School libraries

Starting off the year right: task list and resources for those new to SCIS and the school library

Are you new to the library? Or perhaps you’re experienced, but quite like a checklist?! SCIS has your back…here’s an overview of the types of tasks that need attention at the beginning of the year – and for more detail, you can download the check list, resource links and access a free webinar recording.

☑️Administrative system setup

First things first – you need to know how to work that computer. Give yourself a bit of time to familiarise yourself with the library management system – how to do loans and returns and so on – and also ensure your borrower records are up to date. Your particular library managment system will have instructions on how to do all of these things, so check on their website for more detail.

☑️Collection and catalogue

Make sure everything is orderly, documented and findable: weed old or damaged resources, process any new resources and check you know what digital subscriptions your users have access to – if any.

☑️Library space

Make sure everything is organised to your liking and that you have all the equipment and signage you may need. Think about what kinds of displays you’d like to have over the year and set up the first one to welcome users back to the library.

☑️Teaching and learning

Whether you are responsible for delivering library lessons or not, you may like to think of some orientation and engagement activities for your users to do when they come in to borrow – things like a scavenger hunt or a suggestion box for new resources can be useful for both the students and for you!

You’ll probably want to think about policies too – in practical everyday terms, things such as loan periods, and whether you charge fines for overdue items; but also, possibly, for aquisitions and challenged materials.

Lastly, checking in with teachers so you can align library purchases and support with curriculum is a great first step to making the library visible and valued by staff.

☑️Communication and advocacy

Advocating for the library is the fun part – all it is is letting people know all the great things you do every day! Send a welcome message advertising the opening hours and introducing library staff. Highlight new services and resources on school platforms like the newsletter, or at assemblies and staff meetings. Think about whether you’d benefit from the help of volunteers – and how you’d use their help – and ask the community to register their interest.

All of these things are covered systematically in the checklist document available for download below – along with a list of online resources and reading that you might wish to look at. Best of luck with the start of 2026!

Word doc – Starting your year with SCIS February 2026 checklist handout

PDF – Starting your year with SCIS February 2026 checklist handout

Start-of-year inspiration from Connections journal

Welcome to 2026! We hope everyone had a restorative break, and that you’re excited for the year ahead.

We’ve curated a collection of posts from past issues of Connections journal to inspire and spark ideas for you in the coming year. Let us know in the comments what exciting plans you have for your library in 2026!

Library collections

When thinking about your collection and how you arrange and develop it according to your school’s needs, you may like these articles to generate ideas:

Genre

A perennial topic for library staff, the idea of genrefication is a major project that many schools have undertaken. Diving deeper, particular genres may be pertinent to the learning or social needs of your users.

These two articles about experiences with genrefication may give you a taste of what the experience is like:
- - Finding the right balance with genrefication choices; and
  - Reflections on the genrefication process three and a half years later.
Have you ever thought of dystopian fiction as a form of bibliotherapy for These Unprecedented Times?! Perhaps you should!
We know that Manga is popular with students, but the range and volume of Manga available can be confusing for the novice – here’s some advice about curating your Manga collection.

Supporting literacy and information literacy

Whether you teach ‘library classes’ or support classroom teachers with literacy and information literacy, these articles will be useful for ideas and approaches.

Plagiarism is tricky to spot, now more than ever. Here’s an article with some tips about the issue from a cataloguer’s point of view.
Novel approaches to teaching and learning can help students with diverse needs engage with reading and literacy, as shown in this article.
A great online curriculum resource, it’s worth reminding your staff about Scootle, a portal to free curriculum-aligned resources for Australian educators.

We hope you find some of these articles useful in your preparation for the coming year, and do let us know what you’re excited about in your library in 2026 in the comments!

American Library Association Annual Conference 2023: Creating Connections in Chicago

As a teacher librarian in a diverse school community, I am acutely aware that my worldview has been shaped by my upbringing in country South Australia. In June 2023, I had the opportunity to further my worldview by attending and presenting at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago. The experience of meeting with 20,000 librarians from across the world was humbling. As we discussed our joys and challenges, there were many similarities. I felt while I was geographically outside my comfort zone, I was professionally in a familiar place.

A sign advertising the ‘Rally for the right to read’.

