You said what?

We are always trying to remind pupils that what goes online stays online and perhaps a perfect example of this is that you can search for tweets from anytime in the history of Twitter.

A clear and helpful how-to can be found here http://www.howtogeek.com/280408/how-to-search-for-just-about-any-tweet-on-twitter/

Every student needs a professional librarian

CILIPS SLG branch have produced a resource that anyone can download explaining and promoting the value of a professional librarian the things that make a 'good' school library.

This handy booklet gives a clear message and you can either print it to hand out or use the information from it to help support and advocate librarians and the school library.

Every student needs a librarian leaflet is available at http://www.cilip.org.uk/school-libraries-group/professional-librarians-leaflet

CILIPS SLG also have a blog you may find useful to have a read of https://slgtalkingbooks.com/

Plus if you haven't already read Chris Riddell, Children's Laureates, letter to the UK government in support of school libraries you need to. Although he is trying to effect change in England he hopes that it will help influence the rest of the UK devolved Governments.

Shelagh Toonen Reflects on Closing the Attainment Gap

A former colleague recently sent me the report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on Closing the Attainment Gap in Scottish Education and asked "Is this not what you do all the time?"
While the report makes for interesting reading, I am disappointed that there is no mention of school librarians, nor their impact on learning and reducing the attainment guide.

In my presentation to Moray headteachers, in February, I outlined research into school libraries and their impact on learning, as well as how school libraries can help to close the attainment guide.

The Impact of School Libraries on Learning Review demonstrated that there is considerable international evidence showing school libraries impact on:

• Higher test or exam scores equating to academic attainment: this includes academic attainment in the form of higher standardised test scores in reading, language arts, history and maths, and better grades in curriculum assignments or exams; 
• Successful curriculum or learning outcomes, including information literacy: this includes higher quality project work, the development and practice of information literacy, increased knowledge and reading development; and 
• Positive attitudes towards learning: including increased motivation, improved attitude towards learning tasks, self-esteem, and wider reading for pleasure. 

The recent OECD Report, Improving Schools in Scotland: An OECD Perspective, 2015, notes (p.64) that performance in reading in primary and secondary schools has declined from 2012 to 2014.
International evidence shows the vital role of school libraries in improving literacy and encouraging reading. With Curriculum for Excellence being described as ‘at a watershed’ in the OECD Report, it will be all the more important to have good school libraries available to school students if Scotland is to fulfil its potential and offer a world-class education system.

Elsewhere in Europe, Finland attributes its top performance in PISA reading results to its excellent library system. Recognizing the importance of school libraries in this process, steps are currently being taken there to build up existing school library provision to bring it up to the standard of other parts of their library system.

The research findings established a relationship between school libraries and learning in the broadest sense:

Enrichment of the curriculum was understood to relate to the additional motivating and innovative activities provided by school librarians, in the form of special events and clubs and often related to reading promotion. Evidence for the impact of the school library on enrichment was less strong but identified through perception or shared practice studies as well as being highlighted in a few of the statistical studies.

The evidence supporting the school library’s impact on learning by providing information literacy instruction and CPD activities with teachers, was revealed in some large-scale statistical analyses and responses by some teachers. In these perception studies using a variety of mixed methods, individual teachers revealed their appreciation of school librarian support and instruction both for themselves and their students.

Evidence was also found to indicate that a quality school library can contribute to reducing the achievement gap and enabling vulnerable students to improve academic success.

Much of the evidence reveals the difference a school library with full-time qualified librarian can make at primary level and to disadvantaged who have limited access to reading resources in the home.


Shelagh Toonen is the Librarian at Elgin Academy

Journal of Information Literacy

Have you read the Journal of Information Literacy? Availabel for free via jil.lboro.ac.uk.   There is bound to be something to interest you.

JIL is an open access journal providing high quality evidence-based articles on the latest developments in information literacy.

