In the last two weeks in February, I worked on campus and it was a lot of fun. This is my third work visit to Wagga Wagga (fourth overall so I’m starting to get the lay of the land) so I thought I’d do a bit of a run down of what’s been like to…
Author: Krystal Gagen
Teacher Librarian, avid reader, educator, technology enthusiastic, gym owner, powerlifter, life long learner.
Reviewing and rating books: A deeply personal act
The following Tweet popped up in my Twitter feed the other day and it got me thinking… There are a couple of issues within this tweet, including the concept of authors trying to influence reviews/ratings of their books, but the one I want to focus on is the act of rating and reviewing books, and…
Opinion: Softlink 2022 Report
The 2022 Softlink report has been released! Each year, Softlink invites school libraries and Teacher Librarians (TLs) around Australia and New Zealand to respond to their annual survey. Each year, Softlink produces a report with their findings. I’ve had a good look at the 2022 report and thought it might be fun to draw out…
Opinion: Teen Reading in the Digital Era Report Update
The Teen Reading in the Digital Era project is a fabulous project that is run by a team of researchers from Deakin University and is all about understanding teen reading habits. Findings of this research provide valuable insights into the reading lives of teens. They have recently released a report with an update on their…
Tools for Content Creation
There are so many tools available for digital content creation; it can be very overwhelming! I thought I’d give a quick rundown of the tools I use to create content for blogs, Instagram, YouTube and Spotify. “Free” Content By now we should all know about Creative Commons Licensing and what images we CAN and CANNOT…
Reading for me
The past 12 months have been incredibly liberating in terms of my reading material. From Dec 2015 to Dec 2021, I read nothing but books I could recommend to my students. Since leaving the school library/classroom and moving into the world of academia, I decided to read only that which got me super excited. Don’t…
Selecting First Nations Resources
I was recently asked to do a presentation for the members of the School Library Association of NSW (SLANSW) on Resourcing for the Curriculum, and I chose to focus on an area that we are developing in one of the subjects I teach in at Charles Sturt University (CSU); ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum. Currently, we…
One year of being an academic
Today marks my 1 year anniversary in my not-so-new job. I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed this year. So, instead, I’m going to list a five big things that I’m proud of. 1. I am a PhD candidate Most of you would already know that I passed my Confirmation of Candidature process…
A day in the life of a teacher librarian
“What does a typical day for a teacher librarian look like?” I get this question from my students a lot and I can understand why. I mean, we like to know what we’re getting ourselves into. We also like to be able to plan ahead. I think people outside the profession also have questions about…
PhD Research Confirmed
I am so very pleased to announce that I have been officially confirmed as a PhD candidate in the School of Information and Communication Studies at Charles Sturt University. In this blog post, I will share my research project plans, questions, and hopes. Firstly, some logistical information. My research project is called: Factors affecting the…
Adventures of the Lifting Librarian 