ALT_1An introduction to school librarianship About this free course This free course is an adapted extract from the Open University course . This version of the content may include video, images and interactive content that may not be optimised for your device. You can experience this free course as it was originally designed on OpenLearn, the home of free learning from The Open University – There you’ll also be able to track your progress via your activity record, which you can use to demonstrate your learning.

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(.epub) Introduction and guidance This free badged course, An introduction to school librarianship, aims to develop learners’ confidence and skills in delivering a library service in schools. It could be of use to librarians with little or no knowledge, as well as those with experience who are looking to upskill. The course lasts 24 hours, with 8 ‘sessions’. You can work through the course at your own pace, so if you have more time one week there is no problem with pushing on to complete a further study session. The eight sessions are linked to ensure a logical flow through the course. They are: Session 1: A librarian’s role in the school Session 2: Equality and diversity in your school Session 3: The best use of technology Session 4: Creating a reading-rich culture Session 5: Embedding literacy in your school Session 6: Independent study and information literacy Session 7: Championing the library Session 8: Reflection and review Topics covered in the course include the library’s role in the school, legal requirements, and how best to use technology. There is an emphasis on developing an effective practice to meet stakeholders’ needs, and the course also encompasses the overarching principles necessary to support research, literacy, and reading. Throughout the course you will follow two library professionals, Sarah and Nick. Although their backgrounds differ, they both have vast experience and share the same school library goals. There will be numerous opportunities to check your learning. This includes interactive quizzes, of which Sessions 4 and 8 will provide you with an opportunity to earn a badge to demonstrate your new skills. You can read more on how to study the course and about badges in the next sections. Learning outcomes After completing this course, you will be able to: recognise the ways the library can support whole-school reading literacy, information literacy and research skills identify and use the appropriate strategies to deliver a service in the library use resources, confidently and critically, to meet library stakeholders’ needs and fulfil an agreed development plan reflect proactively on performance levels and identify steps for further development. Moving around the course In the ‘Summary’ at the end of each session, you will find a link to the next session. If at any time you want to return to the start of the course, click on ‘Full course description’. From here you can navigate to any part of the course. It’s also good practice, if you access a link from within a course page (including links to the quizzes), to open it in a new window or tab. That way you can easily return to where you’ve come from without having to use the back button on your browser. There are text boxes within the activities for you to make notes where it would be helpful. This saves for you to refer back to, and only you can access these notes, noone else is able to see them. Alternatively, you are welcome to make notes offline instead, for example in a notebook. The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.

While studying An introduction to school librarianship you have the option to work towards gaining a digital badge. Badged courses are a key part of The Open University’s mission to promote the educational wellbeing of the community. The courses also provide another way of helping you to progress from informal to formal learning. Completing a course will require about 24 hours of study time. However, you can study the course at any time and at a pace to suit you. Badged courses are available on The Open University’s OpenLearn website and do not cost anything to study. They differ from Open University courses because you do not receive support from a tutor, but you do get useful feedback from the interactive quizzes. What is a badge? Digital badges are a new way of demonstrating online that you have gained a skill. Colleges and universities are working with employers and other organisations to develop open badges that help learners gain recognition for their skills, and support employers to identify the right candidate for a job. Badges demonstrate your work and achievement on the course. You can share your achievement with friends, family and employers, and on social media. Badges are a great motivation, helping you to reach the end of the course. Gaining a badge often boosts confidence in the skills and abilities that underpin successful study. So, completing this course could encourage you to think about taking other courses.

Digital badge for An introduction to school librarianship

Getting a badge is straightforward! Here’s what you have to do: read each session of the course score 50% or more in the two badge quizzes in Session 4 and Session 8. For all the quizzes, you can have three attempts at most of the questions (for true or false type questions you usually only get one attempt). If you get the answer right first time you will get more marks than for a correct answer the second or third time. Therefore, please be aware that for the two badge quizzes it is possible to get all the questions right but not score 50% and be eligible for the badge on that attempt. If one of your answers is incorrect you will often receive helpful feedback and suggestions about how to work out the correct answer. For the badge quizzes, if you’re not successful in getting 50% the first time, after 24 hours you can attempt the whole quiz, and come back as many times as you like. We hope that as many people as possible will gain an Open University badge – so you should see getting a badge as an opportunity to reflect on what you have learned rather than as a test. If you need more guidance on getting a badge and what you can do with it, take a look at the OpenLearn FAQs. When you gain your badge you will receive an email to notify you and you will be able to view and manage all your badges in My OpenLearn within 24 hours of completing the criteria to gain a badge. Get started with Session 1.

Session 1: A librarian’s role in the school The educational landscape is subject to constant change. Being aware of this and responding accordingly is, therefore, key to the success of the librarian’s role and their library. All who work in school libraries, whatever their level of qualification, will benefit from learning about ways in which they can ensure their library provision is current and relevant. By ensuring your library’s strategies and policies are aligned with those of the school itself, you will be better placed to support your school, your colleagues, and your stakeholders’ needs effectively. In this first session, by referring to your school’s strategies and policies, you will learn how to maximise the potential of your library provision and shape your role in the school. To help you achieve this, you will need a library development plan. This will form the focus of the first part of this session. By the end of this session, you will be able to: understand how your library development plan can support your school recognise the ways in which the library can support teaching colleagues and the curriculum identify stakeholders and their needs. Before you start, The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations of the course. Your input will help to further improve the online learning experience. If you’d like to help, and if you haven’t done so already, please fill in this optional start-of-course survey. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others. Libraries play a key role in schools. They are places where students come together and different interests overlap. For this reason, libraries are essential for the encouragement of learning and curiosity. Although such environments should naturally expose students to new perspectives and concepts, it’s also important that the library reflects and supports the unique policies, demographics and mission aims of your school. Whether a primary or secondary, state or independent, the location, size, demographic and nature of your school will shape its strategic direction. If your library is to be an integral part of your school, its provision must likewise be tailored to the school itself. Creating a library development plan will help you to stay aligned to your school’s mission and set out your vision for the library based on that. A library development plan strategically outlines your priorities to raise standards and identifies the measures to achieve your goals. A typical library development plan will include a short introduction that summarises your previous year’s evaluation and sets out a rationale for any changes you intend to implement. This is usually followed by a table which presents a simplified outline of what you intend to achieve in the future, your strategies, the resources you’ll need, and the criteria by which you will judge your success. This should be presented in a simple format so it is easy to read and relevant parties, including senior leadership and school managers, can be made aware of the strategic direction of your library. It is important not to be too ambitious when creating your development plan. You should set targets that are realistic and which provide motivation to staff. You may also wish to limit yourself to no more than three or four goals. If possible, it is preferable for your goals to be linked to your school’s overarching policies or strategies. However, this may not always be possible. Watch school library professional, Nick, discuss some of the specific considerations to be accounted for when creating your library development plan in Video 1. Video 1 NICK Schools come in all shapes and sizes. There are primaries and secondaries, state schools, the independent sector, and academy chains. But whatever type of school you work in, we all have one common core mission, and that's to provide education. It's just how that mission is delivered might be different. And the same is true for school librarians, every school library is unique. You might be part of a team, or you might be working on your own. I find it really useful to network with librarians in other schools through going to local meetings, and by taking part in online discussion groups and social media. It's really helped me to appreciate how different all schools are, and also just how much we have to learn from each other. First, I think it's really important to understand the profile of your own school community, and its diverse mix of students with different needs, such as English as a second language, or special educational needs. You also need to be aware of the makeup of your school in terms of things like ethnicity, gender, and prior attainment. Once you've spent some time discovering your school community, it's important to find out about the school's mission statement and development plan, which are usually on the school website, because these will set out the priorities of your school such as raising standards, improving attainment, or increasing cultural capital. Then when you know that, you can develop your own library plan in line with the school's priorities, of course, it's not just a personal wish list. And that will demonstrate how the library is a key part of helping the school to meet its aims. As a professional librarian, you also need to be aware of legislation too, particularly, in relation to data protection and safeguarding, but also more general legislation that librarians as professionals have to keep up to date with, for example, what's permissible under copyright law. For the day-to-day running of your library, you also need to be familiar with the school's policies on the use of mobile phones and computers. It's always nicer if we can make the rules so well understood without repeating them that we spend our time emphasising what we can do, and not what we can't. It may sound like there's a lot of dry reading to do, but in truth, creating your own library plan that encompasses the school's aims and truly supports a diverse community is a really satisfying thing to do. And the result is an inclusive service in which all students can see themselves reflected in the books and the resources that you provide at a busy but calm and happy library environment.