The current issue can be accessed here: http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/issue/view/178

• Instructor perceptions of student information literacy: comparing international IL models to reality Patricia Sandercock
• Student perspectives: redesigning a research assignment handout through the academic literacies model Alison Hicks
• Auditing information literacy skills of secondary school students in Singapore Shaheen Majid, Yun-Ke Chang, Shubert Foo
• Using the I-LEARN model for information literacy instruction Stacey Greenwell
• Find the gap: evaluating library instruction reach using syllabi Erin Alcock, Kathryn Rose

The last issue included such varied articles as:

Can playing Minecraft improve teenagers’ information literacy? Sandra Bebbington, Andre Vellino

Are librarians teachers? Investigating academic librarians’ perceptions of their own teaching skills Emily Wheeler, Pamela McKinney

School Libraries are these wonderful places...

Make your own quote image using recite.com - preset templates and the ability to download and share what you create all for free.

School Library Association in Scotland - AGM

Friday 7^th October 2016 at Dewars’ Centre, Glover Street, Perth, PH2 0TH.

Present: Colin Orr, Kateri Wilson-Whalley, Rhona Clark, Duncan Wright, Gail Colbron, Flora Fisher, Catriona McGrath, Diane Scott, Kate Dove, Mandy Wilson, Irene Lumsden, Alan Clark, Josie Crimp, Wendy Lyon, Gillian Gillespie, Donna Baird, Alison Mundie, Iona McFarlane, Julie Hutton, Linda Anderson, Jan Dawson, David Amdurer.

Apologies: Elspeth Scott, Frances Sinclair.

1) Minutes of last meeting and matters arising

The minutes of the last AGM were accepted as an accurate record.

Proposed by Colin Orr. Seconded by Kateri Wilson-Whalley.

2) Convenor’s Report: Rhona Clark

A vote of thanks was given to Carol Moug for her service as Convenor.

3) Secretary’s Report: Kateri Wilson-Whalley

Kateri reported that the membership was down to 122 (this is reflecting the drop in school librarians from state school and cuts to budgets). Information is being shared with the membership via the blog - http://slascotland.blogspot.co.uk/.

4) Treasurer’s Report: Colin Orr

Copies of the Statement of Accounts for the year ending 31 March 2016 were circulated.  The statement showed a balance at bank of £738.45 

Proposed by Rhona Clark.  Seconded by Kateri Wilson-Whalley.

5) Reports from SLA Executive Committee: Mandy Wilson

Mandy encouraged those present to stand for election to the SLA Executive. Given the devolved nature of Scottish Education a second member would be beneficial.

SLA is 80 this year and the membership can expect a few opportunities to celebrate this. The latest publications were also on show.

7) Office Bearers and Committee:

New members:

Iona McFarlane

Proposed by Colin Orr, Seconded by Kateri Wilson-Whalley

Catriona McGrath

Proposed by Mandy Wilson, Seconded by Rhona Clark

Irene Lumsden

Proposed by Kateri Wilson-Whalley, Seconded by Duncan Wright

Jan Dawson

Proposed by Mandy Wilson, Seconded by Rhona Clark

The Office Bearers:

Convenor – Rhona Clark

Proposed by Duncan Wright, Seconded by Mandy Wilson

Vice Convenor –  Mandy Wilson

Proposed by Linda Anderson, Seconded by Kateri Wilson-Whalley

Secretary – Kateri Wilson-Whalley

Proposed by Linda Anderson, Seconded by Rhona Clark

Treasurer – Colin Orr

Proposed by Mandy Wilson, Seconded by Gail Colbron

9) Proposed changes to committee meeting

It was unanimously agreed that the proposed changes to committee meetings would proceed. Therefore from now on:

The SLA in Scotland committee will conduct the majority of its business online with one formal meeting per year in addition to the AGM.

To allow for the sharing of information, skills and ideas we will instead have three local network groups:

North – Mandy Wilson (chair)

South East – Duncan Wright (chair)

South West – Rhona Clark (chair)

The leader of each of these local network groups will be elected to the SLA in Scotland committee plus a convener, secretary, treasurer and the committee will remain open to other interested members.

They will also hold office bearer responsibilities on the SLA(S) committee

The SLA(S) committee formal annual meeting will rotate around each of the local network groups locations.

We will be using email shots, the new blog and twitter to keep members across Scotland informed. Email lists will be generated from the information shared by SLA.

8) AOCB

The next AGM was agreed to take place on Friday 6^th October 2017 in Perth.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 12.53pm

2017 UKLA Book Award Long List Announced

For the first time ever the judges for these unique book awards, which are the only awards judged by active classroom teachers, will come from Scotland, with the 56 judges spread right across the country.