One of the most interesting parts of my trip was my exposure to the book challenges and bans currently being experienced in schools and public libraries across the United States. On my first night in Chicago, I attended ‘A Rally for the Right to Read’. The title was not hyperbole; the right to read freely and widely in much of the US is at risk. The keynote was delivered by Dr Ibram X Kendi, Professor in Humanities at Boston University and the author of How to be an Antiracist, one of the most banned texts in school districts in 2021–22. However, this was not the most transformative moment for me – this moment came when a panel of school librarians and a rural mum/graduate student spoke. Jamie Gregory was the 2022 South Carolina School Librarian of the Year, an accolade which in turn brought undue attention to a simple tweet in support of a book, which then led to a tirade of online and offline abuse.

Becky Calzada is the District Library Coordinator in Leander ISD; her district was one of the first to experience the full brunt of book challenges, a title she is not proud of. She has taken it upon herself to guide others and even spoke to this little Australian, delivering valuable advice. In her words, ‘It starts with one book!’ and ‘Don’t give them to airtime they desire.’ The final panel member was Leila Green Little, a rural mum and graduate student in library studies who, along with six friends, have become plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit against her county, which has resulted in a preliminary injunction requiring the return of books to the shelves of the public library. The case is ongoing, as is the fight against book bans.

Senior Library at the University of Chicago Lab School

The following day I joined a Chicago School Library Tour with school librarians from the US, Singapore, Kenya and Peru. We visited school libraries serving different communities, with various designs and programs, but one quality was similar: the passion of the staff that work within them. At University of Chicago Lab School, one of the most interesting parts was exploring the Senior Library, replete with old wooden shelves and stained-glass windows. There was even a room dedicated to books published by graduates of the school. In contrast, the Catherine Cook School was a vertical school built in an old shoe factory. The furniture and programs were modern, the playground was on the roof, but the staff had the same dedication to literacy we share as professionals across the world. We finished the day with a keynote message from Judy Blume who, in keeping with what seems to be an ongoing theme, has over the years also had her books banned. She delighted the audience with a passion for ensuring teenagers access books which represent real problems.

After the joy of observing the practice of others, the next morning it was my turn to share. I presented on ‘Finding a New Normal: Library Policies and Practices’, sharing the pivots we took as a school library during the pandemic and the enduring legacy of these changes. I shared that many opportunities had opened up for invigorated programs and practices, but the pandemic also unearthed inequities within our services. No longer will we assume equal access to books and online resources in the homes of our students.

I spent the rest of the conference attending presentations and workshops on topics as diverse as supporting social development with literature, cataloguing, digital literacy and community connections.

Catherine sharing SCIS’s Connections magazine at Francis W Parker School in Chicago

There were many highlights of my trip, presentations on the breadth of library topics, meeting the Librarian of Congress, Rick Riordan, and even visiting the Field Museum. I left the conference and the country with a suitcase full of new release books from publishers, along with a box mailed home, but also a toolbox of knowledge and experiences I can draw upon for my career. If you ever have the opportunity to attend an international conference, I encourage you to seize it. Our practice is not a solo act – we are better when we draw on the knowledge and experiences of others, and a global worldview can only enrich this further.

10 essential resources for online cataloguing

SCIS cataloguer Heath Walsh reveals his 10 most essential sources for creating quality catalogue records.

As I work through my daily cataloguing lists at SCIS I have a set of go-to online resources that I use to help me with my cataloguing work. The list of these resources below describes how they aid my cataloguing, and is designed to help any school library staff who wish to tap up their own records.

Trove / Libraries Australia

Cataloguing is a collaborative process, not only between work colleagues but between cataloguing agencies. This is especially true at SCIS where we attempt to catalogue titles that we do not have on hand and so must rely on online data from other agencies. For this reason, the Trove discovery service – or the subscription service Libraries Australia, which helps underpin Trove – is essential for SCIS cataloguers.

Hosted by the National Library of Australia in partnership with content providers, Trove is an Australian online library database aggregator and service which includes full text documents, digital images, bibliographic and holdings data of items which are not available digitally, and a search engine as a discovery tool.

Worldcat provides a similar service globally, but bibliographic records from the Australian National Bibliographic Database (ANBD) are also uploaded into the WorldCat global union catalogue, which means that records found in Worldcat can often be found in Libraries Australia. Libraries Australia provides MARC records not only for titles found in ANBD but also Worldcat, which makes it an essential subscription service for cataloguers.