As Nick mentioned, understanding your school’s policies and familiarising yourself with their mission statement – a formal summary of its aims and values – is instrumental in creating a focused library plan which truly reflects your school’s values. Referring to the school’s teaching and learning policy, the literacy policy and, of course, the school’s wider development plan will help you do this. Thinking about the profile of the school community and the diversity of students, in terms of, for example, ethnicity and gender, as well the differing needs for those with English as a Second Language or with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is another important consideration. It is usual, but by no means obligatory, for your development plan to cover a 12-month period. It is equally credible to have a two, three, of five-year development plan as some things will inevitably take longer to achieve. To begin considering how to approach a library development plan in your own school, take a look at this example template of a library development plan. After this, complete Activity 1. An example template of a library development plan can be viewed here. Activity 1 Allow approximately 20 minutes Referring to the template library development plan for guidance, identify a goal for your library for the upcoming year. Then, using the prompt questions given below, explain how you will achieve your goal, what resources will be necessary, and how you will determine success. What is your goal? Visualise and describe as precisely as possible what has to be achieved. Strategies: what specific actions will you need to do in order to achieve your goal? Resources: what is required to implement your strategies? Indicators of success/monitoring: how will you check progress so you know you are on track? If you found this activity useful, you may like to use it as a starting point for your own development plan, considering other goals you have identified for your library. The advantages of a development plan include: it can help you to identify your goals, organise your thoughts, and think strategically when you come to evaluate your performance, the development plan can act as a point of reference, helping you assess which goals have been met and what still needs to be achieved it can be used as an ‘at a glance’ synopsis of your intentions and goals for any interested parties, e.g., your line manager. In this section, you have explored some of the considerations involved in putting together a library development plan. This will form the base of your own plan. You will build on this base in future sessions, covering a range of topics which will influence your approach. Amongst other topics, you will consider how stakeholders influence collection management and the design of your library, how you can embed literacy in your school, and how to choose software which meets your requirements and budget. First, however, you will look in more detail at how legislation will influence your approach to your role. Legislation is an important area for librarians to be aware of because people working in the educational sector have a duty of care to their students and are obliged to comply with safeguarding legislation. This is especially important for librarians, who are often lone workers and, as such, are responsible for the welfare of students at that time. However, the importance of abiding by legislation is not limited to safeguarding. Depending on the country in which you work, there may be a wide range of legislation which you should familiarise yourself with, including, for example, data protection, equality, health and safety, or copyright. As a librarian, you have a responsibility to engage with and understand the policies and legislation surrounding your role. For example, in the case of safeguarding, if a pupil were to tell you something in confidence, you would have a duty of care to inform appropriate members of staff; not only is this important for safeguarding reasons, but to keep the secret would also represent an inappropriate blurring of the boundary between teacher and student. As far as data protection is concerned, GDPR legislation in the UK dictates that it is illegal to store a pupil’s data and images indefinitely. Similarly, you must give pupils and parents the right to opt out if you wish to share their name, photo, or other information which can identify them in your promotional materials. In the case of copyright, UK schools are granted licenses by the copyright Licensing Authority and Printed Music Licensing Ltd which permit them to make copies of books and printed music. However, these licenses may set limits on the amount of a work that can be copied. With books you are only allowed to copy one chapter or 5% of the total work, whichever is greater. Conversely, with music you can make full copies and upload them to your Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) but you can’t make more copies than the number of students in the class. You also can’t reproduce more than 10% of items in an anthology or large vocal score. Having a knowledge of different legislation and policies, especially when they have a direct impact on your library or your role, and demonstrating an awareness of these in your library development plan will enhance the potential of your library provision and shape your role in the school. However, if you are unaware of them, you may inadvertently find yourself breaking the law or contravening internal school policies. To think further about this, in the next activity, you will reflect on how legislation, such as data protection (e.g. the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)) and equality, diversity and inclusion (e.g. the Equality Act) may apply to you. Activity 2 Allow approximately 20 minutes Part 1 Complete Table 1 by filling in the right-hand column with an example of how you make your library compliant in the areas of legislation given. Table 1 Legislation compliance

Legislation	How you make your library compliant in this area
GDPR
Safeguarding & child protection
Equality Act
Occupational Safety and Health Act

Below is an example of how you may have filled out Table 1. However, there are many ways you might make your library compliant and the way you approach the matter in your own library may differ from this suggestion. Table 2 An example of how you may have completed Table 1

Legislation	How you make your library compliant in this area
GDPR	Don’t store images and data beyond the period of retention as set out in your school policy
Safeguarding & child protection	Use appropriate signposting to make students aware of points of contact if they wish to raise concerns
Equality Act	Ensure aisles are wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs
Occupational Safety and Health Act	Provide kick stools to reach top shelves

Part 2 Now you have identified ways in which you currently make your library compliant in different areas of legislation, in this next part of this activity you should identify which policies and documents you might refer to, to help shape your library development plan. You should include information on where the policies and documents are located, and the key personnel who can assist you with each. Each school and library will be different so there are no right and wrong answers to this activity. You may choose to focus on areas of legislation you are already compliant with, areas you are yet to apporach, or, if you prefer, both. In Table 3 below, identify which policies and documents you might refer to, to help shape your library development plan. You should include information on where the policies and documents are located, and the key personnel who can assist you with each. Each school and library will be different so there are no right and wrong answers to this activity. Table 3 Documents or policies you might refer to

Document/policy	Accessed/located	Key personnel to help

What you have added into Table 3 will be personal to you and your library development plan. There are no right or wrong answers to this task, but below are some suggestions which you might have considered. Table 4 An example of how you may have completed Table 3

Document/policy	Accessed/located	Key personnel to help
School improvement plan	Principal/Headteacher’s office or staff area of VLE	Principal/Headteacher’s PA
Literacy development plan	Staff area of VLE	Literacy co-ordinator
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion	Staff area of VLE	Head of Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)

In this section, you have begun to think about the importance of legislation to your role. As part of this, you have considered how to make your library compliant with such legislation as well as some of the policies you may need to refer to when creating your library development plan. In the next section, you will explore how working collaboratively with colleagues can help you tailor your collection management and support the curriculum. As you saw in the previous sections, a one-size-fits-all approach across the school library profession is unrealistic as no two schools are the same. Demonstrating an awareness of this in your collection management is key and allows you to more effectively support teachers and the specific educational process in your school. By working collaboratively with teaching colleagues from across your school, you will be better able to identify which resources to invest in as part of your collection management, allowing you to tailor your provision to the educational needs of students in your school. For example, by consulting with teachers and other colleagues, such as the head of special educational needs, you can gain a deeper understanding of the teaching process and better support teaching and learning across the curriculum for those with special educational needs. Demonstrating an awareness of syllabi and topics of study can help your meetings with colleagues to be more profitable. Showing other teaching staff that you are interested in their subject is also likely to lead reciprocal support for you. To reflect further on these issues, watch Video 2 below where Sarah offers her own thoughts on the ways in which libraries can support staff and the curriculum. As you watch, consider your experiences and think about how your own library offers support to teachers and other school colleagues. Video 2 SARAH: I think when you're doing some collaborative project work with teachers, it's really important to do your homework. I certainly found if you can invest some time in looking at the exam syllabus that they're following or maybe you look at the scheme of work and the coverage of the curriculum, then you become more knowledgeable and you can make sure that the help you're going to give them is relevant. Always remember, these are busy people. And I remember my daughter saying to me once that stop filling up my brain with things that I don't need to pass the exam. And I think we need to bear that in mind because we need to keep our help to the point and something that people accept, so that they accept us as part of the learning team. With that in mind, it's also important to pick teachers who are really wanting to work with you. Because if you can work together to plan the lesson and to select the resources, then you can ensure that the learning outcomes for the students will be met. If you've got confidence in what learning outcomes the students are trying to achieve, it really helps you to guide the students to the correct resources no matter what the format is. But the other thing is that some teachers, they might have a really difficult class to deal with and they just want an alternative environment, somewhere else to take that class, so that maybe they calm down a bit or they're more ready to learn. And we have to be aware that sometimes that's how they want to use our libraries. One thing that I really enjoyed was watching teachers teach. You can learn so much. Not just the good bits, but you can learn what to avoid as well. And it led me to a qualification, just an NVQ level three, in adult education and training for post 16 students, and that got me to understand where teachers are coming from. It got me to speak the speak and it got me to understand the terminology.

In the video, Sarah stressed the importance of ‘doing your homework’. By becoming knowledgeable on the exam syllabus or the scheme of work being studied it ensures you are able to give relevant support and become an integral part of the school. The relationship between librarian and teacher, however, is two-way and so, as Sarah suggests, you should look to work with teaching staff who are keen to collaborate. Working together, you can plan lessons with clear direction so the library can help learning objectives be met. Now you have heard how Sarah supports staff and the curriculum, have a go at Activity 3 which will provide you with an opportunity to develop your ideas, by considering the benefits of your current approach and how it might be improved. Activity 3 Allow approximately 15 minutes In Table 5, provide three examples of how you currently assist teaching colleagues and the benefits of this. Then in Table 6 provide an additional three examples of things you don’t currently do but would like to introduce. Table 5 Current ways I provide support for teaching colleagues

Ways in which I currently assist teaching colleagues	Benefits

Table 6 Possible new ways of providing support for teaching colleagues

Additional ways in which I would like to assist teaching colleagues	Benefits

This activity should have made you think about the way you work with colleagues. One of the greatest benefits of working with colleagues is that it provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate the value and the breadth of services you and your library can offer. It also helps to forge relationships and helps you both understand what areas you need to develop. If enhancing curriculum-led usage of the library is a goal you’ve highlighted for your library development plan, you might consider building up relationships with teaching colleagues in specific subject areas as a strategy to achieve this. Teaching colleagues are just one stakeholder you will work with as a school librarian. In the next section, you will identify others and learn how to support their needs. A stakeholder is someone who has an interest in an organisation and who can either affect or be affected by the activities of that organisation. As such, a library’s stakeholders can range from students and teaching colleagues to governors and parents. Developing an appreciation of these different groups and their needs will enable you to tailor your library provision accordingly. It is, therefore, crucial that you acknowledge your stakeholders in your library development plan and ascertain whether you are meeting their requirements. If not, you should consider how to implement any necessary changes in the future. Activity 4 Allow approximately 20 minutes Create a list of your library’s stakeholders and consider the wide range of expectations they will have of your library provision and how you can fulfil their requirements. When doing this, it is of particular relevance to consider how students with differing abilities, skills and expectations, experience and access your library’s resources. Table 8 Library stakeholders and their expectations