There are 3 groups of judges for each age category and they have until the end of February to read the longlisted books, discuss them with their group leaders, and share them with pupils.

All groups will then meet together for the difficult task of choosing their shortlist of 6 books in each category.

 hortlist announcement w/b March 13th 2017

The winners will be announced on June 30th at the UKLA International Conference, University of Strathclyde Enquires fao Lynda Graham awards@ukla.org

 Find the longlists at https://ukla.org/awards/ukla-book-award

Primary School Library Charter

The SLA Primary School Library Charter is a 12-page booklet intended to help you set up and run a school library, or give you ideas for improving what you already have; to point you towards inspiration and information on flexible, innovative and exciting library spaces and the development, maintenance and management of the resources held within them.

You can download it for free from the SLA website.

Books For Keeps

Book for Keeps a review magazine - freely available online. You can browse, download and even print a copy of it if you so desire.

Latest issue is now available - news, views and reviews - all FREE.

A resource for everyone.

SLA Standards for Secondary School Libraries

The SLA Standards for Secondary School Libraries are a statement of the recommended level of provision for school libraries serving secondary age pupils, by the SLA.

Our very own Duncan Wright, School Librarian of the Year 2010, said: "This is just what school librarians need - these standards say it all".

Download yours for free from the SLA website.

Last Chance to Book on Course

Booking closes on Friday for 'Teaching Skills for School Librarians' course being held in Perth on the 7th of October. Send in your sign up sheet or contact Kateri now (on kateri(dot)wilson(at)westlothian(dot)org(dot)uk ) to secure your place!

To do: 1. Organise To-Do Lists

Bullet Journaling is a system that lets you organise your life, work, whatever better. It uses a notebook and pen and is a very easy system to work with. It's a system I am trialing in all aspects of my life this term and so far I am really enjoying the process and the feeling of being in control that it offers.

Created by Ryder Carroll he describes it as  'The analogue system for the digital age.' His website needless to say contains loads of information on how to do one for yourself.

My favourite Quick Reference Guide however was created by Kim from Tiny Ray of Sunshine. Printing off as a simple A4 sheet it a fantastic tool to get you started.

The best advice I can offer is start with the basics, add as you need to. Be careful looking at bullet journals online there are lots and lots of ideas and lots and lots of amazing creative people doing these wonderful things. It's about making life easier not about becoming disheartened because you haven't covered it in pretty doodles or washi tapes. Perhaps the most challenging thing is deciding what journal and pen to use!

Colourful Study Tips

S6 looking bored?
Why not offer them this lovely 'Studying Tips' colouring sheet by Revise or Die. You can download the original for free from her website.

Scottish Teenage Book Prize

Scottish Book Trust have announced the shortlist for the Scottish Teenage Book prize - voting deadline 17th February 2017 so now is the perfect time to get your pupils involved and reading.

For full details, group discussion guides and competitions visit the Scottish Book Trust.

If you want more ideas for Book Groups the SLA website has a great page to support anyone setting up or running a book group.

Autumn Newsletter

The latest issue of the SLA in Scotland newsletter is now available to download. Get your copy here.

#SLARead80

SLA is 80 years old in 2017 and to kick off the celebrations they are running a photo competition.To enter all you have to do tweet or instagram a photo using the #SLARead80.

Full details of how to enter plus the prizes up for grabs can be found on the SLA website.

Teaching Skills for School Librarians

This is the training course you've been waiting for join us in Perth on Friday 7th of October and learn some key skills from the brilliant Chris Powis.

Chris Powis is Head of Library and Learning Services at the University of Northampton and a National Teaching Fellow. He is is the co-author of Teaching Information Skills: theory and practice (Facet, 2004) and A Guide to teaching Information Literacy:101 tips (Facet 2011).

Feedback from previous courses he's led: 

"The best SLA course I have attended. Excellent trainer, interesting and practical content - thank you." - Elaine Davis, School and Community Librarian, Clyst Vale Community College

"Fantastic course from an inspiring and practical trainer." - Lucy Atherton, Senior Librarian, Wellington College

Teaching Skills for School Librarians
Friday 7^th October 2016

10am to 3:30pm

Dewars’ Centre,

Glover Street, Perth, PH2 0TH

SLAMembers £40 or  Non SLA Members £50

Send in your application to attend now!

