I presented some of my thoughts about the dying web and student research at #ISLE25. You can see the slides here: docs.google.com/presentation...
So thrilled to be one of the organizers for the inaugural International School Librarians in Europe (ISLE) Conference this past weekend at the American School in London. 56 librarians from Europe (and beyond!) in the same room was pretty magical. I can't wait for ISLE 2026! #ISLE25 isleconf.com
For any librarians and teacher-librarians in European international schools (or beyond!), please consider joining us at a new conference in March 2025 - inspired by Librarians Knowledge Sharing Workshop in Asia! The expression of interest form is live now. isleconf.com
Or is it Babies Grinch??
This Baby Grinch gift list is terrifying and amazing and mostly terrifying. Baby Grinches for all! bnet.substack.com/p/bnet-holid...
My cousin John is in the NYT today with his wonderful new music quartet, JACK. So so so proud of him! I am pretty sure my mom still has a copy of his 3rd grade report on Beethoven somewhere on her fridge. www.nytimes.com/2023/11/26/a...
Now that they are both on here (yay!), I can give proper credit to @librarianedge.bsky.social and @angelamariechen.bsky.social who made the original version of this list!
The closing date for my (wonderful!) job is next Friday, 1 December. Come work with @librarianedge.bsky.social in a big, busy, incredibly (!) well-resourced secondary library at Tanglin Trust in Singapore! Happy to answer any questions about the job, the school, and life in Singapore.
*TES, not TEST. Oops!
And I would be remiss if I didn't point out how amazing the international school library community in Singapore is!
It's a big, busy, well-resourced library. This position is orientated towards teaching: regular Middle School library lessons and lots of work with Sixth Form students on research and information literacy.
Some notes: Tanglin is British, but offers a dual pathway (A-Levels and IB) in the Senior School, so British experience is not a pre-requisite.
I am leaving my wonderful job as Head of Senior Library at Tanglin Trust in Singapore. The position has been posted on TEST and on the school website: tts.bigredsky.com/page.php?pag... Please share! And feel free to contact me with any questions.
There is a school librarian feed!
If you have suggestions for additions, please let me know - I am always happy to grow the list!
A few months ago I updated and expanded my favorite (fairly global, mostly English-language) list of children's and YA book awards / reviews / lists / readers. You can find it here: bit.ly/BESTBOOKS2023
This was a relatively small sample (37 librarians) but it covered 21 different countries. I would love to hear from other international school librarians out there! I have left the survey open if you would like to participate: forms.gle/VAUFAabGuM14...
Respondents reported that 85% of challenges were initiated by parents.
63% reported no formal book challenges at any point in the last five years; 10% had face five or more challenges at some point in the last five years.
39% of respondents reported having items that they knew were "banned" or "restricted" in their collections.
25% of respondents did not have a formal book challenge policy in place.
A few highlights from the results: Roughly 60% of respondents reported facing formal and / or governmental restrictions on their collection development.
For a presentation in Dubai last week, I surveyed international school librarians about the restrictions and regulations they face in their contexts. You can see the presentation here: docs.google.com/presentation...
