The Link - Summer 1999

There's something a little bit cruel about scheduling a professional conference on the French Riviera in November. The temperatures in the south of France can still be warm and balmy that time of year, the Beaujolais nouveau will have just come out, restaurants will no doubt tempt passersby with daube de boeuf and ratatouille, and colorful shop fronts in the vieille ville will beckon.

In spite of these temptations, the committee is certain there will be enough to lure librarians and media specialists to the conference venue. Invited speakers Bob Berkowitz and John Foster will be the main draw (refer to speaker profiles in the boxes below). In addition to this, there will be the usual variety of vendors in the exhibition hall, additional presentations by library professionals, sessions of interest from other subject areas, and a myriad of opportunities to converse with colleagues in international schools, to compare notes and to swap trade secrets.

The great thing about Nice is that you can have it all. The conference center is within walking distance of the Italianate charm of the old town, and the Musée d'Art Contemporain is just down the street. You can go to sessions all day and still have time to wander down the crooked lanes of Nice's historic quarter and perhaps sit at an outdoor café to enjoy pizza seasoned with herbes de Provence. Find out what's nice about Nice. Join us in November.

John Foster is probably best known for his anthologies of poetry for children, and for his own poetry. He has also written English and general studies textbooks, and has many years' experience as an English teacher. He is particularly interested in motivating reluctant readers and young teens. I have always valued any publications which feature his name, as he shows an awareness of what attracts children to books and to poetry.

I first encountered his poetry anthologies when I was studying for my B.Ed. degree 25 years ago, and his books are among the more popular poetry books for Middle School students in my library now, a testament to his ability to stay in touch with what motivates children.

Elaine Williams said: "He is praised by publishers for his versatility, practical nature and ability to produce material of long-lasting currency. Most of all, he is valued for his innate sense of what makes children tick and how to interest them in learning" ("Well Versed," Times Educational Supplement, April 10, 1998). I am delighted that he will be speaking to us in Nice, and I am sure we will find him both an inspiration and a source of practical ideas.

Bob Berkowitz is perhaps best known within the library community as half of the team which invented the Big6 approach to library and information skills instruction (the other half being Mike Eisenberg). Bob is an adjunct instructor at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies and serves as a visiting lecturer at the State University of New York (SUNY) School of Library Studies in Buffalo, NY (USA).

Bob Berkowitz is a strong believer in goals-oriented management, the library media specialist as a key partner in the excellence in education-effective schools movement, and the integration of critical thinking skills into library and information skills instruction. He has a strong commitment to library media specialists shaping their future.

I've always felt a bit guilty about my professional collection - it seems a good idea in theory, ECIS says we need one, and it's one of the things they look for in accreditation. Yet in practice no professional collection I have worked with has been well used - and it hasn't been for want of effort. Teachers rarely suggest books for purchase, as any that they really want and use, they buy for themselves or for their department. The professional collection remains an assortment of donated books that teachers bought for courses, but don't find of practical use in the classroom.

AISB Director John Johnson came up with the idea of a Book Club for teachers (he admits that he borrowed the idea from Clayton Lewis in Luxembourg). Any teacher can recommend a book. The list of recommended titles is circulated, and those who choose to join in sign up for one book that interests them. The school then buys enough copies of each title so that every teacher who signed for a book gets a copy. Thus each participant gets a book to keep, the only condition being that the readers have to meet to discuss the book when they have all read it.

A list is published of who is reading what, one person is appointed "leader" for each book, and it is their responsibility to arrange the meeting to discuss that book. We usually meet over food and drink somewhere, so book discussions become social occasions as well.

It's like a reading-club, where everyone reads and discusses the same book - but in this case the school pays for the books. We run this once a term. Some teachers participate all three times, some participate less, and some not at all. Because our director solicits ideas for books and gets plenty of responses, we are sure of getting a viable list off the ground each time.

In practice, copies get donated to the library, or an extra copy is purchased for the library, and some teachers end up reading more than one book from the list and going to more than one discussion group (gate-crashing is welcome!). The list was originally restricted to books with some connection to education, but lately quality adult fiction has been slipping in. We also include books about or set in Hungary, as we are consciously trying to expand connections between the school and our host country.

This is a wonderful way to get teachers reading and talking about books, and often mixing with colleagues they don't normally work with. It does mean that a head or principal needs to believe in the value of this enough to put up the money but I believe that the way this scheme has taken off at our school more than justifies the expenditure.

To give you an idea of the range we have been covering, the books we are reading now are: The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image by Leonard Shlain; The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson; Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation by Jonathan Kozol; The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver; The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa; In the Memory of The Forest by Charles T. Powers; Nothing's Impossible: Leadership Lessons from Inside and Outside the Classroom by Lorraine Monroe; The Moral Intelligence in Children: How to Raise a Moral Child by Robert Coles; and Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light by Leonard Shlain.

Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions, or want to know what other books we have discussed. Give it a try - ask your principal today!

My visit to Florida really lived up to every expectation and was a rewarding experience. The staff at SIRS put together a program which combined school library visits (including a university library) with touring the various departments at their company in Boca Raton.