SLA in Scotland AGM

This year's AGM will be held on

Friday 7th October 2016 

1:15pm to 2pm 

at the Dewars’ Centre, Glover Street, Perth, PH2 0TH

There are some changes being proposed to the way we run - you can read about those here.

You can read the minutes from last year's AGM here.

It is being held during our Training Day but the AGM is free to attend. 

Reviews - Serial Reader App

If you are looking for an easy way to do some reading look no further than 'Serial Reader' this handy free app is available on Apple (they are working on an Android version).

It sends a chunk of a book everyday to your phone. Each chunk takes about ten minutes to read and you can choose from a wide range of classics from Alice in Wonderland to War and Peace.

I just finished reading Jack London's 'Call of the Wild' which I really enjoyed and I found the daily chunks worked really well. I even upgraded to the paid version so I could skip ahead. I found ten minutes was achievable on most days. Plus if I felt it was getting away from me I could pause the serial so I didn't end up with three hours worth of reading mocking me for not finding the time. I reckon young people would enjoy the format, after all ten minutes is equivalent to a loo trip or a wait for a bus.  Plus you get reward badges as you read which include fun little reading related facts.

This is what a school librarian looks like...

Batgirl aka Kateri Wilson, School Librarian at The James Young High School modelling a homemade Batgirl costume she wore to the Comic Con she organised in the school library.

Inspired by This is What a Librarian Looks Like head over there to see what even more librarians look like!

Book Spine Poetry Competition to celebrate National Poetry Day

An invitation was emailed to all staff inviting them to visit the library with their class to take part in creating Book Spine Poetry to celebrate National Poetry Day on 8 October 2015.

Book Spine poetry is created by arranging book titles to make a poem, stacking the books so that the spines (with the book title visible) can be read from top to bottom.

Pupils worked in groups to create their own poems and were encouraged to use ANY book in the library, not just junior or senior fiction – even the staff CPD titles could be used!

They had a limit of 6 books (8 at the very most). Some pupils were a little unsure at first and tried to create a poem then looked for titles to match:

“Miss, I need a book called ‘A white light was shining in the sky’”

“Mrs Skinner, have you any books just called ‘the’?”

“I’m looking for a book with ‘and’ as a title”

Once that was overcome, pupils started to pull off books with interesting titles, or with a similar theme and then worked together to create their poem. Often, they had collected more books than they needed and began selecting which would work together to create the best line. They switched books about seeing how moving lines/book titles created different meaning and effect.

The complete poems were very cross curricular and covered a wide variety of subjects and themes: war, environmental issues, religion, self-esteem, space, and survival were some common topics. There were also several very imaginative poems covering genres such as horror, fantasy, romance and so on.

Finished poems were documented by photographs and pupils also wrote the poems down with a title to make it easier to judge.

Eleven classes from S1 to S4 took part in the competition and there were over 100 entries in total. A group of S6 pupils studying AH English selected winners from each year group certificates were presented to the winning teams.


Winning S2 poem

Self Esteem

Does my bum look big in this?
How embarrassing is that?
Blame my brain
The vintage girl
Standing alone
Are we having fun yet?





Pauline Skinner is the School Librarian at St.Margaret's Academy, West Lothian

Library Posters

PaperZip is a website with lots of colourful free downloads suitable for classrooms and libraries.
It's well worth a look if you are trying to brighten up the library.

We particularly like their Comic Banners

Mathematician twitter advice

and these rather nice Keep the Library Tidy posters

StoryCon 2016

Sat 11 June & Sun 12 June 2016 | Glasgow

StoryCon 2016, is the Scottish Book Trust's exciting new creative writing conference designed by teenagers, for teenagers living in Scotland.

Young people aged 13 to 19 with an interest in writing, illustrating, digital media and more are invited to attend this free event to attend workshops on comics-making, writing, YouTube, podcasting, screenwriting, Gaelic writing, spoken word, and much more.

Please encourage your students to apply and don't hesitate to email us at nicole.brandon@scottishbooktrust.com with your questions.