Stakeholders	Their expectations

When considering your stakeholders, it is important to be specific. For example, for students with dyslexia, you can support them by being aware of specialist publishers that use dyslexia friendly fonts, layouts and paper so you can provide them with alternative formats such as audiobooks or large print versions. Alternatively, a tinted film to overlay on each page may work for some dyslexic students. Similarly, your library can support those with English as a Second Language (EASL) by providing resources in their primary language. However, many stakeholders will have needs which cannot be so easily categorised. For this reason, it is important to be observant and draw on the expertise of specialists within your school wherever necessary. This is where building up relationships with colleagues, as discussed in Section 3, can be hugely beneficial. Although it’s not possible for you or your team to address all of your stakeholder’s needs or solve all of their problems, you can nevertheless be prepared and learn how to handle situations with sensitivity. Now watch Video 3 before moving on to Activity 5. In this video, Sarah talks about the various key personal to liaise with to help identify various stakeholders and provides examples of some of the library resources they may need. Video 3 SARAH: So we have to remember that our libraries serve the whole of the school community, and that means that students come in a variety of different shapes, sizes, and with all their different needs. But it's important that we recognise that sometimes, we need the expertise of others to help us. For example, if I had a student who got dyslexia, then I would go and look for the special needs coordinator, and I would, the SENCo, and I would try and find out some information from them. I had a student once in my library who just wouldn't sit still, and they were jumping around all over the place. And I wondered, I looked at the school management system and realised they were on the special needs register. So I went to the SENCo, and she was able to give me a special cushion for this student to sit on. Well, it didn't completely solve the problem, but it certainly improved the situation that I was facing. Sometimes, I might have a student in my library who seems a bit down, or perhaps they've got known mental health issues. And then I'd probably go and seek out some help and information maybe from their tutor, or their learning mentor, or even the school nurse or a school counsellor. I can't solve the problems for these students because I haven't had the training. But what I can do is to learn how to handle their needs with sensitivity and to be aware of them. The real go-to place is the school office. If you need to find anything to do with the students, they maintain the school management system, and the good thing is now I can actually have that on my computer in the library so I can look up and check on students that I feel there might be another underlying issue that I need to be aware of.

Activity 5 Part 1 Part 2 Using the examples of different students given in Part 1 as a starting point, list some of the learning needs you have encountered whilst working as a librarian in your school. Beside each, note down the resources that your library currently provides for them. If there are any learning needs that you don’t think you quite cater for at the moment, list these too along with the resources you would need. You can then return to these notes to help you build on your library’s provision. The first row has been done for you as an example. Table 9 Resources for learners’ different needs

Learners’ needs	Appropriate resources
Dyslexia	Dyslexia friendly books from specialist publishers

In these activities, you have spent some time considering the ways you can address the needs of stakeholders and make the library an inclusive and welcoming environment for all. This is a theme you will return to at greater length in Session 2. Now that you’ve completed Session 1, you can take a short quiz to help you to reflect on what you’ve learned. Open the quiz in a new tab or window by holding down Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) when you click on the link. Return here when you have finished. Session 1 quiz. In this session, you have looked at how to tailor your library provision to your school, creating a unique library development plan which supports the educational and recreational requirements of your stakeholders. You have also explored the importance of legislation to your role and learned how working collaboratively with colleagues can help you gain insight into the teaching process and target your provision more effectively to support learning outcomes. Finally, you have thought about how to identify library stakeholders and attend to their various needs, being observant and liaising with specialists wherever necessary. Continuing on this theme, in the next session you will explore the relationship between stakeholders’ needs and the physical environment of your library. You will also learn about collection management and consider how to balance the different types of library resources you have. You should now go to Session 2. Session 2: Equality and diversity in your school Schools and libraries are expected to strive to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion. This should be evident in your library’s practice and policies to guarantee fair treatment and opportunity for all. It is essential to acknowledge that each individual and their needs are unique. Only once these needs are known can you begin to effectively manage your library’s resources and help to address prejudice, unconscious bias and discrimination. By the end of this session, you should be able to: design a physical environment that is safe, accessible and appropriate adapt your collection management to ensure it is socially inclusive and representative of your entire school community ensure accessibility of physical and digital resources and, if required, provide alternative formats and web accessibility. When considering how to meet your stakeholders’ needs, it is important to think about the physical aspects of your library and how they affect access to its resources. This includes everything from shelf heights and aisle widths to the hearing-loop system and Wi-Fi. However, not all libraries are purpose-built, many having evolved through an amalgamation of classrooms, inherited resources and restrained budgets. In such situations it is inevitable that compromises will be made. Even if this is the case, it is advantageous to be aware of what is ideal, what standards are acceptable, and what to aim for. For example, obstacles such as narrow aisles may act as barriers to wheelchair users, preventing them from having full access to your library or, if already in the library, fire exits. Similarly, students with hearing difficulties may require the assistance of hearing-loop technology and visually impaired students may require carpet lines showing pathways, large print displays, good lighting, as well as print magnifiers. When designing your library, it’s essential to keep such considerations at the forefront of your mind, ensuring the library is an accessible, welcoming, and inclusive environment for the entire school community. Liaising with colleagues who are aware of students’ specific needs is, therefore, of key importance to understanding how your library can cater for everyone. To encourage you to think about some of the considerations involved in designing your own library, watch the video below where Nick discusses the physical aspects of a library, what constitutes good library design, and ways in which you can configure your library so that it best meets your stakeholders’ needs. Video 1 NICK: When you think about the design of your library, you have to be conscious that it must be accessible for the whole school community, for everyone. For instance, you might have students sent to the library if they have a sports injury and are on crutches, but that's not much good if your library has stairs. Knowing your school community profile will help you. You need to think about accessibility for wheelchair users, such as the width of aisles and the height of tables and shelves. And you also need to be aware of assistive technology that's available on computers and things like hearing loops that can support those with visual or hearing difficulties. You might not get the opportunity to redesign your library from scratch, but it's still worth thinking about how you can make the most of your available space and what improvements you could make. Good Wi-Fi and internet access in the library are pretty essential these days, whether through the library's computers or if students bring their own device. You should also consider whether students have the facility to scan, copy, and print their work. But it's not just technology. How you signpost the shelves, use displays on notice boards and TV screens, as well as the layout of furniture and the colour scheme can all affect the way in which the library is used. If you think about the lively atmosphere created by bright colours in a fast food chain to the more subdued tones of a classy restaurant, you can use this effect to zone your library, with areas for quiet study or reading and more collaborative areas for group work and discussion. Where possible, it's a good idea to use mobile or flexible furniture so that you can adapt the layout as needed. Remember, libraries are never static, and a good design will enable the library to grow and adapt to your future needs while helping to create a lively and creative environment where students are welcomed and supported.

As well as considering aisle widths and assistive technology such as hearing loops to create an accessible library, Nick also highlights how the layout of furniture, by using zones with different lighting and colour schemes to suit both independent and collaborative work, can help create a welcoming environment for students to visit. Additionally, by making use of mobile fixtures and fittings you can create a flexible space, which can adapt to stakeholder needs as they change over time. With Nick’s suggestions in mind, complete Activity 1 to reflect on your current practices and how they might be improved. Activity 1 Allow approximately 20 minutes Table 1 lists some of the design elements that should be taken into consideration when setting out your library. In the second column, note down which aspects of your library you feel are satisfactory and how you meet requirements. Then, identify aspects of your library that you feel could be improved and in the third column provide suggestions on ways you think this might be achieved Table 1 Library design

	Examples of how your library meets stakeholder needs	Examples of how you could improve your library design
Access to library (ground or first floor), location in the school, door and aisle widths
Lighting, sound and the use of colour, décor, furniture and walls
Wi-Fi and access to Internet and devices; PCs and tablets
Height of the furniture: library counter, tables and shelving
Assistive technology – software on PCs, the ‘loop’ system
Signposting, displays and plasma TV screens
Layout: zoning, seating, shelving and furniture

Now that you have identified which areas of your library’s design are satisfactory and which need improvement, you will be better placed to formulate an improved approach moving forward. Your library development plan will provide you with an excellent opportunity to reflect further on the practicalities involved. What, for example, are the cost implications? Could any of the changes be implemented straightaway? How might you prioritise any changes? These are just some of the questions you may wish to consider further. In the next section, you will think about how stakeholder demographics can also influence your collection management. The layout and design of your library is crucial for making a safe and accessible environment that is welcoming to everyone. However, in order to truly fulfil your duty as a school librarian, it is necessary that your collection is representative of your entire school community. An ability to cater to their unique needs is a fundamental aspect of good collection management. In order to demonstrate an understanding of these needs, it is wise to consider the society in which your school exists. This will help you identify relevant factors such as multiculturalism, a higher prevalence of a particular faith, or students for whom English is a second language. You should try to cater for such needs by stocking specific resources, for example foreign-language books for those with English as a second language. This will also help other students find out more about other cultures. Similarly, you may also seek to offer resources which address private or personal issues such as sexual orientation and mental health and wellbeing. These can help students explore sensitive topics and find answers to questions they may otherwise be afraid to broach with others, fostering a sense of inclusivity and demonstrating your awareness of their needs.

Colourful silhouettes of the heads and shoulders of six children of different ethnicities.