A picture of the trove libraries Australia interface — The Trove Libraraies Australia interface

WebDewey

WebDewey provides search functions that make locating the relevant Dewey classification number and cataloguing efficient and accurate. The database, which is updated regularly, includes the most current version of the Dewey Decimal Classification.

I can’t imagine constructing Dewey numbers from print volumes like librarians used to do last century. Rifling through four volumes of the Dewey Decimal Classification tool to find the relevant number for a particular topic seems awfully onerous compared to the lovely search indexes found in WebDewey.

A subscription is required, but this is an essential resource not only for constructing Dewey numbers, but as further input for subject classification given that it has its own taxonomy of subjects.

Library of Congress Authorities

When it comes to creating new SCIS personal name authorities, input from the Library of Congress is useful when there is confusion over definitive renderings of personal names. At SCIS when we devise new SCIS authority subject headings we are mindful of Library of Congress treatment as input for our working papers, thanks to this search engine.

Booktopia

At SCIS we often work through ebook lists and Booktopia is very handy due to its coupling of print and ebook formats for a given title in separate tabs. The same goes for audiobooks. It is also a great source for finding target audience data, such as age-appropriate classifications.

Books In Print

A subscription is required to access data in this Bowker resource, which is invaluable for finding data on publishers and their physical locations. Great for gleaning target audience data and reading levels, this resource also sometimes provides a Dewey number.

The resource interface from Books in Print — The resource interface of Books in Print

Schools Online Thesaurus (ScOT)

When cataloguing video shorts on specific concepts – typically in mathematics and science – this thesaurus is terrific. At SCIS we provide these headings in bibliographic records. As a cataloguer I have needed assistance from this thesaurus to select suitable SCIS headings.

ScOT provides a controlled vocabulary of terms used in Australian and New Zealand schools. It encompasses all subject areas as well as terms describing educational and administrative processes. The thesaurus links non-preferred terms to curriculum terms.

Ulrichsweb Global Serials Directory

This is the online authority for data on periodicals. Subscription is required, which we do not have at SCIS, but I have wished for it whenever a SCIS subscriber requests a SCIS record for a magazine or serial title.

ISBNdb

ISBNdb gathers data from libraries, publishers, merchants and other sources around the globe to compile a vast collection of book data searchable by ISBN, title, author or publisher.

ISBNdb calls itself ‘The world’s largest book database’. I have tended to use it when I have been unable to get results from my usual sources such as Libraries Australia or Books In Print.

ISBN converter

Situated on Bowker’s ISBN.org website, this is great for when I need a quick conversion from the old 10-digit ISBN format to the current 13-digit. This can occur at SCIS when we have old records that require enhancement, often in response to subscriber requests.

RDA Toolkit

At SCIS, when we do not apply our own standards related to content, we turn to RDA. Institutions require a subscription to access the Toolkit, which now enables subscribers to create what is called an application profile. This presents the way in which a subscriber applies RDA in its own institution.

I hope you find these resources useful as you navigate your way through the seas of bibliographic description. Bon voyage!

5 questions you’ve been asking about the Schools Catalogue Information Service

The who, what, why, where and how of the Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS).

Every day our customer service team speaks to staff from schools across Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, and the world. Whether it be on the phone, via email, or in person, there are some questions that are more commonly asked than others. That’s why we’ve written this 101 guide on the five facts people most want to know about SCIS.

1. Who/what is SCIS?

The Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS) is primarily a cataloguing service for your school library. Our service is a layer of data called catalogue records – these are like a digital version of the physical catalogue cards that libraries used to use many years ago. Our catalogue records can be imported into the software you use to manage your library (referred to as a Library Management System or LMS for short). Our records contain information about all your books and resources, and this helps you and your students to find resources when you search by keyword, subject, author, title, publisher or publication date.

We service almost 80 percent of schools in Australia, over 40 percent of schools in New Zealand, and our services are being taken up by a growing number schools across Great Britain and other parts of the world. We’re owned and run by an Australian not-for-profit company called Education Services Australia.

Creating catalogue data is laborious work, but it’s essential to students being able to find the information they need when they search in your library. Our cataloguers are all qualified librarians who skilfully sift through resources by hand to ensure our data is accurate and high-quality.

