National Library's new borrowing system and how to best incorporate it into our school.

Name of Course/Programme/Seminar - April 2019

Resources for Lead Coordinator Sessions 

Provider/Presenter:

Emma Smolden from the National Library

If I was to summarise the key things I took away from this Professional Development what would they be and why?

It was a good overview of the new borrowing systems and how to make this work for borrowing and sharing 350+ books from the National Library for the whole school. We were shown lots of new websites where students can access further information, including the websites Epic Database, Digital NZ, and Anyquestions which will put you in direct chatting link with NZ librarians across NZ who will not just give you the answers, but will point you in the right direction in terms of researching your own topic. https://natlib.govt.nz/schools/teaching-and-learning-resources

How has this professional development challenged my thinking?

I really loved being able to go into the National Library and pick my own books for my classroom for the term, but now I will be coordinating the whole schools loans as the system has changed. Emma said the new system was decided upon for reasons of equity as there are so many teachers who are not Auckland based and didn't have that luxury, hence missed out on some of the popular books each term.

This new system has made me change my thinking in that it's good now that I will create a sharing system at school so that the books can be utilised and read by more than 30 students in one class. I will distribute the books in each area of the school and will have each syndicate sharing those resources. The boxes will rotate so students will be exposed to more quality literature each week.

I asked the teachers what topics of books they wanted, and then also ordered some quality chapter/picture books of high interest. I also ordered books for struggling readers, but ones that aren't seen as 'babyish'. Plus lots of graphic novels with both boy and girl heroes.

UPDATE 29/5/19 The 17 boxes (!) were delivered at the beginning of the term, and I ordered one plastic crate per class. I then distributed all the books equally amongst each syndicate with their requests. Then my class helped me to ship the books to each classroom. I have asked the teachers to count the books each week as they come into the classrooms, and to promote the books at the beginning of each week as well. Every Friday the books are counted and then sent on to the next door classroom. So far the system is working well. Teachers have given me feedback that the students are loving the new books and things are running smoothly. Hopefully not too many books disappear by the end of the term, but even if they do, I'm sure they'll turn up sometime in the future!