Another major factor which might influence your collection management is the socio-economic background of students; students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds may have fewer books in their home due to financial restrictions, a factor which can have far reaching consequences on student’s literacy levels and educational outcomes. One study has found that fourteen-year-olds from homes with very few books knew 42% fewer words than those from homes with lots of books (UCL Institute of Education, 2017). This example demonstrates just one of the ways socio-economic status can impact on students’ literacy levels and interest in reading. Thinking of ways to engage these students and target their interests should, therefore, be of key importance in your collection management and including resources requested by students can be one way of doing this. Indeed, it is only by looking at your school from this broader perspective that you can focus your resources appropriately and reassure students that your collection management reflects the full diversity of their communities. To explore further the intersection between collection management and the needs of stakeholders, watch the video below. Then, considering the demographics of your own school, complete the activity and reflect on how your collection management can help meet their needs. Video 2 SARAH: When you're putting together a collection policy, I think it's really important to bear in mind the diverse community with which we're serving. So we need to encompass all students. And a good way to do this is to look at the school mission statement and the wider aims and goals of the school. So, for example, we might change our collection according to the age of our students. Whether they have English as an additional language. We also might be looking at the gender, the ethnicity, the accessibility and also the interest levels. For example, I worked in a boys' school, and the fiction was definitely biased towards war and adventure. The slant was in that direction. And that wouldn't be the same in all schools. I also worked in an international school, and they're the country that the school was based in had to be very careful about the content of some of the books that were on the shelves. The other thing is about students with special needs and accessibility. We need to make sure that the resources are in the right format. So if you worked in a school maybe where people were visually impaired, you might have a larger collection of audio books or large prints or even Braille. We also have to think about how we're going to display these resources. There are some areas that might be more sensitive. For example, if you've got some students that are in the LGBTQ community. Or perhaps we've got students as well who've got mental health issues or are being bullied then we might need to think that perhaps they're not going to come up and ask us openly for these books. We need to make sure that they are somewhere they can find them but with discretion. Collections of resources that we have in our policy they've got to be dynamic. We've got to think about where we're going to get them from. I mean, it's great going to publishers and charity shops where you can buy things at discount value. We need to think about things. Are we going to have multiple copies or are we just going to stick to single issues of a fiction book? What if it's very popular? We need to think about how we're going to cull our collection on a regular basis. And I always think it's a really good idea to review what we've got annually. Look at the policy. Look at the school mission statements. Look at the dynamics of our students and our staff and plan accordingly.

As mentioned in Session 1, Sarah suggests reviewing the school’s mission statement and the wider aims of the school (including the school’s policy on equality and diversity) when thinking about your library’s collection. A general approach is helpful for this, such as when thinking about the age of the students in the school, however it is also important to encompass all students when considering the resources your library provides, including those with special educational needs, those with English as a second language and those part of the LGBTQ+ community, for example. These groups may or may not form a large proportion of the students at your school, but having resources that represent and cater for them will help you to build an inclusive environment that everyone feels welcome in. Keeping on top of your resources, so they do not become outdated and continue to be relevant, appropriate and reflective of your school community means you need to regularly review your collection. Activity 2 Allow approximately 20 minutes In the box below, describe your school in terms of its size, age group, type (e.g. private secondary school), demographic, etc. Then, in the table below, list three different stakeholders your library caters for and give an example of a resource you provide for them. Table 2 Stakeholders your library caters for

Stakeholder	Library resource
Example: Primary school students	Picture books, large format books
Example: Students with low reading-age	Books which acknowledge the students’ reading ages whilst still being appropriate to their ‘interest-ages’ (i.e. age-appropriate content but low reading-age language)

If doing this activity has helped you identify any gaps in your resources, you should make a note of these and incorporate them into your library development plan. Similarly, if it has highlighted that you need to communicate more with other colleagues to build a more comprehensive profile of students’ needs, it may be helpful to create a list of who you need to speak to, and prioritise who you should approach first. Now that you have completed the activity, you can proceed to the next section where you will explore how modern libraries balance their physical and digital resources to maximise accessibility and optimise their offering. Having identified your stakeholders and their needs, it is important that the resources you provide – whether to support research, reading for pleasure, or teaching and learning – are relevant, current and accessible. Modern libraries offer a mix of book and non-book media in both physical and digital formats, including CDs and DVDs. Watch the video below in which Nick discusses the print versus digital debate and why both play an important role. Video 3 NICK: These days, students expect resources to be in a variety of formats. But it really boils down to print or digital. It can be hard if you only have print because the library might be viewed as old fashioned. But students still need to be familiar with handling books because they're still going to have to use them in everyday life. Not everything is online yet. For print, it's good to have a broad collection, although more non-fiction is moving online. So in my library, I have fiction, non-fiction, and a reference collection, and some that cross boundaries too. You might also have a local history collection or even a school archive in your library. Depending on your budget, there are a variety of newspapers and magazines, including ones aimed at younger readers. You should think about the needs of your school community as well and how the library can support them. Graphic novels are popular and accessible. And there are publishers that support students with dyslexia. It's important that you have books to support student's personal development as well, things that they can find in the library and access without necessarily having to ask for them. So you might have a well-being collection that deals with things like anxiety or bullying or an LGBT collection. Online resources are growing. And there are ways in which you can take the library outside the physical space and make it accessible 24/7. As well as online textbooks, there are resources to support the A-level curriculum and online databases that are invaluable for the International Baccalaureate and the EPQ. There are also eBook and audiobook packages, which are great in supporting students who struggle to read standard text. This also means students can borrow books from home even during the holidays. All of these online resources can be cataloged on your library management system or on your website, so they're easily accessible to students. Unfortunately, online resources can be expensive. So you need to budget carefully and make sure they're cost effective. You could join a consortium with other schools or go through your local schools library service. Otherwise, be creative and promote alternatives. For example, more and more academic journals are now open access. And your local public library will offer eBooks, audiobooks, and online resources, which your students can access if they have their own library card. So while books remain the key and most young people still prefer to read an actual book, it's about offering more resources and more ways to access information, so that you can support the whole school community.

It is essential that all resources offered through the library are accessible and, if possible, available in alternative formats. This is one of the major benefits of digital and online resources, which allow the use of a screen reader if needed. Making sure you have screen reader technology, as well as other assistive technologies, such as voice recognition software, available for students to use is an important consideration when looking at how to make your resources both accessible and inclusive. Some online and digital resources will be more accessible and user-friendly than others, so it is important to check before investing in them. Digital resources are also beneficial because they provide 24/7 access and the ability to search for key words or phrases. Both of these elements make digital resources very convenient. However, many of them may not be affordable to all; as with all resources, the extent of your investment will be determined by your budget. Since you may not be able to purchase every resource on your wish list, it is important to think strategically about which resources offer the best value and provide the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people. You may also wish to use open-source resources to supplement your offering. These can be found freely available online and, when combined with podcasts and audio-visual materials, can help you create a wealth of digital resources, whatever your budget. For example, free e-books and audiobooks can be obtained from public libraries or websites such as Librivox and Project Gutenberg. Links to these resources can be embedded into your LMS or the school’s VLE. If you require help you should seek assistance from your school’s network manager. It is usual for your library’s digital resources, whether for remote learning or reading for pleasure, to be accessed through your Library Management System (LMS) or your school’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). You will explore the subject of LMSs in greater detail in Session 3. Activity 3 Allow approximately 20 minutes In the table below, note down examples of the various types of physical and digital resources your library provides, as well as a wish list of resources you don’t currently have but would like to offer. Table 3 Your library resources

Physical resources	Digital resources	Wish list

When you are creating your library development plan, having a wish list similar to this can help you determine any changes you may wish to make to your collection management in the future. It helps when considering these matters to identify which stakeholders your new resources might benefit, what cost implications could be involved, and which changes need to be prioritised. Now that you’ve completed Session 2, you can take a short quiz to help you to reflect on what you’ve learned. Open the quiz in a new tab or window by holding down Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) when you click on the link. Return here when you have finished. Session 2 quiz. In this session, you have thought about what makes a physical library environment accessible to stakeholders. You may not be able to design your library from scratch, but by carefully considering your library and how users interact with it, you can maximise its potential as a welcoming place for all. You also discussed the importance of considering your entire school community in your collection management. A wide range of factors may influence the resources you purchase and the materials you stock, so being aware of your school’s demographics can help you target your provision efficiently. Finally, you explored how modern libraries balance the types of resources they offer. For example, maintaining a range of online resources alongside your print media and audiobooks is important in encouraging remote learning and accessibility. Although online resources can often be expensive, using open-source materials or joining a consortium where neighbouring schools join together to purchase subscriptions at cheaper prices can help libraries of all budgets maximise their offering. In the next session, you will consider the relationship between technology and your library. In particular, you will look at the importance of Library Management Systems (LMS) and explore their potential to optimise your service. You will also look in more detail at digital resources and touch upon how social media can help you promote reading and, therefore, embed literacy. You should now go to Session 3. Session 3: The best use of technology As a librarian, Information Technology (IT) will form a large part of your work and your library’s provision. This will typically include a Library Management System (LMS), a security system, Personal Computers (PCs) and other electronic devices, Wi-Fi, and various digital resources, databases and e-book platforms. It’s likely you will also manage a library area on your school’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) on which you can embed resources. The growth in the accessibility of digital resources can be used to your library’s advantage to support learning and research. For example, a VLE can be accessed remotely and, therefore, helps support blended learning and provides for your students at their point of need. One significant example of this was during the COVID-19 pandemic when all teaching went online. Despite the significant struggles encountered by students and staff alike during this period, the availability of technology (although notably not for all) was a huge factor in allowing teaching to continue. Although your school will have a member of staff who is responsible for IT and who be able to help you install hardware and software, it will be useful if you are aware of innovative technological developments and how they can be used to help you get the most out of your library. By the end of this session, you should be able to: show an awareness of LMSs and their many functions manage digital resources, negotiate discounts and arrange access for remote learning using referring URLs understand the advantages and challenges of using blogs and social media to promote libraries, literacy, and reading. An online Library Management System (LMS) is central to the management of your library. LMSs are sophisticated tools which can help you carry out a range of important tasks such as creating reading lists, generating citations, cataloguing new resources and circulating books. They can also issue personalised reports to help you gain a deeper understanding of how your resources are used. For example, if your LMS has access to your school’s Management of Information System (MIS), such as SIMS, Arbor or iSAMS, it can drill the data to scrutinise your students’ borrowing habits and identify trends. This insight into the usage of your library resources can help you evaluate the impact of your collection management and identify areas for development. As a result, the data you gather can be used to great effect when writing reports or reviewing your performance, topics you will explore further in a later session. The sophistication of your LMS is often dependent on its cost and, therefore, the budget you have available for it. Predictably, the more sophisticated the system the costlier it will be. It’s therefore useful to decide exactly what functions you want it to perform before investing. Watch the video below in which Sarah discusses this in more detail and suggests considerations you should take into account when deciding what you need from your LMS. Video 1 SARAH: I think how much you decide to spend on your library management system very much depends on the type of school you're working in. And it also depends on how you think it's going to be used. It might just be something that's for the library. But it might be something that actually has a wider remit, and other parts of the school might use it too-- for example, for textbook management. This all affects how much you're going to invest. Generally, the more expensive a library management system is, the more functionality it's going to have. And you might decide that you want a system that's going to search across databases or allow students to search by a picture or an image rather than using words. You might be looking for it to create reading lists. And if you've got a sixth form, maybe you want that library management system to create bibliographies and citations for your students. Some library management systems allow you to have multiple landing pages dashboards. And that's great, because you can actually advertise different things to different groups of borrowers. For example, you might have one for younger students, one for older students, or you might have one for the staff. And other ones will actually incorporate things like videos of authors talking. And you could upload maybe a PDF, not just of articles, but one of the things I found really useful was to upload exemplar work. I’d get the teachers to give me an example, make it into a PDF, load it up, and then students had a model that they could work from for their project. Some library management systems, once someone's logged in, will give them a private space. And here, they'll be able to compile a wish list or write a review about the books that they've written. Another really great feature of some library management systems is that they can link to the school management system. And then-- I mean, in the old days, you'd have to manually update all your borrowers every time they moved up a year. No longer. Most of these systems now will do that automatically. Some allow you to put up borrower photographs. And again, that's great. If you're doing issuing and you've got no idea who some of the people are in the class, you can just look at their photographs. But other people prefer to use maybe fingerprint recognition or an ID card. If you're brave, or perhaps because you're not in the library all the time, you could set up a self-issuing kiosk. And you might allow students to make their own renewals or reservations as well. Now, some systems allow you to make quite advanced reports. And these reports might include looking at how many people have tapped into a particular database or a particular reading list. And this is really useful for staff as well. Certainly, I remember one member of staff who had set her class the objective of reading at least three books on a reading list for over the next-- they had to select something over the next three days. And she was able to actually look at the report and find out how many hits had been made on the reading list we'd collaborated on and set up together.

