— Spring 2001—
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ECIS professional development opportunities

ECIS Conference 15-18 November 2001 The Hague The conference includes a range of speakers of interest to librarians, not least Prof. Kimberley Reynolds. Kimberley Reynolds is director of the National Centre for Research in Children's Literature, (Roehampton Institute, UK) which this year received a Queen's Anniversary Prize for achievement in further and higher education in the UK. Our second guest speaker is Deborah Nourse Lattimore, an author, illustrator, historian, and archaeologist. Further details: Committee Chair John Royce jroyce@robcol.k12.tr

ECIS Triennial Special Librarians'Event:
Reading between the lines...

American International School of Budapest, Hungary, 15-17 March 2002 Keynote speaker : Joyce Valenza. Find out more about Joyce at http://mciunix.mciu.k12.pa.us/~spjvweb/jvweb.html
Details: Programme Organiser Linda Marti lmarti@isp.cz or Publicity/Registration Facilitator Anthony Tilke tilkea@yis.ac.jp. For further information, see the website: http://www.yis.ac.jp/ecisbuda/

Information of interest to librarians from ECIS

ECIS Newsletters now at http://www.ecis.org/
profdev/newsletters.htm

Gordon, Carol. "Information literacy in action" Saxmundham, John Catt Educational Ltd., 2000. (Effective International Schools Series.) ISBN 090157757X.

Coil, Carolyn. "If it's on the Internet, does that mean it's true?" In International School Journal. ECIS. Vol XX (1) November 2000 pp61­ 65. Articles of interest to librarians in IS: "Implementing a library programme" (MacDonwell) and "What are school libraries actually for?" (Tilke) in IS International Schools, the ECIS Magazine Spring-Autumn 2001 3(2) pp14-16.

Other relevant articles include

"Dick and Jane go to the head of the class." School Library Journal 46 (4) April 2000 p44-7. Available on http://www.slj.com/. (Search under Articles section/Full List of Featured Articles/April 2000.)

"Important information about the impact of school libraries (and of professional librarians) on academic achievement."
The article is a summary of three different pieces of research in USA.

"Impact of new technologies on the role of the teacher-librarian" ­ Research from Queensland, Australia: http://education.qut.edu.au/tl/Performing.htm

Elliott, Catherine B. "Helping students weave their way through the world wide web" in English Journal 90 (2) November 2000 pp87-92.

Dombrowski, Eileen "Six steps to writing a good ToK essay: a student guide" in Forum (44) November 2000, International Baccalaureate Organization.

Vesey, Ken. "A fable in two versions." The Book Report January/February 2001.

Changes to cost basis of Encyclopaedia Britannica site are available on: http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/O,1199,NAV47_NLTam_S7058603,00.html

Websites of professional interest

British Broadcasting Corporation website includes a page on children's
books. http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/archive/voyager/books/index.shtml

Websites mentioned in the award-winning book The Student's Guide to the
Internet (Library Association Publishing, London, 2000): Best Student Sites
http://www.unn.ac.uk/~iniw2/bestsite.htm

http://www.educationarena.com/ ­ Subscription
service providing current awareness of professional development (education)
titles, but with free options, e.g. SARA, which e-mails content pages of
journals as they are published.

British Film Institute: http://www.bfi.org.uk/
Movie scripts online: http://members.nbci.com/XMCM/scriptszone/index.html

Lists of books of series: http://www.monroe.lib.in.us/children's/serieslist.html

Library information galore: http://Libraryspot.com/

http://ww.searchopolis.com/ for reviews of web-sites Suitable for students in elementary, middle or high schools.

Children's picture books database that can be searched by theme and keywords: http://www.lib.mushio.edu/pictbks/

The new British Library Public Catalogue (BLPC) went live in January 2001, providing free access to the BL catalogue. BLPC home page is at http://blpc.bl.uk/ Further information, email: blpc@bl.uk

Publications of professional interest

Robertson, Hugh The project book: introduction to research and writing. Ottawa, Piper-Hill, 1999. 2nd ed. ISBN 0969306849.

Robertson, Hugh The research essay: a guide to essays and papers. Ottawa, Piper-Hill 1999. 4th ed. ISBN 0969306857.

From New Zealand, A Primary Version of the Dewey Decimal Classification. Further details: Prue Scott, National Library of New Zealand, email prue.scott@natlib.govt.nz whilst the UK School Library Association has published a subject index (further details info@sla.org.uk).

SIG/IASL

The International Association of School Librarianship is developing its Special Interest Groups. The chair of the ECIS library committee has been appointed coordinator of the International Schools SIG. Visit the SIG web site at http://www.iasl-slo.org/sig_intschools.html.

