School Library Association

Our Vision

Bookstash for Facebook

Bookstash is a new initiative from Channel 4 Education designed to get teens reading and discussing books. It works as a Facebook application, allowing users to show off the covers of their favourite books, share recommended reads and receive tips on what to read next.

Bookstash could be worth investigating by school librarians eager to spread the word about books to the 'Facebook generation'!

Weekend Course bookings online

Full information about the SLA's weekend training course for 2010 is now available on the website and was sent to members with the Spring edition of The School Librarian.

The 2010 course, The Magic Threshold: Step Into New Worlds, will be held from 25-27 June at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham.

Due to the popularity of the course we recommend that you book your place early - online booking is now open. You will also qualify for an extra discount on bookings up to 31 March 2010.

Members of the SLA receive a special rate for the course, but application is open to all. The course is widely seen as an essential element of professional development for many school librarians and represents great value for money.

Congratulations to our Lancashire Branch!!

The Lancashire Branch of the SLA are celebrating today as they have been running for 10 years. We would like to add our congratulations and our thanks to all the members and in particular to the committee for running such a lively and active branch.

Education Show-stopper

It was lovely to see so many old friends and SLA members at the Education Show at the NEC in Birmingham last week. The SLA stand was incredibly busy - sorry about the queues on Saturday! - and we made lots of new contacts and answered many questions and membership enquiries.

If you wish to follow up on your visit to our stand, do browse the website to see our range of publications and training courses, for example. You can apply for membership of the SLA via our online booking form.

If you have any other questions about the School Library Association, please ask - we're here to support everyone involved with school libraries.

JISC Collections for Schools

State-funded and independent schools across the UK can now benefit from nationally negotiated agreements on a choice of over 20 specially selected, high quality online subscription resources. These include copyright-cleared image and video libraries, newspaper archives and general and subject-focused reference databases, which provide support across the curriculum from Key Stage 1 to A/AS level and the International Baccalaureate.

Full list of resources link

Discounts of up to 75% as well as generous licensing terms have been achieved by JISC Collections for Schools through direct negotiation with publishers and suppliers on behalf of UK schools at a national level. The JISC Collections for Schools initiative, funded by Becta, is an extension of the work of JISC Collections in the Further Education and Higher Education sectors, where 100% of universities and over 85% of further education colleges take advantage of the discounts and terms JISC Collections has negotiated with digital content providers through its well-established central licensing role.

Examples of pricing

Discounts are available to individual schools but the greatest savings can be achieved by schools subscribing together in a buying group. A growing number of School Library Services, as well as individual school librarians, are taking an active role in coordinating buying groups. Areas where buying groups are under development include the South West, Berkshire, North Yorkshire, Shropshire, Northumberland, Durham and London.

Contact Liz Parkin at JISC Collections for Schools ( jcs-info@jisc.ac.uk ) to join an existing group or to propose or coordinate one for your area.

Buying groups

The resources offered through the JISC Collections for Schools initiative offer a host of benefits to teachers and learners alike. These include anytime/anywhere access, suitability for use on interactive whiteboards and learning platforms, full copyright clearance and downloadable content for use in teaching materials and student projects. All the resources can be trialed free for 30 days. Find out more by clicking the link below:

Free trials

Young human rights reporter of the year competition

Learnnewsdesk, the Guardian's online news service for schools, has got together with Amnesty International UK to launch a Young Human Rights reporter competition.
Children between 7 and 14 years old are being asked to write 200-250 words on a human rights story. It could be from personal experience (e.g. bullying or what it's like to be a refugee) or their interpretation of a human rights news story.
Primary and secondary/post primary winners will be invited on an expenses paid VIP trip to the Amnesty International UK and Guardian HQs in London (one  child winner and one adult guardian for each category).
Extracts of the winning articles from each age category will be published in the Education supplement of The Guardian newspaper on 1 June 2010, in an article by award-winning journalist Ian Cobain who won the Amnesty International UK newspaper reporter of the year 2009. The full text of the winning articles will be published on the Guardian and learnnewsdesk websites.
Winning articles and the runners up will also be showcased at the prestigious Amnesty International UK main media awards on 1 June 2009.
More prizes!
In addition to their trip, the primary and secondary/post primary winners will also receive an Easi-speak MP3 recorder and microphone, Amnesty and learnnewsdesk goodie bags (including exclusive Amnesty International media awards 2010 T-shirt), a specially made Amnesty International media award 2010 (one for the winner and one for their school in each category) and a subscription to either the learnnewsdesk or the Guardian's newsmaker package.
Two runners up in each category will receive Amnesty and learnnewsdesk goodie bags (including exclusive Amnesty International media awards T-shirt), Amnesty International media awards 2010 certificate and an annual subscription to either the Guardian's newsmaker package or learnnewsdesk.
All entries to the competition must be sent in through the Be a reporter section of learnnewsdesk.
We've arranged a special login for non-subscribers to join in.
Simply go to www.learnnewsdesk.co.uk then use the Login Amnesty and the password Amnesty. Go to the Be a reporter page and follow the competitions link. Anyone who enters the competition must read the terms and conditions which can be accessed on this page.
Then entries can be sent using the 'Be a reporter' section by clicking on 'Send us a report'.
The deadline for entries is 1 April 2010.  
Contact
If you have any questions regarding this competition or require any further information, please email: emily.drabble@guardian.co.uk, or telephone: 0203 353 3279.

Primary School Library Charter & the Commission on School Libraries

This week most of our time has been taken up with our newly launched Primary School Library Charter - there is a super article in The Independent by Geraldine Brennan. See p3 of the ‘Education and Careers' section in the 18 February 2010 edition - or you can read it online. Geraldine interviewed Lucy Bakewell and her headteacher Beth Clarke on the value of the library to the achievement in the school.

The Charter has been generously received in many places with press coverage, blog entries and news items (look out for a small piece in TES tomorrow).  To further the cause of school libraries, both in general and in this particular, SLA have sent the Charter with a covering letter inviting a discourse on school libraries to all the major political parties; individuals receiving this are the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Vernon Coaker MP, Ed Balls MP, Michael Gove MP, David Laws MP (these last four all having school and learning remits), as well as to the chair of the Commission on School Libraries - Baroness Morris.  It is entirely appropriate that this has occurred in the same week as the Commission has called for submissions to be sent to them, in writing, by 17 March 2010. There is a series of lines of enquiry set out in the press release - the SLA is working on a response but individuals are also encouraged to respond - the press notice can be seen on the MLA website.

Take this opportunity and make it count for the future of all our school libraries.

Graphicology

The SLA is making available a special offprint of the article "Graphicology" by Chris Brown from The School Librarian, Volume 57 Number 4, Winter 2009.

At a time when graphic novels are receiving increasing amounts of attention, school librarians who extend their stock by incorporating graphic material may well find they are challenged to justify such expenditure. The article is designed to make the case for the value of graphic novels, to address some of the concerns that librarians often have about introducing them, and to help you engage staff and pupils.

Including a roundup of web resources, this special four-page offprint is a free PDF download.

School Libraries and the UK Government

There has been a lot of activity going on behind the scenes recently - which has all culminated in a major rebuttal of the government's position on school libraries and trained people running them. European colleagues have forwarded a joint letter to Gordon Brown today - this is signed by SLA as well as IFLA School Libraries and Resource Centers section, International Association of School Librarianship, CILIP Information Literacy group and co-ordinated through European Network for School Libraries and Information Literacy (ENSIL).  The letter can be seen on the ENSIL website.

CILIP have also issued a letter to the PM from the President Biddy Fisher on the government's response to the E Petition to make school libraries statutory - you can see their Press Release and also the full text.  All this at the same time as SLA has released its Primary School Library Charter - a huge wave of different and complementary organisations underlining the importance of school libraries and librarians. With all this activity one can only hope that government will start to listen and act to the benefit of all our schools and pupils.

Every primary pupil deserves a school library, says new Charter

The School Library Association (SLA) has today (15 February 2010) launched its new Primary School Library Charter, arguing that investment in school libraries must start early.

The Charter will help primary headteachers and governors set up and run a school library or increase the contribution that their current library makes to the school's effectiveness and the pupils' wellbeing and learning. Sir Tim Brighouse, associate professor at the Institute of Education, University of London and former Schools Commissioner for London, welcomed the charter, saying: "The school library is one of the key indicators of whether a school environment is as best fitted as it can be for learning. If the library is a desert, you start to worry".