LMSs can also perform federated searches, which means they can combine search results from multiple information sources. Furthermore, they can be connected to various other software packages, enabling you to perform tasks such as generating text messages and emails to students when running overdue reports. Similarly, if students have ID cards, they can be linked to your LMS, thereby removing the need to enter students’ details manually when issuing books. The LMS should also be considered a whole school resource which can be accessed through the school website or intranet. By making it accessible outside the library, students can search its catalogue remotely, discover book classifications to identify where items are held in the library, view reading lists, and gain access to any resources that your library has subscriptions to. You may also wish to customise your LMS’s homepage, uploading useful documents and guides to help students with research, or sharing links to external websites such as referencing generators. These will not only help students in their studies and add value to your LMS, they will also encourage broader engagement with your library and its resources. In this section, you have looked at some of the ways your LMS can play a key part in your role as librarian. In the next activity, you will think about the current functions your LMS has and the reports it can generate. You might then want to reflect on what has been discussed in this first section and video to see if there are any other new ways you think you could make use of your LMS. Activity 1 Allow approximately 25 minutes LMS reports are your biggest source of data when identifying your library’s strengths, weaknesses and areas for development. You should, therefore, be familiar with the range of reports your LMS can generate. In the box below, provide an example of a report you are currently familiar with and explain how you use the data it produces. A report I am familiar with is… I use the data in this report to… There are no right or wrong answers to this task, but below is one suggestion which you might have considered. A report I am familiar with is... How much non-fiction was borrowed compared to fiction I use the data in this report... to see if I need to adjust the proportion of budget set aside for non-fiction. Now in the table below, describe the LMS you use and provide an example of a function you use it for. Then consider how you might use it in new ways moving forward. Table 1 LMS usage

Describe the type of LMS you have in your library:
What tasks do you currently use your LMS for?
Moving forward, what new tasks might you use your LMS for?

Now that you have completed this activity, you should have a greater appreciation of the value and versatility of your LMS and why it is the most important tool at your disposal as a librarian. By reflecting on your current practice and identifying different tasks you might use your LMS for in future, you should be able to identify areas for improvement moving forward. Optional reading: you may be interested in the School Libraries Group (SLG) ‘Key Issues’ series and specifically their booklet on ‘Choosing a Library Management System (LMS)’ In the next section you will be shown some of the different ways digital resources can be accessed and managed, as well as be given tips on how to encourage their usage. IT provision and the availability of digital resources are central to the functioning of a modern school library. Although some resources may be free (open source), the majority will incur a fee or be subject to an annual subscription. It’s important, therefore, to be aware of renewal dates for digital resources and to consider how often they are used. For example, if a digital resource is hardly or never used, you may find it a better use of funds to invest in a different resource rather than renewing the license for one that is not needed. Licenses may either have a fixed price or be calculated on the number of students in your school. If you are a long-term customer or if you are purchasing more than one resource from the same provider, you will be in a stronger position to negotiate a discount. You may also wish to use a consortium service such as JCS Online Resources where you can get a discount by encouraging other schools in your area to purchase the same product. It is vital to make your databases as accessible as possible on the school network. However, it is also essential that you ensure the method by which the resources are accessed and used comply with the terms and conditions of your license.

A group of students using computers in a school library

It is usual for digital resources to be accessed by staff and students in more than one way, for example through your school’s intranet, Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Learning Management System (LMS), or via the Internet. Since the intranet and VLE are secure environments, which require users to login before viewing them, it is possible for students to access the resources you subscribe to without a password using a weblink known as a referring URL. Some LMSs also require users to login in order to view their catalogue, thereby allowing the use of referring URLs. However, most are OPAC: Online Public Access Catalogues. These allow guests to browse the LMS database without logging in. In these instances, as with access to other publicly available sites such as your school website, staff and students would need to be supplied with log-in details for digital resources in order to prevent members of the public gaining unauthorised access to them. Your IT department should be able to help you with this, but having an awareness of how these resources are accessed is essential to comply with the terms and conditions of the license. To think further about this topic, watch the video below where Sarah discusses various digital resources school libraries can subscribe to, the procurement process, and explains how to implement them. Video 2 SARAH: How you decide to access databases is really depends on the sophistication of your library management system. Some of them allow you to actually put things as links, as website links within an actual record. So if you had a book that say was about volcanoes, you could actually put a web link to a volcano site within that record. But other ones, what they do is they actually allow you to search at the same time through a variety of different databases. So you'd put in a keyword, search your catalogue, and then you could actually look at it popping up on a variety of different databases, as well as a separate list and that's really useful, particularly for something like the 6th form. Sometimes, that can be done just because the school subscribes, and so it can do it via the IP address of the school. But sometimes, the provider will say, no, you've got to put in a password and your username. Well, as we know, the problem here is that students never remember their password and username. So a little tip that I found is that if you actually hide this somewhere in their borrower record that they can access. For example, maybe it's their public library membership number, then they're much more likely to use it. And that comes to this point really that whatever resources you've got, you've got to make them visible because if people don't know about them, if they can't see them, they won't use them. So it's a good idea I find to make sure that the library management system is linked to on the school website and that you can highlight the databases on the front page of it maybe to show that they exist. Where do you get these from? How do you know what databases you're going to invest in? Well, it's a good idea to ask teachers, do they use anything already we can expand it? So it's a whole school thing. Find out what they're using. Find out from your IT department maybe what have they actually got subscriptions for. And then there are a variety of other companies that provide discounts for consortiums and so on that you might be able to join. And don't forget, of course, your public library, they provide a whole range of free databases that you could tap into.

Now complete Activity 2 to reflect on your current digital provision and its accessibility. As Sarah commented, making sure databases and resources are visible and accessible is crucial. Activity 2 Allow approximately 20 minutes In the table below, provide three examples of digital resources you subscribe or signpost to, and indicate how you access them. Table 2 Your digital resources

Digital resource	How it's accessed
Example: Local, public library catalogue	A link on the LMS Homepage