2. Why would my school need SCIS?

If you ask any qualified librarian, they will tell you that cataloguing takes a huge amount of time and effort. Each resource catalogued must be examined and classified with a set of terms that are consistent across records, otherwise your resources become increasingly hard to find in your database. For example if your library uses the subject heading “World War II” on one history book but then uses “World War 2” for another, both books might not appear in in the same search. Our service spares you all the time and effort of creating this complicated and essential data yourself, and your school can ask us to catalogue new resources for you whenever you like.

Many people don’t realise that failing to catalogue resources with accurate, consistent information makes managing, stocktaking and weeding your collection very difficult.

Additionally, having one over-arching, cohesive catalogue can be of great help even if you don’t have a centralised library – quality cataloguing is still important when your resources are split up between classrooms. If one class is doing an assignment on volcanoes and students can’t locate any of the relevant resources in any other classrooms, there can be some significant consequences, including:

Your students missing out on fundamental learning and research opportunities
You and your colleagues being forced to spend additional time locating resources physically rather than digitally
The valuable resources you have spent time and money acquiring sit on a shelf unused.

All school staff benefit from SCIS records as they help to save school staff time (which is a precious resource in all schools) and help provide the correct resources to your students.

3. What products does SCIS offer?

SCIS offers two main products: SCIS Data and Authority Files.

SCISData provides you with access to our catalogue record database of over 1.6 million high-quality catalogue records. With a SCISData subscription, you can search and download as many of these as you like – and this includes records for digital products in addition to physical books.

Authority Files are files that generate ‘see’ and ‘see also’ references for searches in your catalogue, meaning that if you search for books about ‘bugs’ you can also return results on books that include ‘insects’ as their subject. Authority Files create important, verified connections between related subjects, names and series.

These two products together create a powerful combination and streamline your school library services. This saves you time and allows you to focus more on what matters: connecting with your students.

In addition to our two subscription products, SCIS also offers professional learning opportunities and library barcode scanners. Our professional learning sessions are designed to help you learn to manage your resources effectively and optimise your students’ learning experiences. And, of course, our barcode scanners will assist you at the circulation desk to ensure all loans and returns are processed smoothly and efficiently!

4. Does SCIS provide any free support?

SCIS assists in connecting an enormous variety of teachers, school staff, parent volunteers and library professionals. We endeavour to provide this vast community with the best support we can. We publish a termly magazine in print and online called Connections, where you can find out the latest school library news. Connections publishes pieces written by practising educators, teachers, library staff, authors and industry figures, offering a wide variety of views to reflect the variety of our audience.

Additionally, we often share news and updates across our social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and Vimeo. Our Vimeo page offers all viewers free advice that can help you make the most of your SCIS subscription.

And lastly, we have a wonderful blog – which you’re reading right now! We post all sorts of news from educators, publishers and our own news on this site. We welcome all manner of contributions to this blog, so if you have any ideas, please feel welcome to write to us about it!

5. Is SCIS the software I use when I’m searching in my library?

SCIS is not what’s known as a Library Management System (LMS). When you’re using your system, the interface is not what we’ve created. There are a number of wonderful vendors who create all sorts of different Library Management Systems you can use, and we work with all of them.

Our data sits ‘under the hood’ of your LMS. It powers your searches for resources, provides data consistency that makes them findable, and gives you back the time it would take to catalogue your resources manually. That’s the magic of SCIS, we work so seamlessly within your Library Management System that we’re practically invisible!

Supporting new and experienced librarians

Saving time for librarians

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that using time efficiently and having well-organised resources underpin a school librarian’s ability to support their community.

Resourcing can present a particular challenge to primary school librarians when managing their libraries. Robyn Byrne from Traralgon Primary School (Stockdale Road) explains how SCIS helps her overcome these challenges.

‘Unfortunately, many primary school libraries are now managed by a sole education support staff member, with no formal training and in a part-time capacity. My school is no exception, so I have benefited greatly from having a SCIS subscription.’

With standing orders, books received through a rewards program and purchases from local stores and booksellers, the school acquires a substantial number of new books.

‘Cataloguing of the books – with the limited hours the library is staffed and with my hit and miss knowledge of cataloguing – is only possible due to SCIS. It works with our library system, and I would say 99.5% of my requests are matched, ensuring those books are out on the shelves in a timely manner and catalogued in a consistent way,’ says Byrne.

