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The importance of school libraries in the Google Age

By Kay Oddone

Issue 98, Term 3 2016

In Australia, access to the internet is almost ubiquitous. In 2014–15, 85% of the Australian population aged 15 years and over were internet users, with 99% of people aged 15–17 using the internet (ABS 2016). With such widespread access to information comes the commonly asked question: now that we

Celebrating Children's Book Week with the CBCA

By Jane O'Connell

Issue 98, Term 3 2016

Australia’s rich history of storytelling is an important part of our culture. It helps us to make sense of who we are and how we live, and the theme for Children’s Book Week 2016 captures this history beautifully. Australia! Story Country opens up a world of opportunity to engage young readers by

Libraries, languages and free resources

By Jill Wilson

Issue 98, Term 3 2016

free resources that can be used in class or by individuals. Push the envelope a little in terms of pedagogy. Help build support for second language acquisition across the school. Over the past three years, hundreds of LLS resources have been created to support teachers and students of Chinese, Jap

Using social media to support school library services

By Helen Stower, Margaret Donaghue

Issue 98, Term 3 2016

and the ownership of intellectual property were necessary (Stower 2012, p. 14). However, the potential for educational learning in these networks was quickly realised and it was not long before the college and other areas of the school also had Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. Consequently, when

Why SCIS prefers to catalogue with item in hand

By Doreen Sullivan

Issue 98, Term 3 2016

So you have an item you’d like catalogued — maybe it’s a book complete with an ISBN. That makes it easy to track down information for it, so SCIS should be able to catalogue it without seeing the physical item or digital file, surely? But SCIS has a preference to catalogue from the original, and yo

Website and app reviews

By Nigel Paull

Issue 98, Term 3 2016

olds the history and ramifications of climate change. Students will be absorbed by the visual presentation, and teachers will appreciate the range of quality material available. SCIS no. 1764544  Indigenous Literacy Foundation www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au ILF is a charity that ai

SCIS is more

By Ben Chadwick

Issue 98, Term 3 2016

it teaching and learning in the school, and help to promote the library and better integrate it into a whole-school approach to curriculum. This was equally true across all education jurisdictions. Many schools are already making efforts to support the curriculum by putting together collections of

Supporting Australian book creators

By Nicole Richardson, James Moloney

Issue 98, Term 3 2016

en collated at a national level, and the estimates are used to determine payments. To ensure the estimates are sufficient, at least 300 schools are required to participate. The Educational Lending Right program keeps the production cycle flowing: it allows authors and publishers to continue to cre

Student perspectives on ebook and audiobook usage

By Tehani Wessely

Issue 98, Term 3 2016

markets the technologies in classes, but drops off sharply when this active promotion ceases. Kindle use is minimal, and usually only occurs at the request of a staff member, for individual student cases. However, anecdotally we know that many students use ebook apps with their own (or family) accou

1,000 reasons to support Australian book creators

By Jackie French

Issue 97, Term 2 2016

tries to make you angry. Love James James was 14, and Hitler’s Daughter was the first book he had ever read. Yet he had found the truth behind a question I had been hunting for ever since I was ten years old: how did Hitler convince most of Europe that killing over 44 million people was reasona

Library makerspaces: revolution or evolution?

By Chris Harte

Issue 97, Term 2 2016

and building something new is engaging the tinkerers of Generation Z. One such makerspace resides at St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School in Corinda, Queensland, which was the recipient of Australia’s Favourite School Library in 2014. Teacher librarians Jackie Child and Megan Daley established a spa

Exploring time and place through children's literature

By Tania McCartney

Issue 97, Term 2 2016

Books can enrich children’s lives beyond measure. Exposure to other people and cultures, whether directly or indirectly, does extraordinary things to children. It opens their heads and crams wonderful things inside. It relaxes their hearts, softens their emotional boundaries, and enriches their m

Country to Canberra: empowering rural girls

By Hannah Wandel

Issue 97, Term 2 2016

and role models in order to help overcome gender and geographical barriers to success. The reasons that Country to Canberra exists are simple, yet equally excruciating for me to explain. You see, I loved growing up on a farm in rural South Australia and admired my local community’s robust spirit.

The professional learning hat

By Barbara Braxton

Issue 97, Term 2 2016

urselves on being lifelong learners — but are we? How many of us walk across the stage at graduation, accept the certificate that states we are now qualified teacher librarians, and think, ‘that’s it, I’ve completed my studies’, or believe that the only way to grow professionally is by attending t

What's so special about Special Order Files?

By Julie Styles, Nicole Richardson

Issue 97, Term 2 2016

library collection have the option to download bulk records from the Special Order Files page. The Special Order Files page  enables you to obtain quick access to batches of records for new digital resources, including websites, apps, e-books, and content from a number of different providers. 

SCIS is more

By Ben Chadwick

Issue 97, Term 2 2016

the school library. Do you manage resources on behalf of the wider school, such as class sets, teacher resources, or perhaps multimedia or sports equipment? What about digital subscription products? Conversely, are there ‘library’ resources that live in other locations, distributed throughout the

Supporting Australian book creators

By Nicole Richardson

Issue 97, Term 2 2016

hools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS) asks 600 randomly selected schools to participate in a data collection survey, with at least 300 schools required to participate. SCIS works with several library vendors in Australia to create easy, straightforward data extraction software. Some of these

Website and app reviews

By Nigel Paull

Issue 97, Term 2 2016

e.com/au/app/amazing-world-atlas-by-lonely/id916745147?mt=8 Intended for primary students, this interactive mapping app from Lonely Planet features quizzes and games relating to continents, countries, capitals, and flags. The app can be used on its own, or as a companion to Lonely Planet’s Amazing

Finding Scootle resources that support the Australian Curriculum

By Daniel Hughes

Issue 97, Term 2 2016

ption. Sorting results Thanks to the unfathomable intricacies of online search algorithms, some of the resources might be less relevant to your requirements than others. The good news is that Scootle’s default setting for ‘Sort’ is ‘Relevance’. When you have searched using a content description

Engaging girls in STEM

By Pru Mitchell

Issue 95, Term 4 2015

sations, all looking to solve a perceived problem. Where is the research? Given the amount of material published about STEM education, and the frequent references to the under-representation of girls and women across a range of endeavours, it is surprising how little in-depth research there has