Now that you have completed this activity,you should be familiar with the resources in your collection and the ways they are accessed (for instance, via your LMS homepage, the intranet, or shared file areas such as your school’s VLE). If you reflect on these resources, can you spot any patterns such as an overemphasis on a specific subject area? If so, you may wish to think about whether you need to invest in others areas. Similarly, if you have several paid resources but not any free ones, it may be helpful to consider other open-source resources available to you. By reflecting on your digital resources in these ways, you can ensure that your digital collection is as good as it possibly can be. In general, digital resources encourage inclusivity, as they allow students to view resources in different formats, for example, by providing the option to change type size, language, or even have the content read aloud or relayed by screen reading software, which can be installed on the computers in your library or on individual student’s devices. Digital resources, such as online picture folders, audiobooks and databases, also have the benefit of offering flexibility for independent research and study, and can aid and assist with remote learning. For this reason, it’s important that both staff and students are aware of how to use and access different databases and resources. In the next activity you will think further about how your own digital resources support remote learning. Activity 3 Allow approximately 10 minutes In the box below, list some digital resources your library provides that support remote learning. Demand for digital resources is increasingly driven by the number of devices students have at home and the ease with which they can access the internet remotely. One benefit of this is that students increasingly have the capability to learn remotely to an extent that was not previously possible. The use of digital resources to support learning in this way is, therefore, a growth area which is being driven by stakeholder demand. This has coincided with a shift in the educational sector towards a greater emphasis on blended learning, a hybrid form of teaching which combines traditional classroom learning with the use of digital resources and independent study. Consequently, it is of particular value to consider – as you have done in this activity– how your digital resources support remote learning and how you can make improvements in the future. It might be helpful, therefore, to reflect on what your choices say about the composition of your digital resources provision. If, for example, you don’t have many resources that support remote learning, you might wish to consider how you can improve your provision in the future. Similarly, if your digital resources cater to certain stakeholders but not others, you may conclude that there is more that you could be doing to support them moving forward. Considering your answers in these ways can, therefore, help you identify areas for further investment and highlight ways you can improve your collection. You might consider including the conclusions you draw in your library development plan. Now that you have learned about the management of digital resources and considered their key role in supporting remote learning, in the next section you will explore how social media and blogs can be used in different ways to engage with a range of library stakeholders and help promote your library, literacy, and reading. Whether marketing your library or promoting reading for pleasure, social media has the potential to widen your library’s reach and help you engage with those who may not be traditional library users. Having a presence on different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok can be beneficial as the different platforms tend to attract a different demographic and means you can engage with all of your stakeholders including colleagues, students, parents and school governors. For example, Facebook and Twitter tend to be used more by parents, whilst Instagram has a younger audience and may typically be used more by your students. That being said, there are no set rules. Providing it is used constructively, and in accordance with your school’s policies, social media can be used to your advantage. For example, you can promote new books and library campaigns, take advantage of the visual nature of the medium to share photos and videos, and encourage engagement with your library whenever possible.

Cubes with social media services icons, including Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter on a desk.

It’s useful when implementing your approach to social media to consider what you want to achieve with your posts. Twitter and Facebook, for example, may be useful for brief announcements and updates. Instagram, on the other hand, is better suited to eye-catching posts where images are the main attraction. Similarly, if you wish to share lengthier and more reflective posts, you might favour a blog. Blogs can give you the space to explore your ideas, free from the constraints of other social media which place such emphasis on immediacy. Sites like Kahoot can also be used to conduct competitions and quizzes, which can help you if you want to encourage engagement and interaction amongst students. Equally, you could use platforms like Zoom to host virtual author visits. Whether you originally post an image on Instagram or an article on your blog, you should also share links to them on your other social media to increase their reach and encourage greater engagement. No matter which platform you use, you should always strive to make your posts creative, using bold colours and concise language to ensure they stand out from the crowd. After your post has been uploaded, you can then use social media analytics to judge how it is doing. This can help you identify what works when planning future posts or campaigns to promote the library. Of course, there will always be challenges when using social media and blogs. Policies on the use of phones during school hours may mean that students cannot access their social media accounts and even if they can, access to social media is likely to be blocked or restricted. On top of this, younger students may be unable to access your content due to age limitations, thereby excluding a vital demographic from viewing your posts. On a related note, managing a social media page or blog comes with associated safeguarding responsibilities and you will need to be aware of the relevant school policies surrounding their usage. However, provided you are willing to navigate these barriers, social media can be a powerful tool in the librarian’s arsenal. For more tips and advice on how to use social media and blogs to your advantage, watch the video below. You’ll then reflect on your current approach and consider how it can be improved in Activity 4. Video 3 NICK: Social media is a great way to shout about your school library and its services, but it can't always be accessed in schools. And you need to make sure that anything you do fits in with your school's policy. You also need to be aware of safeguarding issues before posting any pictures online. Students over 13 can use Instagram. And this can be a great way to promote books and reading to them. If your school has an Instagram or Twitter feed, then you can ask them to repost about the library. And there are popular hashtags, like #bookstagram. It works best if you can post regularly as well. You can also do things like link the Twitter feed for the Carnegie Medal on your library management home page. Twitter tends to be used more by parents. So again, it's a great way to promote the library to them. Social media is also a great way to build up contacts and learn from other librarians. Librarians love to share ideas. So by following organisations like CILIP, SLG, or individual librarians, you'll get loads of good advice. There's also an online network of school librarians and many great blogs, such as CILIP Connect. Writing a blog is also a great way to give back to the library community and evidence your own professional development. You might find it a good idea to use a different account to promote your school library and another one for your own professional development or, for example, use Instagram to post about books and reading and to use Twitter to follow other librarians. Whatever you decide to do, social media is a great source of help, ideas, and support.

Activity 4 Allow approximately 20 minutes In the table below, state your position regarding your library’s use of social media. Briefly explain why this is so and whether you have any plans to make any changes. Table 3 Social media use

My library’s position regarding the use of social media	Why this is so	Any plans I may have

Now, find two examples of innovative ways other school libraries are using social media. You will be able to do this by searching online. Looking at other school libraries’ social media pages is a brilliant way to improve your own. The ability to view likes, retweets, shares and comments provides you with an excellent way to assess engagement and identify successful strategies that you can implement when creating your own posts. There is always something you can learn from others and staying up-to-date with what your peers are doing is an excellent way to improve your own approach. Now that you’ve completed Session 3, you can take a short quiz to help you to reflect on what you’ve learned. Open the quiz in a new tab or window by holding down Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) when you click on the link. Return here when you have finished. Session 3 quiz. In this session, you looked at how LMSs are central to effective library management and explored their benefits and range of possible applications. The functionality of a LMS typically corresponds with its cost, so considering the type of school you’re in and its requirements may influence how much you wish to invest. You also examined some of the different ways digital resources can be accessed and their usage encouraged. In addition, you have looked at some of the considerations that may need to be made when purchasing digital resources for your library. Finally, you looked at the potential of social media for promoting reading, as well as some of its limitations and how these might impact your approach. In the next session, you will return to the theme of literacy, considering its importance and discussing strategies for embedding it in your school. You should now go to Session 4. Session 4: Creating a reading-rich culture Encouraging students to enjoy reading is central to you and your library’s role. Ultimately, the challenge is to create a whole-school mindset where reading is embraced by both staff and students as a rewarding part of their daily lives. To achieve this, as well as procuring and promoting resources, you will need to consider how to tackle negative reading habits and bring about attitudinal change. Through devising and implementing creative and practical strategies, you can then influence students’ perceptions so that books, reading and the library are seen in a positive light. It is this positive mindset upon which a reading-rich culture is built. By the end of this session, you should be able to: appreciate the importance of reading for pleasure adopt a range of strategies which help promote reading understand how to elevate reading to a special status. There is a plethora of research demonstrating the countless benefits of reading. Studies have shown, for example, that book ownership can reduce stress and have a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing (Yulia et al., 2021). Reading has also been linked to the development of empathy and plays a key role in the personal development of children and teenagers (Wilkinson et al., 2020). A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has also found that fifteen-year-old students from lower socio-economic backgrounds who read frequently scored significantly higher on reading-literacy tests than peers from higher socio-economic backgrounds who had little interest in reading (OECD, 2002). In short, when it comes to educational success, the OECD’s findings tell us that reading gives students the opportunity to transcend their socio-economic background.

A male student reading a book in a library. A female student is in the foreground holding multiple books

For many students, a love of reading will most likely stem from engagement with fiction. A report on children’s reading choices by The Open University found that 74% of children between the ages of 8 and 11 in UK reported reading fiction compared with just 30% who reported reading non-fiction (Cremin and Coles, 2022). This finding is consistent with survey data amongst older readers, both in the UK and abroad: for example, the Reading Agency reported that 7 in 10 18–24-year-olds in the UK prefer reading fiction (Reading Agency, 2020) whilst a study of university students in Malaysia found that 68% preferred reading fiction compared to just 32% who preferred reading non-fiction (Yusof, 2021). It follows, therefore, that to foster a reading-rich culture where students are instilled with a positive and enthusiastic attitude to reading, a great starting point is encouraging students to read fiction. Many of the main approaches you can adopt will rely heavily on an element of marketing. For example, it is important to raise awareness of your collection within the library itself, as students will be more predisposed to pick up a book that piques their curiosity if they’re already in the building than if they have to seek it out from the other side of the school. To increase the likelihood that they find such a book, you can use posters, leaflets, wall displays and tables displaying books dedicated to different genres – similar to what you might find in a book shop. Labelling books with stickers identifying the genre can be another helpful way of encouraging students to pick up a book and read by signposting them to what interests them. You should not, however, focus all your efforts within the walls of the library alone; it is also essential to take your library ‘out of the library’ where you can reach a wider audience and engage with those who visit infrequently or not at all. In addition to posters, displays and networked TV screens around the school, you can also maintain a profile in pupil and staff bulletins, school newsletters, and on your school’s website and social media. The more you make your library’s presence known, the better you can champion literacy. In the video below, Nick gives some examples of how to promote what you are doing in the library, around the school. Video 1 NICK: Reading for pleasure is so important, and we know that from the research. So try to promote it as much as you can in the library and also around school. You can highlight themes and events throughout the year and use these to create interesting displays for the library. And these can really engage students and make them think. So for example, I promote banned books week. I put wrappers on books saying, this book is banned-- things like Harry Potter or Frankenstein. And students have really questioned why some books have been banned around the world, or whether books should have age limits like films. And it's a great way to get them to read some of the books as well. Posters, competitions, and reading lists are all great ways to promote reading. You could try a reading passport as a fun way to encourage students to try different genres, and collect stamps and stickers as they progress. But it isn't enough just to keep it within the library. You have to wave the flag a bit and say, hello I'm here. So you might try to grab some space for posters around the school, give out leaflets to teachers, go into classes or form time yourself. You can get some time in assemblies, maybe, to promote things like National Poetry Day. So really have to keep a presence, by making sure there's something about the library, on the school website, on the VLE, use the TV screens around school to promote any events that you're doing. You could have a regular newsletter that goes out to parents, or write a column for the school newsletter. Feedback from parents is usually really supportive, and again, that can help you push for more resources for your library and show senior leadership what you're doing. So all of these things are a great way to get students, parents, and staff on your side. But you really just have to grab any opportunity for promotion that you can.