Collection development and professional learning

Joumana Soufan from Lalor North Primary School moved to a position in her school library last year and recently started to explore SCIS. She’s found it helpful for cataloguing but has also enjoyed the collection development tools that SCIS provides.

‘I have been enjoying looking for new apps that maybe useful to use for the library. I recently discovered that the Canva app is free to all school staff, which is a big bonus! I have been busy creating posters and resources for upcoming events. I have also just become aware that there are heaps of free e-books, so I’ll be busy downloading some as soon as I get time.’

In addition to this, Joumana has been enjoying SCIS’s professional learning program.

‘I recently attended the workshop on making the most of SCIS,’ she says. ‘It was a very informative and really enjoyed it.’

SCIS community

SCIS provides school librarians with community through the Connections school library journal and its social media pages. Robyn Byrne has found this particularly beneficial.

‘I work alone in the school library so look forward to Connections, the SCIS publication, to keep me up-to-date with what is happening in other school libraries, get inspiration and information. Connections, the recent SCIS workshop I attended, and my local SLAV branch meetings are a great support network for me.’

Now serving school libraries across Australia and internationally for almost 40 years, SCIS is working hard to continue supporting librarians in a changing world, through quality cataloguing and cultivating a community of practice that helps librarians bring more to their schools. If you wish to know more about how SCIS can help your school library, email help@scisdata.com.

Things to lookout out for when moving to a new Library Management System (LMS)

Though SCIS is not a Library Management System (LMS), we spend most of our days curating and creating the data that is held in them. Thus, we have plenty of advice to offer on how to manage your data when moving it from an old LMS to a new one. Written by SCIS Sytems Coordinator Adam Styles, this article serves as a helpful guide on how to approach moving your data when migrating to a new LMS.

What is an LMS data migration?

A library management system (LMS) data migration is essentially the process of transferring your current core LMS information into a new LMS. This focuses on safely moving your bibliographic records, borrower records, statistical records and other relevant collection data into another platform.

It is important that core information is transferred to a new LMS in an ordered, methodical way to mitigate the chance of data loss.

What data is available to migrate? What should I migrate?

Any current library system will offer both standard and non-standard information that you can export, clean (quality control) and import into your new system. ‘Standard’ in this case implies industry standard data in all library systems, and ‘non-standard’ implies custom information in some but not all library systems.

Data that should be migrated to your new LMS includes:

Bibliographic records (standard):
- This is your collection information in MARC21 (machine readable cataloguing) or another relevant library standard format or other relevant library formats, such as your collection items and associated subject headings.
Borrower records (standard):
- This is your borrower information including borrower history, personal details and related.
Statistical records (standard):
- These are the usage statistics of your bibliographic items. They allow reports to be run on most borrowed and least popular items, trending titles, and more.
System policies, rules, profiles and metadata (standard):
- Lending rules and restrictions for borrower profiles.
- Current bibliographic collections or current staff access profiles (access and restrictions)
Custom metadata not covered above but deemed valuable to keep (non-standard):
- Current reading lists that have been generated by library staff, teaching staff or students
- Collection tags that are used in user search tools to help discover collections
- User collection reviews such as book reviews or comments.

What formats will the data be migrated in? How do I export in these formats?

Bibliographic records formats will be available to migrate in:

MARC21: A standard, machine readable format for bibliographic records in the library industry. This format allows you to transfer current library system bibliographic files into your new library system in a trusted format.
Extensible Markup Language (XML): A human-readable and machine-readable file format (.xml).

Borrower records formats include:

XML: See above description.
Java Script Object Notation (JSON): This is commonly used for transmitting data in web applications and it is a very open universal compatible format.
Comma Separated Values (CSV): A file format that separates information using commas. This is a very open universal compatible format.

If you have any non-standard data (as defined above) to migrate, this can be done using JSON or CSV.

What are the tasks to perform data migration?

Your library team will be responsible for completing the following tasks as part of the data migration.

Export the required data from your current LMS
Clean and quality control the exported data
Import cleaned, quality-controlled data into new system
Evaluate imported data in the new system while you still have access to your previous system
Store backup versions of both the original exported data and the cleaned, quality-controlled in an offline environment
Once all processes are in place, establish a time and date to stop using the old system and start using the new system.

What could my school be responsible for and what part might my new library vendor do for me?

