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…
Category: TL Things
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…
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…
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…
Defining digital literature
I am currently the subject coordinator of ETL533 Literature in Digital Environments, an elective subject for the Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship), Master of Information Studies, and Graduate Certificate of Information Studies courses. We are exploring different aspects of digital literature and in our meeting last night, we started to consider the question of “what…
Aesthetic and Efferent Reading
During my reading for my PhD, I discovered a concept from the 1970s and 1980s that divides all reading into two categories: Aesthetic reading and efferent reading. This concept was put forth by Louise Rosenblatt (1904 – 2005) and has since been supported by the work of many researchers, including Beumer Johnson (2011), Krashen (2020),…
Librarian things: metadata & tagging
So, you know about hashtags but do you know about metadata and tagging for research purposes? My brother has just started a Masters degree and one of the first courses he had to do is on conducting good research. As part of this course he learned about the ways in which librarians set up catalogues…
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…
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…
STEM-A-Con Wrap-up
On Friday 26 October I hosted a sleepover in the iCentre and called it STEM-A-Con. The event was modelled off the Geek-A-Thon event I hosted last year, but with a slight difference. Students were invited if they had shown an interested in STEM classes and activities throughout the year. The girls arrived straight after school and…
Adventures of the Lifting Librarian 