Science of Stories Conference

The Science of Stories Conference is a free conference run by Strathclyde University and Scottish Book Trust on Friday 3rd June. Sign up here

Looking at does it matter if young people enjoy stories by films and videos rather than by books? Can visual, screen-based narrative help to build enthusiasm for books?

This one day conference includes talks from neuroscientists, specialists in literature, film and education and representatives of The Scottish Book Trust and the Glasgow Women’s Library.

 For more details and to book a place head to their Eventbrite page

Running a Staff Book Group

Last August I decided it was time to include staff in our whole school literacy programme by setting up a Staff Book Group. Health and wellbeing would also be covered as reading has been shown to significantly reduce stress levels.

All staff were invited and from that initial meeting – 23 attendees and more notes of interest – we settled on a day and time for the first Book Group. We would meet once a month on a Monday after school in the Library for about 45 minutes. To keep it simple I had picked a book in advance which I was pretty certain that no-one would have read and which covered a variety of themes which would either appeal (or not) to most - ‘Station eleven’ by Emily St John Mandel. I e-mailed the choice to all staff and set the date for the first Monday of the following month. Staff were free to decide whether they borrowed the book from a Library, or bought a copy (paperback or e-book). Choosing the short-list is the most difficult task as I try to cover different genres and themes.

Fourteen staff attended the first Book Group proper. After a very lively discussion about ‘Station eleven’ over tea/coffee and cakes provided by myself we settled down to decide the way the Group would run in more detail. In the end it was decided that I would provide a short-list of 3-4 books from which we would vote for the next read. This book would be paperback and preferably one that was on offer either on Amazon or at a local supermarket. If staff wanted the paperback I would use my Amazon Prime membership to purchase the required number of copies and staff would then pay me for the copy or they could buy/borrow their own copy from another source. Thus books have been costing an average of £3.30 per person per month, and any change has been put in to the cake/biscuit/tea/coffee kitty!

The Group has been really popular and has members from English, Maths, CDT, Science, ALN, Social Subjects and Home Economics. It is great fun and we have read a wide variety of books over the last 9 months. Not all of the books have had great reviews from us – but it makes for an interesting discussion, however everyone agrees that they enjoy reading something different and it makes them take time to relax and read something that isn’t work related. With everyone clearly still so enthusiastic the Book Group will continue over the summer and next session.

 Yvonne Aitken - School Librarian, Inveralmond CHS, Livingston, West Lothian.

Siobhan Dowd Trust Grants

The Siobhan Dowd Trust is offering an opportunity for schools and groups across the UK who work with disadvantaged young people to apply for a series of small grants to be spent in local independent bookshops.

The amount awarded in each UK region will total £1000. This may go entirely to one school/group, or we may choose to break this amount down into several smaller grants of £750 / £500 / £250.

All you need to do is send a short email - full details of what you need to send  can be found on their site  – http://www.siobhandowdtrust.com/teachers-and-librarians/

Deadline for Scottish applicants is June 30th (other regions may vary see their website for details).

Handy sites for working with photos

Three websites that are handy if working with photos to promote the library.

First up - pixlr - you can use it online or download it for free. It allows you to edit, add effects and similar.

Want a giant poster for the library wall? Head to Block Posters which lets you create a giant version of the image split onto A4 sheets so you can print them off and pin them up. (This President Obama poster is one from the selection by SLA)

If you are creating images to share online and want to make a collage try -pic monkey - simply click on the collage button, upload the photos, arranged as desired and you can then download the collage to share as you wish.

Superhero Battle Brawl

As part of the JYHS Library's recent Comic Con pupils spend an hour and a half creating their own superheros and then battling it out to win their hearts desire. It was a huge success so I thought I'd share how we made it happen.

Step 1 - Set the scene 
The year is 2046 the country has been ravaged by a mixture of alien invasion, nuclear attacks, blundered science experiments and radioactive leaks. This has lead to the emergence of a race of superheros and villans which the nation decided were too dangerous to be free. They have imprisoned them in the school - which is now a maximum security prison. Due to an electrical surge the doors of the cells have opened and all the prisoners are now free but only one can fight their way out and claim their hearts desire.

Step 2 - Character Creation
Hand each team paper and pens. Ask one team member to come up and pull two abilities and one weakness from the buckets of decision (or whatever receptacles you have to put the two piles of cut up bits of paper with weaknesses and abilities written on them). Then giving five minutes (or so) for each task get them to make up a name, backstory, mission (what is the heart's desire their character is fighting for?) and outfit.

