"A few good ideas ideas to assist you in getting the most out of the 2015 conferences that are conducted and fully exploring everything that they have to offer.
A reflection about one school library faculty's goal of creating a positive learning environment with space that would help students and teachers develop real-world connections and the approach they took to creating it. The ideas for the space included housing the collection, helping students and teachers collaborate, being a hub for learning with a flexible floor plan and supporting newly developing areas in educational technology. The school decided to create a learning commons to move beyond traditional thinking about libraries and respond to what the kids and teachers really needed. The faculty envisioned their environment to be developmentally appropriate for their young students, as well as to foster a sense of creativity, inspiration, and encourage dialogue and a sense of community. The new learning commons library offered more space for stacks, added conference rooms and a lounge area, but the learning commons concept informed more than the library. These design changes increase opportunities to be inspired by student work and performances and create stronger interpersonal connections among students and faculty.
Like their municipal counterparts, school libraries are seeking their place in an era of overabundance of resources and Cloud-based information networks accessible from any mobile device. Getting together to examine their role in 21st century education, library media specialists from more than 50 school districts from Putnam/Northern Westchester and Southern Westchester BOCES met earlier this month at a conference themed, School Libraries: Innovative and Engaged Learning.
"The Australia Library and Information Association (ALIA) said there is a positive outlook on employment prospects for library and information professionals over the next five years, but the job market will remain tight.
This is one of the conclusions in a new report ALIA LIS Education and Employment Trend Report 2014 today (18 Sept 2014) launched in Melbourne by ALIA President Damian Lodge at the Association's National Conference."
"The edshelf platform functions as a kind of shopping mall for websites, mobile apps, and desktop programs. All items are rated & reviewed by parents & educators, for parents & educators. It can be used it to present and archive professional development sessions, to suggest a range of tool options for a variety of class projects, as a launchpad widget on full pages of my LibGuides, and as a menu to use and share real-time with participants during conference sessions."
"This website chronicles the transformation of the NCSSM library into a Learning Commons, 2012-2014, and is a session presentation at the
North Carolina School Library Media Association's (NCSLMA) annual conference, October 10-11, 2014 "
Storify "Redesigning Thinking in Libraries with Hamish Curry
At this workshop hosted by School Library Assoc of Victoria, Hamish Curry of NoTosh guided library staff through a design thinking approach to exploring the future possibilities for their individual school libraries."