class novels, action research and leadership. Happy learning.
Is My School Library Good Enough?
I wrote this post a year ago and was never brave enough to post it. Thanks to Lee Crockett’s keynote at the ASLA 2023 Conference, I am finally hitting the go button. His talk about practice never being perfect but always a work in progress and change being neither painful or personal inspired me to share my thoughts on this topic.
As I have been digging into reading culture and assessing reading cultures recently, I have come across many checklists and guides for good school libraries. It had me questioning, how does my school library stack up? Is my school library good enough?
Reinvigorating Non Fiction – part 3 of a 2 year journey
Non fiction has been a bit of a hot topic in school library discussions in recent months and for good reason. On one hand we are embracing genrefication and challenging the status quo of using problematic library layout systems and on the other hand school librarians are investigating the importance of non fiction and its place in the school library.
I started my process of reinvigorating the non fiction at the start of 2022 when I took over my current library. I was only unofficially acting head of library, but I didn’t let that stop me from making some big decisions and prepping for change. In post 1 of this series, I shared about how I started and what my plans were, in post 2 I shared how all those plans had to change and the benefits that had. Now in this third post, surprise surprise, plans changed again (or were just delayed). This section of our journey to reinvigorate the non fiction collection is from term 1, 2023.
Professional Learning: ASLA 2023 Designing Dynamic School Libraries Experiences Presentation
It was so fantastic to be involved with the #ASLA2023 conference. When Anne Weaver invited me to present alongside her on the topic of designed experiences for dynamic school libraries, I jumped at the chance.
The ASLA 2023 conference had such a wonderful range of presenters and topics and brought together school library staff from all over the country and even from overseas.
Reinvigorating Non Fiction – part 2 of a 2 year journey
I am in the middle of reinvigorating the non fiction in my secondary school library. Non fiction has been a bit of a hot topic in school library discussions in recent months and for good reason. On one hand we are embracing genrefication and challenging the status quo of using problematic library layout systems and on the other hand school librarians are investigating the importance of non fiction and its place in the school library.
Note: I wrote the my first post in this series back in June of 2022, after just six months of taking over as acting head of library services at my current school library. I was delayed in posting it, and then I was given the news that we needed to pack up the secondary school library and put the majority of the collection and shelving into storage and move into a temporary location. This meant my plans to weed the secondary library non fiction collection before we moved into our brand new space had to be halted. I didn’t have enough time until we had to vacate our space and the non fiction collection would all be in storage offsite for at least a few months, so I wouldn’t have access to it to weed or genrefy it. All plans were halted and I had to go about things very differently, or at least a lot more slowly. This post covers what I did in Term 4, 2022 to continue to reinvigorate the non fiction collection.
Reinvigorating Non Fiction – part 1 of a 2 year journey
Non fiction has been a bit of a hot topic in school library discussions in recent months and for good reason. On one hand we are embracing genrefication and challenging the status quo of using problematic library layout systems and on the other hand school librarians are investigating the importance of non fiction and its place in the school library.
Note: I wrote the below post back in June of 2022. I didn’t post it, as I was waiting to get a few photos to add to the post. Then, we received news that we’d have to pack up the secondary school library and put the majority of the collection and shelving into storage. Including the non fiction collection. All plans were halted and I had to go about things very differently, or at least a lot more slowly. Here’s how I started the process.
