Category: Opinion
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2023 Softlink report – Part 2/3
Welcome to part two of my opinion piece on the 2023 Softlink report. The first part, available at this link, covers my thoughts on this year’s participant numbers. My plan for this post is to dive deeper into school library budgets and staffing. I think understanding these aspects is powerful, as they are crucial for school…
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2023 Softlink report – Part 1/3
The 2023 Softlink report has been released for 2023 and I am FINALLY getting around to writing up my thoughts on it. I am pleased to see that there was a significant increase in respondents this year, particularly in New Zealand! As a result, two separate reports, one for Australia and one for New Zealand…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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A brief history of school libraries and teacher librarians in Australia
I’ve been doing some reading into the history of school libraries, teacher librarians, and the different School Library Associations around Australia to better understand where I, as a teacher librarian, come from, the continual fight for school libraries and teacher librarians, the structures of these organisations and how they support teacher librarians within their states…
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Reading Efficiency
I recently came across the concept of the “Matthew Effect” and how it applies to reading, and so I thought I’d share some of my learnings here and combine it with some of the literature I’ve been reading. Firstly, the Matthew Effect is a concept that has been around for a very long time –…
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The magic of Harry Potter
As a teacher librarian I regularly come across the phrases “I hate reading” and “I’m not a reader” in my day-to-day work. I am never angered by these comments, nor am I surprised, but rather I like the challenge that this possesses. For many students it’s often about simply finding the right book, but more…
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Diversity matters
For a long time I have been tossing up whether or not to write about the importance of reading diverse stories. I’m taking the leap because this is something that I am very passionate about and I think needs discussing. I will contain my focus for this post specifically on books and stories. Without getting…
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Developing a reading habit
During my research for my thesis, I spent a lot of time reading about the importance of reading (how meta is that…) and I discovered some very interesting things. I thought I’d share some of the most interesting tidbits of information that I discovered here. I also shared a video on my YouTube channel with…