Library vendor

Changing library systems may seem like a complex move, but your library system vendor may be available to give you support as you move to the new system. Your vendor will usually be able to:

Provide support during the export from the existing system and help import data in to the new system.
Provide support in the setup of system policies, rules and profiles.

Your school or team

This will vary greatly depending on the size of your school and your library team. Generally, your school library team will be responsible for:

Identifying data to export from current system
Planning and implementing the data export from your current system in the required formats (this may be your system support officer or IT department)
Cleaning and quality control of exported data offline, ready to hand onto vendor for new system import formats (this maybe a system support officer or local IT department, if your school has these positions on staff)
Backing up the original and cleaned exported data for long-term storage
Reviewing and evaluating the current system data imported into new system, to ensure the information is correct and presented as expected.

Make sure you migrate your SCIS records, don’t re-download them!

A key thing to note is that you shouldn’t re-download SCIS records from our website into your new system. This is because you will have added data to the SCIS records on your old library management system during its lifetime, such as local spine labels (custom call numbers) and a variety of other small but meaningful changes. This data would not be present in freshly downloaded records from our website.

We recommend you export all bibliographic records and subject headings from your current library system and import them into your new library system to help avoid potential data loss.

Can data loss occur during migration?

Data loss is the unintended loss of information from a system or data set. Data loss can occur for many reasons, but is often caused by one of three key factors:

Dirty data: Information that contains incorrect, invalid or duplicated items. For example, bibliographic records that contain error prone fields that might cause an error in a new system.
Forgotten data: In some cases, you might fail to identify a set of information in your current system that you need in your new system. So, it is data you forgot to export from your old system which may no longer be available.
Data format: The format that the data is imported or exported in, which might not carry in to the new system due to compatibility issues of the way the information is fed to the system. This can be trying to import a word doc of data where word docs will not carry in to a system.

How do I mitigate the chances of data loss during migration?

Losing data is a risk during a migration. If data is lost then a new library system may not work as you expect it to.

You can take the following steps to reduce the chances of data loss:

Thoroughly review your existing system to ensure you have captured all of the data you need to carry into your new system. Check with your existing vendor to ensure you’re exporting all the required data.Export data in industry standard formats (vendor may recommend formats otherwise – see above).
Quality control data that will be imported into your new system, by working with your vendor to check which formats are available or required.
Evaluate imported data in your new system while the old system is still available.
Ensure you create offline, long-term back-ups of both your original non-quality-controlled export from old system and the cleaned version of exported data.

How to get help from your library community?

Your library vendor is the best place to seek answers during your migration, as they will be familiar with the specific requirements for important choices such as data format and data quality control.

Further to this, LMS data migrations have been around since the very first library system was invented. There are many articles online that offer tutorials, tips and guides for many different library systems.

Lastly, remember that the SCIS customer service and technical team are here to help. We will do our best to work with you and any new vendor to get your SCIS records into their new home.

You can do it! Be bold, be courageous, ask questions and enjoy a well-deserved tea break every now and then.

Awards help select resources for your school

Finding the best learning resources for your school is a task that requires a complex range of skills and connections with various and specific stakeholders. Teacher librarians have these skills and work hard to pair the right learning materials for their teachers and students.

The Educational Publishing Awards of Australia can be a great way to connect with the latest trends and innovative offerings from Australian publishers, who collectively produce roughly 2000 new titles per year. The Awards, known as the EPAAs (said Eeepars), are built on the principles of education research and innovation, and showcase the titles launched to the education market in the previous year.

An important aspect of the EPAAs, which relies on the participation of teacher librarians, is the Publisher of the Year survey. The survey collects valuable information about publishers’ product quality, field services, company services, marketing and innovation. Data is analysed and the publisher voted as “the best” is celebrated at the Awards ceremony. This information is used to improve the industry for the benefit of teachers and students.

One teacher librarian who has followed the EPAAs for a long time and completes the survey each year is Tasmanian based, Dr Jillian Abell. Dr Abell says she uses the Awards as a way to get a good overview of current new resources.

“The EPAAs are invaluable to teachers in their selection and evaluation of recommended resources,” Abell says. “In addition, as a teacher librarian, I followed the Awards to learn more about reputable trends in educational publishing for each of the disciplines/key learning areas and age-appropriate learning materials. I would purchase as many as I could, and certainly disseminate the information to staff. For example, it is always a trusted way to get an overview of new resourcing, such as peer-reviewed materials to support First Nations.”