The Nice Conference

An action-packed event, lots of difficult choices, lots to enjoy. Thanks to Follett Library Resources and Follett Software Company for providing the Follett Librarians' Luncheon on the Friday, and to Elliot and Eleanor Goldstein for the magnificent SIRS Gala Dinner on the Saturday. Our special guests, Ross Todd and Tim Bowler made many fans, and we have heard good things spoken of all segments of our programme. Those who missed the Conference, and those who want to refresh their memories, will find at least three of the presentations posted on the Internet: Ross Todd's at http://vm.robcol.k12.tr/~jroyce/orgs/rosstodd.htm (by kind permission) Mark Ray's at http://www.biblitech.org/ntk.htm and John Royce's at http://vm.robcol.k12.tr/~jroyce/ workshops.htm.

From the Chair of the Library and Information Services Committee:

One down, two to go

No sooner do we finish one November Conference than we begin planning the next! In fact, more often than not we come to the November Conference primed with suggestions for the following year. This year was slightly different, for we left Nice beginning to plan not one but two events: the 2001 November Conference in The Hague, and the Special Event for 2001/2 (our turn in the three yearly Curriculum Cycle).

As noted elsewhere, the 2002 Librarians' Workshop will be held at the American International School of Budapest, 15 -17 March, 2002. As usual, we will be aiming to keep costs low to attract as many participants as we can, especially those who do not often get to the more expensive November Conferences. We are concentrating as much effort on the November Conference to make it extra special and extra memorable. Mind you, last time we were in The Hague was 1997, and we celebrated 20 years of ECIS committee-dom: the Library Committee was the first of the ECIS Subject Committees. That means that next year's Conference in Berlin will be our 25th anniversary, an event well-worth celebrating. Now how many conferences did I say we were planning for?

As always, we hope to include a mix of home grown talent and guest speakers. Home grown means YOU, gentle reader. Our conferences and workshops are impossible without your participation: as audience and as presenter. If YOU would like to present, or just to find out more, get in touch with Linda Marti for the 2002 Special Event and John Royce for the November Conference (e-mail addresses are listed below).

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions: Section of School Libraries and Resource Centres

The School Library in Teaching and Learning for All IFLA/UNESCO School Library Manifesto

The school library provides information and ideas that are fundamental to functioning successfully in today's information and knowledge-based society. The school library equips students with life-long learning skills and develops the imagination, enabling them to live as responsible citizens.

The Mission of the School Library
The school library offers learning services, books and resources that enable all members of the school community to become critical thinkers and effective users of information in all formats and media. School libraries link to the wider library and information network in accord with the principles in the UNESCO Public Library Manifesto.

Library staff support the use of books and other information sources, ranging from the fictional to the documentary, from print to electronic, both on-site and remote. Materials complement and enrich textbooks, teaching materials and methodologies.

It has been demonstrated that, when librarians and teachers work together, students achieve higher levels of literacy, reading, learning, problem-solving and information and communication technology skills.

Library services must be provided equally to all members of the school community, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, nationality, language, professional or social status. Specific services and materials must be provided for those who are unable to use mainstream library services and materials.

Access to services and collections should be based on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Freedoms, and should not be subject to any form of ideological, political or religious censorship, or to commercial pressures.

Funding legislation and networks
The school library is essential to every long-term strategy for literacy, education, information provision and economic, social and cultural development. School libraries must have adequate and sustained funding for trained staff, materials, technologies and facilities and be free of charge.

The school library is an essential partner in the local, regional and national library and information network. Where the school library shares facilities and/or resources with another type of library, such as a public
library, the unique aims of the school library must be acknowledged and
maintained.

Goals of the school library
The school library is integral to the educational process. The following
core services are essential to the development of literacy, information
literacy, teaching, learning and culture:

• supporting and enhancing educational goals as outlined in the school's mission and curriculum;
• developing and sustaining in children the habit and enjoyment of reading and learning, and the use of libraries throughout their lives;
• offering opportunities for experiences in creating and using information for knowledge, understanding, imagination and enjoyment and in learning and practising skills for evaluating and using information;
• providing access to global resources that expose learners to diverse ideas and experiences;
• working with students, teachers, administrators and parents to achieve the school's mission; proclaiming the concept that intellectual freedom and access to information are essential to effective and responsible citizenship and participation in a democracy;
• promoting reading to the whole school community and beyond.

The Manifesto also looks at staffing and management. This edited form of the Manifesto is possible through kind permission of the Section Chair, Glenys Willars. The full text is available at: http://ifla.org/VII/s11/ssl.htm#3d.