Step 3 - Defense and Attack Moves
Based around Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock each team has two defense moves and two attack moves. After demonstrating how to perform each move get the teams to create names for these.

Step 4 - Battle Brawl
One person from each team comes forward and presents the character they've created. Then chooses a move and on the count of three performs move. Best of three wins.

This game was created by pupil David Forrester, school librarian Kateri Wilson-Whalley and Reader in Residence forWest Lothian Libraries Harry Giles. The event took place at The James Young High School.

Save Libraries Poster

Sarah McIntyre has created a couple of wonderful posters in support of school librarians. 

Download and print out your own from her website for free.

What does a School Librarian do?

School Librarians do a very varied job though we all have the core aim of helping young people discover reading for enjoyment and information and helping them gain the skills they need to find and use information.

There are two excellent sites where you can get more of a flavour of what we get up to:

23 Librarians is created, edited and maintained by Anabel Marsh, offers a flavour of the range of library and information work in Scotland today.  Five different school libraries feature on the blog and share what attracted them to the job and a typical day in their current jobs.

Heart of the School, created by Caroline Roche to celebrate and showcase the work of school librarians in the UK offers a more specific school library focus. The name come from the quote “Libraries should be the beating heart of the school, not mausoleums for dusty books.” (Stephanie Harvey). There are a series of Day in the Life posts showing how varied and interesting a job it is.

Falkirk Book Award

Falkirk Council’s book award called RED (Read, Enjoy, Debate) Book Award is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

The shortlist is:

•  Beneath by Gill Arbuthnot 
•  Salvage by Keren David 
•  Mind Blind by Lari Don 
•  Inflicted by Ria Frances 

To celebrate the 10 years of RED they have 10 schools around the world shadowing the book award.

Books For Keeps

Books for Keeps is the UK’s leading, independent children’s book magazine.

They produce 6 issues a year and the latest issue (plus back issues) are available free online.

http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/

The School Library and Memes

Are a fun way of promoting the library, emphasising a point or raising awareness of a service.

Create your own over at http://www.memecreator.org/create

Or better yet get the pupils to do some for you.

Musings About Librarianship has an interesting article on them

ALT Survey

ALT would like you to do this survey to find out about the library provision in schools in the UK.  This is to tie in with a debate planned at ATL's annual conference in April about the shutting of school libraries. All responses to the survey will be anonymous unless you give your permission for your name to be used.

You do NOT have to be a member of ATL to answer it. It's very quick and easy to do and the last question asks if you are a member or not plus you don't have to leave any personal details either. The more people that respond then the better idea they will have of the situation regarding librarians and libraries within schools - so can I please urge you to take a few minutes and fill it in; especially if you're in a situation where you've had your hours cut, been downgraded or shoved into a small classroom somewhere!

The School Library & Youth Achievement Awards

Stromness Academy Library has a long history of providing structured activities for pupils to do in their leisure time (eg. Pupil Librarian Training, special events such as Poetry readings / story telling and Role-playing Games Activities) and now they can use these activities to work towards recognised qualifications in a pilot project which allows pupils to work towards a YouthAchievement Award. With the support of the Community Learning Officer (OIC), and Deputy Head Teacher, Frances Sinclair, the School Librarian took on the role of ‘Award Group Worker’ to oversee the pupils undertaking the award.

The YAA has four levels and each level provides an award equivalent to SQA qualifications for which pupils have to carry out a number of peer assessed challenges of their choice, producing a portfolio of evidence which can include photos of the activity, logbooks, diaries, witness observations, plans, records of attendance, certificates, to name but a few.

Bronze – takes part in activities: Four 15-hour challenges 

Silver – helps to organise activities: Six 15-hour challenges 

Gold -  plans, organises and leads activities: Seven 15-hour challenges

Platinum – takes on a leadership role: 135 hours participation 

The pupils discuss ideas with their peers and Award Group Worker and set out their own challenges and create a set of targets to achieve to complete the challenge. These awards are pupil led and they need to show responsibility and have the motivation to carryout the challenges and produce the evidence they need with minimal input from the Award Group Worker who acts in a supporting role.