Understanding what a teacher librarian does is helpful for Australian publishers. Dr Abell explains, “Teacher librarians develop extensive cross-curriculum knowledge and expertise for the skilful selection and evaluation of resources to be purchased across all educational levels and areas of learning support. They are experienced with identifying reputable and new works of interest through authors’ reviews, editors’ notes and Australian publishers’ blurbs. They understand the market trends, publication costs and quality of the digital or multi-modal resources. They can predict how a resource might be used by teachers and students and the wider school community.”

On the relationships between educators and publishers: “The collaboration and valued connections are well-developed over time through publishers’ generosity in showcasing and invitations to educators to be part of an awards process. After all, this process is an important part of teachers and teacher librarians meeting many of their Australian professional teaching standards (AITSL) and engaging with each other to select and use appropriate resources and participate in professional learning networks,” Dr Abell says.

2020 was certainly a disruptive year for the education sector, but while educational publishers responded to the pandemic by opening up access to resources to transition learning online, new resources were also finalised and made available.

The Educational Publisher Awards of Australia 2021 will showcase these resources from 2020.

The EPAA event will be held on 9 September 2021.

The Publisher of the Year survey, where book prizes are on offer, will open in late May.

Dr Jillian Abell AALIA, FACE, FACEL is President, Network of Educational Associations of Tasmania (NEAT); Director, Australian Professional Teaching Association (APTA); Chair, Tasmania Branch of the Australian College of Educators (ACE).

Find out more about the awards here.

ASLA Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year 2021. Congratulations to Anne Girolami!

Congratulations to Anne Girolami
Learning Leader – Information Services
Mercy College, Coburg, Victoria

The winner of the ASLA Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year 2021 was announced on 13 April 2021 at the ASLA/SLASA National Conference by Kerry Pope, ASLA Vice President and presented by Caroline Hartley, SCIS Manager. The Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS) is the proud sponsor of this prestigious Award. This National Award recognises and honours an Australian Teacher Librarian who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession of school librarianship. Through their high level of achievement in professional knowledge, professional practice and professional engagement they have had a positive impact on teaching and learning in their school.

Principals, professional colleagues and members of the school community were encouraged to nominate their Teacher Librarian for this award. This year there were 7 nominations from across Australia for this award. All nominations received were of an extremely high standard.

The ASLA Board and Members congratulate Anne, on this significant achievement and thank her for her outstanding contribution to our profession. Anne’s passion for school libraries and Teacher Librarians has been a driving force in her career and she has devoted many hours to this cause. She has over 30 years of experience as a Teacher Librarian in School Libraries and loves sharing her knowledge and expertise with colleagues.

Anne Girolami

Anne’s work at Mercy College has been exceptional. Anne is a key member of the Curriculum and Pedagogy Team and meets regularly with her School Leaders. She works enthusiastically with the Library Team to deliver services and programs that are at the heart of learning and teaching and that are adhering to best practice in library standards. She continually shares her love of reading and literature with her students. Anne works hard with staff to analyse data and identify student needs. She works closely with teachers and support staff to build their capacity to prepare students for life-long learning. Anne is highly respected and valued by her Principal, the students, staff, parents and members of her school community.

Anne has made a significant contribution to ASLA over many years, as an active and committed member. She has served as an ASLA Board Director, presented at ASLA Conferences, reviewed policies and reported at ASLA Annual General Meetings.

Anne has led a number of joint working parties with ASLA and ALIA, responsible for reviewing and writing National Policies for Teacher Librarians. Anne was Chair of the ASLA Policy and Advisory Project Team (PAPT) to produce Evidence Guides for Teacher Librarians in the areas of Proficient and Highly Accomplished Accreditation to support AITSL’s Professional Standards for Teachers. These documents have proved to be invaluable and are referred to constantly by Teacher Librarians undertaking accreditation today. In 2019 – 2020, Anne chaired the team reviewing and updating Table 6 in the combined ASLA/ALIA publication ‘Learning For The Future’. Recommendations of minimum information services staffing were thoroughly researched and documented.

With Anne’s calm, intelligent and thoughtful leadership approach, these Working Parties progressed diligently and consistently with the task at hand, resulting in the production of current, relevant and outstanding documents for Australian Teacher Librarians.

