2006 Award Winner's Diary

Anne-Marie Tarter, SLA School Librarian of the Year 2006

MAY

• Wonderful fun choosing books from the catalogues of the publishers who gave me free book tokens!  Thanks again to Andersen Press, Collins Education, Frances Lincoln Children's Books, Hodder Children's Books, Orchard Books, Random House Children's Books and Walker Books.
  
  
• Photographer and journalist from the TES spent a day with me...the kids thought their librarian had turned overnight into some kind of a super model as the library was filled with spotlights and the whirl of an automatic lens snapping most of the day! That certainly upped my profile!
  
  
• Fame at last as my photograph appeared on the front page of the local paper....lots of jokes at my expense by my so-called friends and family!
  
  
• Congratulations from my university in the USA and one of the professors, David Loertscher sent me a box of 5 books on using Information Literacy to raise standards in schools! The university alumni association contacted me for more information so that they could write it up on their website. This gave me a chance to thank publicly two very inspirational teachers who had first encouraged me into school librarianship.
  
  
• A mobile radio van from BBC York arrived and sent up a remote broadcasting antenna that towered over the school...all so that they could broadcast a lunchtime spot from school! I got to push the button that collapsed the enormous antenna back down into the tiny van.  Fascinating!
  
  
• Invited to deliver an afternoon's training on self-evaluation to a group of school librarians in Calderdale.

JUNE

• Asked to lead a staff INSET for our sister secondary school on library design. They are in the process of building a new library and their Headteacher wanted me to help the staff to develop a new vision of what their future library could do.
  
  
• Gave a phone interview to Booktrust that was then turned into a page on their website.
  
  
• Had to write a speech to deliver at the SLA Conference!
  
  
• Spent a wonderful weekend in Bath at the SLA Conference...and had a chance to meet up with an old friend, Gervase Phinn. He was the English advisor for my school when I first started and we had a great time catching up on all the news of school and family over breakfast.

JULY

• I spent part of my holidays writing several articles ....one for The School Librarian, one for a new magazine for parents and professionals working with teenagers called Next Generation, and one for an American journal for school librarians called Knowledge Quest.
  
  
• Wrote up a small research paper on Information Literacy for the LILAC group of CILIP.
  
  
• Anne Robinson (winner of SLYA 2005) and I collaborated on a survey for the DfES on ways in which support staff, in our case school librarians, support teaching and learning in school.

AUGUST

• On holiday my husband and I spent evenings over the laptop putting together several movie clips on Information Literacy and Reading Promotion that I could use in future training sessions.
  
  
• Wrote an article for IFLA on the use of Information Literacy in English secondary schools.
  
  
• Prepared several training days I had been asked to deliver in the Autumn.

SEPTEMBER

• Delivered a day's training on Self-Evaluation for SfE (Tribal Educational Training) in Birmingham. A great group of librarians and a wonderful venue.
  
  
• While I was in Birmingham I had an entire day at Peters Bookselling Services having the time of my life spending my £1000 award voucher (plus a bit more from my school budget!) on the most wonderful collection of teenage fiction.  I have such a small budget that to be able to buy so much at one time was a heady experience.  I was exhausted by the end of the wonderful day. Peters provided such wonderful hospitality too...I hope I can go back again at some point soon.
  
  
• New fame back at school beginning to have effect....more departments than ever before are keen to work collaboratively with me.  There are days when I don't know how we can fit any more lessons or bodies into the library!  My staff continue to be so supportive of the library.
  
  
• I've been asked to help to deliver the school's new AS in Critical Thinking...main reason is that it is seen by the Head of 6th form as a natural outgrowth of the Information Literacy work I do lower down the school.

OCTOBER

• Went to Suffolk to deliver a day's training on Information Literacy for the Suffolk Schools Library Service. Had a wonderful time with a room full of 40 librarians...all with the most creative ideas and enthusiasm.
  
  
• Agreed to undertake more research...formally with James Herring of Charles Sturt University of Australia, and as an informal partner in the piloting of the Scottish National Information Literacy Framework to be led by John Crawford and Christine Irving of Glasgow Caledonian University.
  
  
• 45 minute telephone interview with The Church Times about my views on school libraries, my life and my faith... to be turned into an article.
  
  
• Sarah McNichol of UCE University spent an hour interviewing a group of students for research she is conducting into censorship....they loved it and asked when we could have her come again! I don't know what Sarah did but they haven't stopped talking about it for weeks.
  
  
• Two requests for help from school librarians on issues via email...its great to be able to talk over problems with someone and it helps me as much as it helps them.
  
  
• Final touches put to the draft of an article for an American journal. Due to be published soon.
  
  
• Wrote to the Saturday Times book supplement to try to get them to feature an article on school libraries...they invited me to supply a 'reader's selection of top books' instead which I did. Oh well, it was worth a try!
  
  
• Delivered a day's training for SfE in London and worked with an extremely enthusiastic group of librarians. They were so full of ideas and energy that the government could use them to help power the National Grid !  I always come away from such days feeling really good about the future of the profession!

NOVEMBER

• Contacted by a librarian from Namibia and we have had a lovely correspondence sharing ideas and viewpoints. She is coming to the UK in January and will be doing a work experience at the Victoria and Albert. She will also be visiting various school libraries in the London area.
  
  

• Our Comenius partners arrived for a four day visit. Another member of staff and I coordinated four days of visits and activities for 20 visitors from Poland, Germany, and Norway. Off to Norway in May, whoopee!

• I had an email from a friend from university (we are talking over 30 years ago!) who had somehow read about my award in the American educational web space.  Life is funny....I have had no official recognition from my school over my award but I have received so many messages from people from distant parts of the globe!
  
  

• I was asked to read and comment on the soon to be published Reading Connects family support toolkit. It is fantastic!!! I am sworn to secrecy as it won't be launched until later this year but watch out for it, it is a MUST for all school librarians!
  
  

• I was shadowed for a day by a local school librarian. As I had shadowed Lynn Barrett on  many occasions it was nice to be able to help someone else in the same way. Shadowing is extremely valuable as an alternative to INSET and it doesn't cost anything either!
  
  

• The Church Times article appeared...my 45 minutes of rather profound (ha!) ideas was reduced to a garble of unrelated sound bites... Now I know what it is like to be a politician!
  

• My article in the 'Next Generation' magazine has been published and they have designed such a professional looking layout...it looks soooo good! It's amazing what an editor can do!
  
  

• another EU connection...I have a 18 year old French student doing a month's work experience with me in the Library. Her English is not great and my French is non-existent! We shout and wave wildly at each other a lot.
  
  

• My workload on the Info Lit side is expanding daily.  My award has brought me new status at least with the staff and I have never been busier with requests for information, teaching partnerships, etc. The students seem to see me in a more professional light as well and they are coming with more questions about their work and not just to ask for help with the photocopier :-)  If I thought I was busy before the award, it's nothing compared to the juggling I have to do now.  Still, life is never boring!

YET TO HAPPEN

• Library students from Poland and Latvia are to spend 2 weeks with me working in the library next June before the SLA conference (thanks to Frank Hogg!)
  
  
• Off to deliver more training... Gloucester in January, Leeds in February, and closer to home in North Yorkshire in June.

ONGOING

• Email requests from librarians asking for advice on a variety of issues.

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