As we saw in the video, themes and events such as weeks focusing on a specific genre or topic can help to engage students by piquing their curiosity. For example, you may wish to follow Nick’s lead and host a ‘banned books week’ where students are encouraged to read books that have been banned or censored at some point in their history. These could include anything from Brave New World and Oliver Twist to Nineteen Eighty-Four and Frankenstein. Not only is the idea of banned knowledge inherently appealing, but it also encourages students to think about the changing nature of attitudes and morals. Now you have heard how Nick promotes reading for pleasure in and beyond his library, you should reflect on the approach you take in your own library in Activity 1. Then, in the next section, you will explore some of the other strategies you can employ to encourage good reading habits and engagement with your library’s offering amongst reluctant readers. Activity 1 Allow approximately 15 minutes Note down the ways in which you promote reading for pleasure at present, and also some examples of what you plan to do in the future. Some of the ways I currently promote reading for pleasure: Examples of what I plan to do in the future: When considering your future plans for promoting reading pleasure, it helps to consider the impact of your endeavours. For example, following an event or promotion, some of the things you can look out for are increases in visitors to your library, in books borrowed, and requests made. This will help you to identify which of your strategies are best for promoting reading for pleasure. As you saw in the previous section, reading is key to helping students gain knowledge, nurture empathy, develop ideas, and understand the world in which we live. While some students need no encouragement to read, others may need to be guided, nudged and coaxed away from distractions such as social media, gaming and socialising. Boys, in particular, read less than girls and are less likely to enjoy reading, a gap which has widened during the COVID-19 pandemic (Clark and Picton, 2021; Department for Education, 2012). It is essential, therefore, to adopt strategies that encourage students, especially those who are reluctant readers, to develop good reading habits, which they can sustain. Previously, you considered how marketing in your library and around your school can help you achieve this. It is key, however, to recognise that marketing is not the only way you can encourage reading. There are various other strategies you may wish to adopt which can be implemented in various ways. You may wish to approach matters from a broad perspective, ensuring your library stocks an inclusive and diverse range of books which allows all your library’s users to find something they enjoy. Alternatively, you may wish to adopt more focused methods, such as group work, structured reading schemes, author visits, or static displays. While some of these suggestions might be appropriate to use with all the students in your school, there may be some which are more suited to a particular demographic of student. Therefore, before implementing any of them you should identify the strategies that best suit you and your school’s needs. For example, according to he National Literacy Trust , boys were more likely than girls to report that listening to audiobooks had increased their interest in reading with more than 1 in 2 agreeing with the statement (Clark and Picton, 2020). Therefore, if you work in an all-boys school, placing an emphasis on audiobooks may be a useful way of encouraging the development of a reading-rich culture. Getting to know students, their reading ability, and what motivates and interests them can also help you encourage reading for pleasure as you will be better able to direct students to resources which suit them. For example, for those with a low reading-age but a higher interest-age, using young adult books with limited vocabulary will be beneficial. Likewise, directing students with English as a Second Language (EASL) to a graphic version of a story can be a great way to maintain their engagement. For students who are best motivated by rewards, a points-based reading scheme may be best suited. Reading schemes that allocate reading levels can be particularly helpful for helping students quickly and easily find books themselves, preventing them from walking around the library aimlessly or asking you to choose for them. Clearly marking the reading level can also help students pick books appropriate to their needs, rather than choosing books which may discourage them or make them feel stigmatised. Similarly, providing a set reading list can be a really helpful way of directing students who are overwhelmed by choice to books they might enjoy. Reading lists needn’t just include fiction books intended to be read in students’ spare time. They can also include useful subject-related content such as lists of useful websites, non-fiction books, DVDs and videos, as well as links to areas on your LMS, to exemplar work, and to research guides. In the video below, Nick gives some examples of how he has encouraged reading at his school and offers some tips and advice based on his approach. After you have watched video, complete the activity to reflect on your current strategies and assess their strengths. Video 2 NICK: Getting students to read can be a big challenge, especially after the summer holidays or on transfer to secondary school. And keeping them reading as they get older and have more homework can be really difficult too. Some schools do use formal point-based reading schemes, and these can really work well, but I think the real goal is to make reading for pleasure a habit beyond the classroom, and this is where the library can be really effective. We know from research that this has huge benefits, not just in terms of vocabulary and general knowledge but also for young people's empathy and well-being and their outcomes in life. So try to engage staff in initiatives like DEAR, Drop Everything and Read, and work with your special educational needs department. You could set up a program to get older students to help reluctant readers. It's also good to have reading role models. These could be celebrities, but it could even be your own teacher setting an example. Things like Get Caught Reading can be really effective. Encourage teachers to take photos of themselves on holiday reading a book. The students love to see that. Or you could get them to try to match teachers with their favourite books. You can use World Book Day to get the whole school involved. I chose a short story, divided it up, and got teachers to read it for five minutes in each lesson. This worked really well. Students wanted the next installment and wouldn't let teachers get away without reading it. So whatever you do, it's important that teachers are involved and that senior leaders are on board. And it's important to be aware of the diversity of staff and students in our community while doing this. Reading for pleasure can be a great leveller. Themed events such as Black History Month or Pride are a great opportunity to promote books that perhaps students wouldn't otherwise think of reading. You have to make these initiatives seem exciting and appeal to students so they want to have a break from their screens and read a book instead. And really, that's what it's all about.

Activity 2 Allow approximately 15 minutes Describe two of your most successful reading strategies. Why do you think these strategies are successful? Then think about any other strategies you could employ. Your answer to this question will be personal to you. There are no right or wrong answers to this task, but one strategy you might choose to employ is to use pupil review bookmarks. These are custom made bookmarks which are given to students when a book is issued. After completing the book, students are encouraged to shade-in a star rating, write a brief comment about the book, and add their name. The bookmark is then inserted into the book before being returned to the shelf. This, in turn, serves to influence other students when browsing the shelves. Some other initiatives you might consider adopting include Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R.), buddy schemes with older students, and the use of celebrity reading-role-models to help children find pleasure in reading. Making the most of events such as World Book Day and linking reading events to important social matters such as Black History Month and Pride can also help to promote books that students might otherwise not come across. Furthermore, schemes such the Oxford Reading Tree and Accelerated Reader are also useful as they provide an incremental framework that contributes to raising students’ reading ages and confidence in their reading ability. Getting all staff on board with your initiatives can help to build a whole school environment which supports reading for pleasure. You may wish to set out new initiatives you plan to adopt in your library development plan. When doing so, it can also be helpful to consider any current or previous strategies you may have adopted and assess their success. To get you thinking about how you might approach this attempt the activity below. Activity 3 Allow approximately 10 minutes If applicable, are there any strategies you have tried previously which have not had the intended outcome? If so, why do you think that was? It is understandable if students, amid the expectation of daily reading in lessons, occasionally perceive the activity in a negative way. However, by elevating it to a special status – that is to say, encouraging students to view the activity in a new exciting light – you can generate interest and help create a reading-rich culture in your school. Author events are a prime example of how to stimulate such interest in books, especially amongst younger readers, many of whom may never have encountered anyone famous before. Although these events may be infrequent, perhaps taking place just twice a year, they never fail to create a buzz throughout the year groups present. Throughout the rest of the year, you may wish to focus your efforts on projects of a smaller scale. For example, you can share authors' blogs, podcasts, or YouTube interviews, all of which offer quick and inexpensive ways of lending books a bit of celebrity cachet. In the same way, hosting themed library events to complement book launches or using signed books as competition prizes all help make reading that little bit more special. You may even wish to promote books that have been adapted into movies or TV shows, taking advantage of their popularity and spotting trends amongst your students. Associating books with their film and TV counterparts reminds children that reading is not a chore, but an activity which has the potential to open up new worlds of their imagination. To think more about this topic, watch the video below where Nick offers further thoughts on how you can give reading a special status throughout your school. After you have done this, complete the activity, reflecting on some of the events you have held in your library and how they have elevated the status of reading. Video 3 NICK: I think that promoting reading for pleasure beyond the classroom can make a real impact on the reading culture in school. So author visits are a great way to generate excitement about reading and provide a real buzz for students having an author in in person, maybe combined with a workshop or book signing session. Or increasingly, these are being done virtually online. Online sessions can be great as well. They're much easier to arrange, but students can still get to ask questions. And they can be really inspired to hear how authors go about writing their books. Ongoing interest can be maintained through social media, blogs, podcasts, and video interviews, that can be put on your library management system or website. So again, these can be accessible for students when they're at home, not just in the school library itself. Book clubs are another way to generate that reading culture. You might decide to have a set book that everyone reads together. Or you could have a group where everyone meets up and gets to talk about their favorite books. Depending on your students, you might like to try a Manga club or information books or shadow an award scheme such as the Carnegie Medal. You might have a local book award In your area. And local independent bookshops will also run events that you can tap into. There are a whole range of literacy-related special days and weeks, which can be used to promote whole school reading events, such as World Book day, Roald Dahl Day or Harry Potter night. And you can combine these with games or competitions or get creative with MakerSpace events, an escape room, or a murder mystery event. So there are lots of ways you can promote the library and embed reading for pleasure. And it's a lot of fun too. The engagement with students and making a difference is really one of the most rewarding parts of the job.