The onus is on the pupil to collect their own evidence which can include photos, witness statements, evidence of time spent (eg. Logbooks), peer observations, certificates, course programmes, diary note, to name but a few. This evidence is then collated into a portfolio which is internally moderated by the Community Learning Officer giving pupils a chance to improve the portfolio prior to it being sent off for external moderation.

A number of pupils who regularly use the library, and/or are on the Pupil Librarian Training Scheme or do Role Playing Games for after school or Friday afternoon activity ‘signed up’ for the awards in 2010/11. Pupils devised their own challenges but most are using library based activities as their starting point, such as, for instance, working towards a Pupil Librarian certificate, or learning

 to play / take part Dungeons & Dragons game or Warhammer. These activities are well established in the ethos of the library provide a good starting point for these awards as well as other opportunities offered by the school. Pupils can also use other activities, such as their Hoy Outdoor Education experience or clubs, societies or sporting activities they are involved in out with school.

Being an Award Group Worker, on paper looks to be quite a simple task as the participants are supposed to be entirely responsible for their own progress and learning, but reality does mean that one has to ‘push’ pupils to remember to produce their evidence on an ongoing basis as well as organising peer group meetings and advising on the final portfolio production. There was a lot of work involved but the satisfaction of seeing pupils gain a recognised qualification (in part for work done in the library as a Pupil Librarian) is worth it.

 Frances Sinclair is the School Librarian at Stromness Academy

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of the SLA(S) newsletter.

Information Literacy Survey

This article from Kateri Wilson-Whalley originally appeared in 2013 Summer SLA(S) newsletter. Although the data is now four years old I am planning to do another survey and see if things have improved over that time.

In 2011/12 I’d noticed in my S2 Web vs. Book lesson that many of the pupils were taking 10 plus minutes to find information available on the front page of Google. S1 and S2 pupils regularly confused ‘Google’ as being the source of information plus I had an S5 pupil base an English essay on a single source – a known fake website.

So in spring 2012 I conducted a whole school survey via tutors. I asked all years the same 16 questions and then compared the results. 907 pupils responded. The questions asked about their awareness of library resources as well as their own internet use.

I felt that pupils didn’t remember what I told them if they didn’t use it regularly. So to check information retention I asked about the library catalogue. Despite every pupil being told in S1, only 51% of pupils remembered we had a catalogue. Unsurprisingly this is directly linked to me reminding them – S1 (seen fortnightly) 81% remember compared to S4 (no set classes) 27%.

5% of the pupils don’t have internet at home and of  those that do some commented that this was only occasionally or via a games console or similar.

74% have no rules on internet use at home, and as you’d expect the older the pupil the fewer who claimed parents/guardians imposed rules. Curiously parents of girls are twice as likely to have regular checks on what they get up to (1 in 5 girls said that what they looked at was regularly checked).

84% of pupils said they use the internet for homework (I’m not sure if 16% of pupils don’t do homework or if the homework being set doesn’t require research).

1/3 of boys use the internet for news compared to 1/5 of girls.

85% of the pupils use Facebook .

1 in 3 use Twitter – girls are twice as likely to than boys.

13% have their own blog.

89% watch YouTube or other videos.

7% have their own website (boys are twice as likely to have one than girls).

Only 4% download eBooks, though I expect this number will grow.

1 in 5 pupils often can’t find what they want online. There was no difference between male and female. However, age does affect pupil’s abilities with nearly 1/3 of S1 struggling to find information compared to just over 1 /10 of S6 (some of the S6 issue seem to be around finding academic resources).

2/3 of the pupils trust most of what they find online.

Less than ½ do any checks on a new website.

Only 1in 10 check who wrote a website.

Less than a 1/3 check the date or double check.

There is little difference between boys and girls. Though the girls were slightly more likely to double check, while the boys slightly more likely to check the date.

I felt these results backed up my observations from classes. The key point I felt was that 1 in 5 pupils can’t use the internet well enough to find what they want and only half the pupils are checking quality of this information and even the most basic way. Yet 84% of pupils use the internet for homework.

What concerns me is that the same skills are needed to book flights or buy clothes as to research academic papers. There are assumptions made about the ability of pupils to use the internet yet it’s clear that when the pupils reach us in S1 this isn’t a skill they already have and not all have it by S6.