The School Library Association believes it is vital that children have access to school libraries for the daily opportunity of wider reading experiences as well as information and research skill building from an early age. Children who can confidently find their way around the school library have the key to future learning and leisure.

As the School Libraries Commission, chaired by Baroness Estelle Morris, invites contributions to its inquiry into the role of school libraries in 21st century schools, the SLA Primary School Library Charter outlines the benefits of a well supported and resourced primary school library, such as:

• Creating independent readers for life
• Teaching young children the information literacy skills and judgement they need to become creative, curious, confident and flexible learners throughout their school years and beyond
• Delivering the aims of the Government's Children's Plan for every child to enjoy their childhood and achieve their full potential
• Providing an important community space for out-of-hours learning and a point of contact with families.

The SLA Primary School Library Charter is available at http://www.sla.org.uk/primary-charter. Print copies will be sent direct to all SLA members and will be available through school library services, and schools can order single copies by e-mailing publications[at]sla.org.uk.

YoungMinds calls for submissions for 2010 book award prize

YoungMinds are asking publishers, librarians and young people to put forward submissions for this year's YoungMinds book award.  Books must be works of fiction or biography for young people aged 12+ published between 1 June 2009 and 31 May 2010, which encourage self-esteem and help them to cope with the stresses and challenges of growing up.

Nominations are open until 24 April 2010. 10 books will then be chosen for the longlist.  Young people, children's authors and mental health professionals will then take part in the judging between May and October to choose the winner. The £2,000 prize, which is sponsored by the national reading charity Booktrust, will be presented at an awards ceremony in November 2010.

YoungMinds Chief Executive Sarah Brennan said: 'This special award highlights the vital role books play in promoting the mental and emotional well being of young people. Books can really help to break the isolation experienced by young people and demonstrate that their feelings and problems are not unique.'

Booktrust's Chief Executive Viv Bird said: 'Booktrust is delighted to be returning for the second year as the sponsor of the YoungMinds Book Award, which recognises the immense value that books add to the emotional well-being of young people.'

Last years winner Chris Higgins said: 'I was absolutely thrilled to win the YoungMinds Book Award for A Perfect Ten. I set out to explore the issue of bullying from the perspective of the bully. Following her sister's death, Eve has to deal with survivor's guilt, anorexia and a grieving mother. I hope that A Perfect Ten will provide insight and understanding into both bullies and their victims, and show that these two apparently contradictory roles have more in common than we think.'

Please contact hannah.smith@youngminds.org.uk for more information and an application form.

Plagiarism – new guides available

Guides for students, parents and teachers on avoiding the pitfalls of plagiarism have been produced by Ofqual (Office of the qualifications and examinations regulator) in association with PlagiarismAdvice.org who have produced a series of guides to help students, parents and teachers to avoid falling foul of plagiarism within coursework and controlled assessments. Anne-Marie Tarter, SLA Board Member, has been involved in the production of these guides.

Hard copies of the plagiarism guides will be available to order through the Ofqual publications page by the end of January; meanwhile, all three guides can be downloaded from the Ofqual site.

Write Away Conference 2010

This year's Write Away Conference is READ, PLAY, THINK, CREATE: generating delight in learning.  Save over £30 on the Earlybird booking before 28 February 2010.  More details are available on the Write Away website.

Literacy Forum @ the Education Show

The Education Show has teamed up with the National Literacy Association to bring you The Literacy Forum, to be held on Friday 5 March 2010, NEC Birmingham.

This one day conference has been developed to get into the heart of reading, its challenges in schools today and asking the difficult question... What is the future of reading?

Attend the conference and be part of the development of a manifesto/ set of guidelines that target objectives to develop the pursuit of reading in our future learners.

To book simply register to attend the Education Show (for free) then follow the steps to book onto the Literacy conference. Places are charged at £150 + VAT per person.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Michael Rosen, Author and former Children's Laureate - 'Reading real books'.
• Aidan Chambers, School Library Association - 'The political landscape for reading'
• Chris Mead, Institute for the Future of the Book - 'Is there a future of reading?'
• Sally McKeown, Consultant, Educational Technology and Special Needs - 'Reading for pleasure: Technology and the future of literacy'

The full conference programme, with full details can be found on the website.

The SLA will be exhibiting at the Education Show and attending the conference too!