Anne is to be highly commended for her extraordinary and exemplary work in advocacy. She has been a Fellow of ALIA since 2020 and is a long-term convenor of ALIA Schools, working hard for the promotion and development of school libraries in Australia. She is an active member of the School Library Coalition and the FAIR Great School Libraries Campaign. Anne Girolami is an extremely worthy recipient of this Award for 2021.

Improving education through linked technology

In the latest SCIS Publisher Spotlight, Story Box Library explores innovating reading and learning with stories.

Digital learning is complementing traditional teaching methods with innovations. While classroom time is key in children’s development and learning, platforms like Story Box Library (SBL) bring stories to student’s fingertips.

Designed to be used by educators across a variety of ages and curriculum requirements, Story Box Library’s growing collection of stories and resources bring engaging learning options to any classroom.

Story Box Library’s Education Specialist Jackie Small says, “Story Box Library’s unique format of traditional storytelling presented digitally with the inclusion of support features provides educators with essential multimodal texts that convey meaning through written, spoken, visual, audio and gestural languages.”

“Resources such as SBL are essential because they meet a need for a society that has become increasingly multi-modal.”

Partnering with educators to enhance education

Saving time for educators, subscribing schools can now search SCIS to find stories from the entire Story Box Library (SBL) collection. This means all SBL titles, including storyteller images, can be downloaded and incorporated into school systems.

Along with MARC records and the corresponding ISBN numbers, SBL collections seamlessly integrate into school cataloguing systems. The SBL digital resource is now even easier to access for educators and students in Australia.

In keeping up with technological demand and developments of our changing world, SBL offers a complementary learning opportunity for educators and schools. Enhancing classroom learning and saving teachers time, teachers can engage students in a lifelong love of learning, reading and inspire curiosity, creativity and play.

Stories connect us to the rest of the world. While students discover stories in a safe, online space, their reading and literacy skills improve. Stories help children and young minds not only establish language and literacy skills but also create frameworks of the wider world, their community, friends, family, and their identity.

“Stories are thoughtfully curated based on thematic and literary value,” says Jackie.

“This makes them perfect springboards into a wonderful world of discovery and learning both in English and other key learning areas.’

Innovative classroom tools for all educators

Story Box Library’s additional expert-designed classroom resources help teachers save time in the classroom, assist in class preparation, and align with the Australian Curriculum. Designed to be used alongside story reads, and adapted seamlessly to any educator’s specific needs, SBL’s education resources make learning fun. Built-in features like playlist and search filter functions allow educators to find and save stories according to themes, topics, or their own personalised requirements.

“I like to think of our additional resources as creative seeds for educators,” Jackie says.

“They provide them with diverse and engaging ideas that provide children with opportunities to listen to, view, speak, write, create, reflect and compare texts within our library while also developing other skills such as metacognition, social skills, and critical and creative thinking.”

Based on unique themes, story structures and language features of each story, Classroom Ideas are flexible, adaptable and easily accessible for any Educator’s specific needs. Downloadable PDFs feature practical discussion questions and activity ideas aligned with curriculum areas. Stories also come with Student Task Sheets, which are grouped by themes and designed to be used independently by students. Students are provided with three task options towards meeting achievement standards via downloadable PDFs.

Recently released, SBL’s new Graphic Organisers and Thinking Tools assist students into becoming critical readers, designed to provide opportunities for deeper learning. With more in development, the first release of resources includes a Y-Chart, Character Profile, Story Map, Plot Summary, List Template, T-Chart, Venn Diagram, Menu Planner, Recipe Planner and an Interview Planner.

Connected to a world of stories

With one login, the entire school community of teachers, students and their families access to a world of diverse, high-quality stories. SBL is safe, secure and trusted by educators around the globe, and helps create curious and understanding young minds.

Story Box Library is working with partners like SCIS to inspire young minds, assist educators, and encourage a lifelong love of reading and learning.

For more information on Story Box Library, and to enquire about a school subscription, visit the Story Box Library website.

Story Box Library is a subscription based educational website, created for children to view stories by local authors and illustrators, being read aloud by engaging storytellers. With a world of stories and educational resources, it’s Storytime, Anytime!

www.storyboxlibrary.com.au| @storyboxlibrary | Story Box Library