The important question is what next? I gave a presentation of results to the whole staff at the start of this year. I revised my S5 Study Skills lessons (I do three annually) to reflect the skills they needed with more focus on locating and evaluating sites for research. I’ve also tried to develop the lessons I do with S1 and S2 so that these also cover and repeat the key points. Plus I’ve raised it with our whole school Literacy Committee.

I proposed that teachers:

•      Remind pupils how to search online regularly 
•      Place an emphasis on the reliability of the sources used.

•      Ask for a bibliography as part of research

I am also hoping that as a school we will create, or adopt, a universal reminder and use this throughout the school to reinforce the message.

The aim of the survey was to raise awareness of library resources and provide evidence to back up the observations I was making in class. The survey wasn’t perfect and it has left some unanswered questions but I think it was worthwhile. 

If you fancy conducting your own survey here are the questions I asked:

1. Do you ever come to the library outside of class time?

·         Daily

·         Weekly

·         Monthly

·         Couple of times a year

·         Never

2. Can you find books that you want easily? Yes/No

3. Do you have internet access at home? Yes/No

4. Do your parent/guardians make any rules about you using the internet?

·         No rules

·         Regular Checks

·         No Social Sites

·         Only approved websites

5. What do you use the internet for?

Homework/ News/ Twitter/ blogging/ Tumblr/ Shopping/ Music/ YouTube/ Your own website/ Facebook/ other social networking/ radio/ e-books/ other (please write site name)

Do you agree with these statements?

6. I often can’t find what I am looking for on the internet – yes/no

7. I trust most of what I find on the internet – yes/no

8. I am confident about using the internet – yes/no

9. When you use a website for the first time which of these would you do?

·         Check how up to date the information is

·         Check the information on other websites/ books/etc.

·         Check who created the website and why

·         None of these

·         I don’t go on new websites

10. Did you know you can find books in the library using the online library catalogue?  Yes / No

11.Do you use the JYHS Library Blog outside of class? Yes/No

12. Do ‘like’ JYHS Library on Facebook? Yes/No

13. Do ‘follow’ JYHS Library on Twitter? Yes/No

14. Do you follow the JYHS Library Tumblr blog? Yes/No

15. If you don’t do any of the above why not?

·         Didn’t know they existed

·         Don’t use these websites

·         Not Interested

·         Other (please explain)

16. Any other comments or suggestions on how to improve the library?

Kateri is the school librarian at The James Young High School

School Libraries and Pinterest

Pinterest is a great tool for the school library here are some idea on how you can make this social media tool work for you.

If you haven't already discovered it, Pinterest is an online bulletin board for your favourite images. You do need an to set up an account but you don’t need to use your real name and it’s perfectly possible to set up an account just for the school library (though it does need an email, Facebook or twitter account).

You ‘pin’ images onto ‘boards’ and you can have as many of these ‘boards’ as you want i.e. recommended reads, dark romance, homework help… Like any social media you can see and ‘follow’ what others have ‘pinned’ to their ‘boards’ and add comments. You can search the site by subject, topic or theme and look at ‘pins’, ‘boards’ and people.

Copyright issues have been flagged but Pinterest encourages ‘pinners’ to link directly to the source of their images and adhere to best practice. The main problems with copyright come from ‘repinning’ an option to ‘pin’ an image someone else has already ‘pinned’. It is worth double checking where they pulled the image from and making sure you link to the original source (you can also comment on their pin and add the right URL so they can fix their link).

I’m sure for those not technically minded that all seems like gobble-de-gook but it’s actually a very easy site to use and because it’s image based, very visual. So here are some ideas on how you can use Pinterest in the school library:

1.    Collect inspiration – for displays, programs, classes, costumes...

2.    Share reading lists.

3.    Share links to sites for classes/topics/ homework/ eBooks/ etc.

4.    Collaborate with other librarians, teachers, pupils and share ideas, recommendations. (You can add ‘contributors’ to the ‘boards’ so lots of people can add to that ‘board’)

Want more ideas? Take a look at Lee Loftland's list of 20 Great Ways Libraries are Using Pinterest for more suggestions and links to other library pinners.

SLA Posters

As a member of SLA you can access a range of materials including posters like this one, specially created for Scottish School Libraries.