It was interesting to observe the different library settings in the schools I visited. I gathered some new ideas about how to encourage a reading culture among my students (knowing that these days teenagers do not read as much and therefore one has to find ways of getting them interested in reading). I also had useful discussions with other librarians about our libraries as learning resource centers and the use of technology as an information tool.

An interesting episode which occurred during one of the school visits, and which also emphasized the importance of such cross-cultural exchanges, involved a six-year-old who, after I was introduced as a librarian from Africa, asked whether we lived in trees in our country. In another school, an eleven-year-old wondered whether Africans lived with elephants. In my opinion, these particular incidents highlighted the critical role we play as media and information specialists in helping shape the perceptions of young inquiring minds. I have to say that it gave me the opportunity and it was my pleasure to share something with them about Ghana and the African continent. My desire to start a kind of information exchange exercise between our students and others of the same age abroad was also rekindled. I know my students also have a lot to learn about other people and places.

At Florida Atlantic University library I had a chance to look at a number of databases, and I picked up information on the ones I found particularly suitable for our IB students.

Visiting the various departments at SIRS was very educative. I learnt about how they painstakingly choose articles for their databases, and I found them receptive to any suggestions I had as an African librarian. They also showed me their new Web-based product which enables you to search the different SIRS databases at once.

I also was able to attend a Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME) convention, which gave me the chance to interact with and see the products of certain American vendors I normally do not see. The two-week visit brought home to me the obvious realization that there are librarians out there whose daily challenges are somewhat similar to mine. Lastly, I came back wondering whether the title 'Media Specialist' (as used in some Florida schools) was a better reflection of what I do than the title 'Librarian'. I mentioned this to my principal, and I think she may well be considering changing my title!

The 1999 SIRS/ECIS Information Exchange Award winner will be announced shortly. Thanks to all the interested applicants. This year there was a bumper crop!

The ECIS/Winnebago Progressive School Library Media Award (sponsored by the Winnebago Software Company) is awarded to a school library media specialist who implements innovative ideas to enhance the lifelong learning skills of students. The award recognizes the importance of technology in the education of elementary and/or secondary school students. The US $400 cash award is to be used to purchase technology that will further enhance students' access to information, and is not limited to Winnebago products. The school must be a member of ECIS.

You may think you have to be doing something on the cutting edge of new technology, but you don't. We are looking for something innovative in the way technology is used to encourage learning the technology itself may be very basic. Don't let a lack of fancy equipment deter you from applying!

Application forms (available from the committee chair) must be returned by Friday June 11th, 1999. The winner will be notified before the ECIS autumn conference, where the award will be presented to the library media specialist or his/her representative.

Karen Coyle, one of our invited speakers in Hamburg last autumn, presented an excellent conference session, the content of which is summed up with the following chart. For any of you who may have been worried, therešs quite obviously still a place for libraries/media centers in this world of technology. Spread the word the Internet does not replace the library, and the skills of librarians are more valuable than ever!

Your Committee

Coralie Clark completed her two years as Committee Chairman, and in keeping with what has become committee practice, stepped down. She remains on the committee, and the new Chariman is John Royce. Anthony Tilke has joined the Committee and is taking over as editor of The Link. Please contact any one member of the Committee if you have concerns, requests, ideas or suggestions as to how the Committee can support you.

John Royce (Chair), Robert College, email: jroyce@robcol.k12.tr
Coralie Clark, American International School of Budapest, email: clark.c@upper.aisb.hu
Linda Marti, International School of Prague, email: lmarti@isp.cz
Randi Pegnetter, American Internaional School of Zurich, email: pegnetkr@yahoo.com
Anthony Tilke, Yokohama Internaional School, email: tilkea@yis.ac.jp

The Link is the newsletter of the ECIS Committee on Library and Information Services
and is edited by Anthony Tilke, Yokohama International Schools.
Email: tilkea@yis.ac.jp; fax 81 45 621 0379

Internet	Library
50? million unedited Web pages	Many centuries of materials of proven quality
Mainly current materials	Entire history of human thought
Materials are un-selected	Carefully selects materials for its users
Is an undifferentiated mass of documents and information	Is an organized collection of cultural expression
Has no standard information retrieval tools	Has standard information retrieval tools
Lacks an archive	Libraries are our culture's archive
You need a computer and an Internet account	No special equipment needed
Entirely self-service	Provides extensive face-to-face service to users
Doesn't quite know what to do with kids or seniors	Has well-established service to children and young adults as well as elders
Supported mainly by advertising	Supported social institution
Gets lots of media attention	Gets almost no media attention
What the Internet Can Do for the Library	What the Library Can Do for the Internet
Fast, universal access to time-sensitive information	Provide intellectual context for current events
Bring the world into every library, regardless of size or location	Provide a physical location in the community for information inquiry
Give librarians full employment	Offer skilled professionals and proven tools

"Nice" in Every Sense of the Word ­ ECIS November Conference in Nice, 18-21 November, 1999

Your Committee

"Nice" in Every Sense of the Word ECIS November Conference in Nice, 18-21 November, 1999