Posts Tagged ‘School Library Associations’
Washington Library Media Association Conference
I’ve been invited to present on “Lessons from Down Under: 7 Effective Strategies for Library Advocacy” at the WLMA Annual Conference in Spokane, WA, USA — 13 to 15 October.
The magic part is I will be staying right here at home and connecting in through my webinar environment. No long haul flights, jet lag, time away living out of a suitcase. How sweet is that?
The program has a number of webinars so you might want to check out the concurrent workshops.
My scheduled time to connect in for the presentation is on Saturday morning, 15 October, so it is a reasonable hour if you want to join in.
[24 hours later]
P.S. Missed the event?
P.P.S. Here is the PowerPoint…
A profession at the tipping point
Just returned from the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) Biennial Conference where I presented a keynote session — A profession at the tipping point: time to change the game plan
Abstract: The nationalisation of K-12 education in Australia has the potential to have a Jupiter Effect (prediction that an alignment of the planets would create a number of catastrophes) on school libraries and the profession. Government-driven initiatives and projects herald an education ‘two-speed economy’ for teacher librarians – boom or bust. The report, School libraries and teacher librarians in 21st century Australia, and data from 386 submissions and 13 public hearings provide sufficient evidence that school libraries and teacher librarianship are at a tipping point. This address will present a view on the impact of the nationalisation of K-12 education and explore strategic directions for the profession and school libraries. What will be the future if you do not take charge of your own siesmic shift?
More about the conference program at http://www.asla.org.au/pd/conference/program.htm
ASLA 2011. Karen Bonanno, Keynote speaker: A profession at the tipping point: Time to change the game plan from CSU-SIS Learning Centre on Vimeo.
Advocacy – leverage the network
Strategy 7: Leverage the network
This strategy connects well with strategy 6 – massage the media.
The list of media exposure opportunities listed under strategy 6 help you to link to the professional network, so you are never alone. For example, you can connect into the collective wisdom of professional associations who have information available to help you with your advocacy efforts. Consider checking out some of the following:
ASLA Advocacy page and ALIA Advocacy page
CSLA Toolkit for Advocacy and Action
IFLA School Library Advocacy Kit
Also, don’t be afraid to leverage the social network – Twitter, Facebook, Ning,LinkedIn, etc. Your message needs to go viral. Identify those who share your goals and those who are willing to support your efforts, and then make the connections.
If you have any other professional networks that you tap into for advocacy ideas and support, please let me know. It would be great to provide access to a comprehensive list so that we really do not have to feel that we are doing this alone.
Countdown to IASL/SLAQ 2010 Conference
The last couple of months have been quite busy as I’ve worked on finalising the program for the joint International Association of School Librarianship / School Library Association of Queensland conference to be held in Brisbane at the end of this month. Actually, only 7 days to go before I go to my first meeting prior to the commencement of the conference.
All together there will be 3 pre-conference workshops, 3 school library & author tours, 4 keynote speakers, 54 concurrent sessions, 22 trade presentations, 40 trade exhibitors, 6 poster sessions, author breakfast, conference dinner, awards ceremony…..You can check out the program at http://www.iasl-online.org/events/conf/2010/program.htm
Now, if you didn’t get to register, don’t worry. I’ve worked hard to make sure we use some social media tools so you can check what is happening at the conference.
So, here are the starters:
Follow the conference on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/slaqiasl2010 or http://twitter.com/IASLonline (We will be using the hashtag #slaqiasl2010)
Information will be posted to http://iaslonline.ning.com/
Pics will be uploaded to http://www.flickr.com/photos/iaslonline/
And..I’m still working with a colleague to get a ‘daily paper’ up and running. We will be using http://paper.li/ as our ‘base’.
I will let you know the web address once we have this up and running.
And there is more….If you have had a look at the program, then each session that is held in room M4 (the main plenary room) will be vodcast. Sorry, it won’t be live streaming, but each session will be uploaded after the event. Again, once I know the web address for this I will make sure you get to hear about it too.
Enough from me right now as I still have a few papers that I need to edit for the final conference proceedings. Need to finish this job as I desperately need to get the master file off for the ‘big burn’ so delegates will be delighted to find their copy in their satchel.
Looking forward to catching up with friends and colleagues soon.
School Library Advocacy
As of Monday this week the House Standing Committee on Education and Training was disbanded. Subsequently, the Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians in Australian Schools is in “limbo.” The last public hearing was in Perth (13 July) and all transcripts are available at http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/edt/schoollibraries/hearings.htm But, the final report is now “on hold” until after the election.
So, what is likely to happen? After the outcome of the election -
- option 1: the Inquiry will be re-instated;
- option 2: the Inquiry will be re-instated, but with different terms of reference;
- option 3 – the Inquiry will not continue.
All options are dependent on the political party elected to govern and the Minister of Education of the governing party.
Where to from here? Effectively, we have between now and 21 August to keep the “spirit of the Inquiry” alive in the minds of MPs so option 1 can be a reality.
I’ve posted some suggestions at ASLA Online so everyone can be an advocate for school libraries, especially for the next 5 weeks. Check out my post – Federal Election 2010 School Library Advocacy.
School Library Inquiry involvement
My apologies for not communicating for awhile, but I’ve been extremely busy working with the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) for the House of Representatives Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians in Australian Schools.
Since my last post I worked with one of the ASLA Executive to prepare the submission for the Inquiry. On 28 April, June Wall and I appeared as witnesses for ASLA at the first public hearing in Sydney. You can capture the transcript of that hearing from the House Standing Committee on Education and Training web site.
I’ve also been involved in a number of interviews in my role as the Executive Officer of ASLA. Here are some you can see and hear….
Parliament of Australia, House of Representatives 2010, ‘How important are school librarians’, About the House, 17 May 2010. (Check out the video clip section on the web site.)
Godfrey, P 2010, ‘What is the role of the librarian in the Internet world?‘ Adelaide Radio 101.5 FM, 12 April 2010.
More information is available on the ASLA web site.
There are several more public hearings to be held during June and July so I will try and keep you informed.
In a speech in Cape Town, South Africa, on 7 June, 1966, Robert F Kennedy said: “There is a Chinese curse which says, ‘May he live in interesting times’. Like it or not, we live in interesting times…” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A807374)
Bit spooky about the Chinese curse, but I have to agree…like it or not, we live in interesting times.
Conference registration opens
Registration for the SLAQ/IASL 2010 conference has opened.
Pre-conference events include workshops, school tours, bus tours to author locations and a cultural walking tour.
International keynote speakers will kick-start each day. Then there is a wide variety of presenters covering the concurrent sessions throughout the conference program. Delegates also get the chance to check out what’s happening in the school library suppliers work through the trade exhibition.
This conference will provide a great opportunity for networking with colleagues from around the world. The last international conference attracted delegates from over 40 countries. So this is an event not to be missed by the school library profession.
ATTENTION teacher librarians
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school librarians
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