Activity 4 Allow approximately 20 minutes Consider some of the events you have arranged to promote your library and its collections. Now that you have chosen some examples, pick one to evaluate. For example, was it a success? If so, why? If not, why not? Would you do anything differently next time? It’s now time to take the Session 4 badge quiz. It’s similar to previous quizzes but this time, instead of answering five questions, there will be 15. Open the quiz in a new tab or window by holding down Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) when you click on the link. Return here when you have finished. Session 4 compulsory badge quiz. Remember, this quiz counts towards your badge. If you’re not successful the first time, you can attempt the quiz again in 24 hours. In this session, you have explored the importance of reading for pleasure and how you can foster a reading-rich culture in your school. In particular, you have considered the importance of fiction as a gateway to reading enjoyment and seen some of the ways you can use marketing and promotion to encourage reading. You have also thought about other strategies you can adopt to further this aim such as reading schemes and a considered approach to collection management, both of which can help drive engagement with your library. Continuing on a similar theme, you also explored the importance of elevating reading to a special status, distinguishing it from schoolwork, and dispelling negative associations in students’ minds. This can be achieved through a variety of means such as competitions and special events which create a buzz throughout school, and book clubs structured around students’ own interests. In the next session, you will further develop these themes discovering how creatively marketing your library’s offering, enlisting role models to your cause, and encouraging non-fiction reading can all help you embed literacy in your school. You are now halfway through the course. The Open University would really appreciate your feedback and suggestions for future improvement in our optional end-of-course survey, which you will also have an opportunity to complete at the end of Session 8. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others. You should now go to Session 5. Session 5: Embedding literacy in your school Literacy is, in the words of the National Literacy Trust, ‘the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world’ (2017). Reading plays a particularly key role in the development of these skills: by being exposed to new words, ideas and concepts, reading encourages you to develop your vocabulary, think creatively and improve your comprehension. One study which analysed data from 370,000 UK secondary students found a significant link between reading ability and achievement in all GCSEs subjects including maths and science (GL Assessment, 2020). Literacy rates have also been shown to positively correlate with greater earnings and employability (Demos, 2018). The OECD has even gone so far as to argue that literacy is a prerequisite for achievement in life (OECD, 2002). Although libraries support literacy in all its forms, it is with reading that librarians have an opportunity to make a real difference. Reading falls into two areas: academic study and reading for pleasure, both of which are central to your role. When building your academic collection, resources will be influenced by the curriculum and recommendations made by your teaching colleagues. Reading for pleasure is where you will have greater freedom to exercise control and demonstrate an awareness of your students’ preferences, current trends, new releases and emerging authors. However, whether supporting academic study or reading for pleasure, your library is key to embedding literacy in your school. By the end of this session, you should be able to: recognise the importance of literacy and the library’s role in embedding it in your school appreciate how marketing and role models can be used to promote your resources, encourage reading and embed literacy in your school understand the role of non-fiction in the development of literacy and how teachers can help you create subject-specific resources which support the curriculum. In the previous session, you considered the benefits of reading for pleasure. As fiction plays a particularly key role in fostering reading for pleasure and, consequently, literacy, you explored various ways in which fiction books can be promoted in your school. However, although fiction acts as a gateway to literacy, your library will also contain various other resources that have the potential to enrich students’ studies and further develop their literacy skills. It’s important, therefore, to focus attention in your marketing on the other benefits your library offers, for example, its digital resources, non-fiction collection, and other educational resources. By adopting a holistic approach to marketing that goes beyond just your latest fiction releases, you can maximise engagement with the different aspects of your library provision and encourage the development of literacy in your school. For this reason, this section will return to the topic of marketing, thinking in broader terms about the ways it can be used in your library to promote resources which help embed literacy in your school.

vector illustration of two people reviewing a book and giving it five stars

To promote your library and embed literacy, you don’t have to be an expert in marketing, nor must your initiatives and campaigns take up lots of time, materials and money. All that matters is that you keep your ideas fresh and ensure reading is actively encouraged, thereby helping to promote literacy. Making your library’s presence known throughout the school can entice students and encourage them to explore the wealth of opportunities it contains. Although some will need little encouragement to take full advantage of what your library has to offer, many students in your school may be reluctant to read or make full use of the library. Therefore, you must champion your library’s offering and engage stakeholders through creative marketing, for example, by creating reading lists, customised bookmarks, posters and displays, or even encouraging students to put brief book reviews on a feedback wall using sticky notes. You shouldn’t be shy about explicitly marketing the importance of literacy and the benefits of reading. As you saw in the previous session, it's good to run week-long book campaigns throughout the year. These can be themed around genres or cultural events such as Black History Month, Women’s History Month, or major sporting events such as the Olympics. During these weeks, you can encourage students to engage with your offering by promoting relevant books, hosting events such as library readings and author visits, or even sharing podcasts and encouraging form tutors to get involved. Campaigns such as these are a particularly useful way to encourage students to explore non-fiction resources. As you will see later in this session, non-fiction books are equally key to literacy as they expose students to new concepts and ways of interpreting the world around them. Reminding students of the wealth of digital resources available to assist their studies by placing posters near computers or in classrooms is a particularly helpful way of encouraging them to take advantage of your resources. It also shows that the library is not just a place for issuing and returning books, but an environment conducive to learning and the development of literacy. You can also draw attention to new books and resources to promote literacy. By marketing your new resources, you can demonstrate that your library is dynamic, keeping up to date with current trends and responding to students’ interests. In this respect, it can be helpful to advertise new books which were requested by students, or put stickers on their cover saying who requested them. This can really emphasise to students that the library is a place which strives to meet their needs and support their interests. However, it is not only new resources and collections you should actively promote. Where some books or resources have fallen through the cracks, innovative marketing and novel techniques can be used to generate interest and give them a new lease of life. This could involve a ‘Book in a Jar’ – a glass jar that contains objects related to a book’s storyline or title. You can encourage students to create them by offering prizes such as book vouchers to those whose clues lead to the most correct guesses. Other initiatives could include creating a vending machine for books or simply concealing their covers and encouraging children to choose one at random. Initiatives like these invite students to connect with books that they might not have otherwise explored and is an subtle way of promoting literacy. Once you put your mind to it, the possibilities are endless. In the video below, Sarah discusses her own approach to marketing and offers tips on how you can develop your own. Video 1 SARAH: I used to work in market research, and do you know I still use quite a lot of the techniques I learned in that job for attracting customers and for getting them to use the resources that I've got in the library? And I think this is true whatever job you've had or even if you've been on a career break. You can use those skills and bring them to the job. Another way we can do it is to have a look and see what other librarians are up to. We can look at their websites, have a chat with them online, or even better still, meet them in person at a meeting and talk to them. We can also make our resources attractive by putting displays in the library, but I think with a display, it's important that they've got some degree of intrigue or they're exciting so that people will want to engage with them. I remember once, we had these magic eye posters that we put up. It was to try and get students understanding the way in which you could look at different perspectives on a topic. And we had such fun because at break time, we would have crowds of people lined up against the back wall, trying to see if they could see the hidden image inside these pictures. Displays have got to have purpose. You've got to think, what are you going to be getting out of them? And maybe we might put in a competition element into our display. So we might have something whereby it's got a poster, and it says, what kind of a reader are you? And you've got to follow through the flow lines like you would in a magazine to find out what your next exciting story is going to be. We want to try and encourage engagement, not just from the students, from the staff, as well. And putting incentives in there like a golden ticket at the end of a scavenger hunt might be really useful. And what about technology? There's so much technology out there that we can use to make things really engaging. We could put QR codes that link to videos on the backs of some of our books, say, an author talking about that book. Or we could use other more exciting apps which have even got portals that you can walk through into other worlds. Imagine if you were doing something like the Narnia series, and you could actually walk through a cupboard into that new world. So making displays and keeping them interactive and exciting is important, but it's also useful to get some feedback. Are they working? So maybe we could use a display with a sticky note so that people could paste on a board saying about what they've got out of the display or what they think of particular books. And we can push out the contents of some of our resources through reading lists maybe, or if we're working with a young age group transitioning from the primary school to our senior school, we could work a little pack or an event that we could use around that, or maybe just going from a senior school to the sixth form. We can look at things like emojis that you can use, and we can use social media posts as well to have a whole range of different ways to promote our resources. I remember once on Instagram doing a book face, where you took the cover of a book, and then you superimpose your own face on part of the cover so it looks as if the cover and your face become one thing. And that, again, caused great intrigue and great interest. It's really up to you, but with a little thought, we can be really creative, and we have the autonomy in our roles to do that.

As Sarah mentioned in the video, incentives and rewards can be a helpful way to motivate students. However, is it important to be mindful that such schemes may de-motivate less established readers if they think they have no chance of completing the task or if a leaderboard is displayed. Equally some students may just read to gain points rather than to form a reading habit. It is therefore important to always combine any promotional schemes with verbal and written praise and encouragement. Having listened to Sarah’s suggestions on how to market your library complete Activity 1. This activity will get you to consider how you currently market your library’s offering and think about the steps you have already taken to develop a reading-rich culture. Activity 1 Allow approximately 15 minutes How much time do you devote to marketing your library and its resources? Now, provide an example of how you have marketed your library’s offering to each of the following target audiences. Table 1 Marketing your library to different target audiences

Students
Colleagues
Parents

Now that you have completed this activity, consider whether you have favoured one target audience more than another? If so, is there a benefit to this? Could you perhaps be doing more to market your offering to a wider range of audiences? Having a marketing strategy which targets students, parents and colleagues is desirable and although students are naturally your key audience, it might be advantageous to also involve parents and colleagues as they can endorse your message. Now have a go at Activity 2. Activity 2 Allow approximately 10 minutes How do you help to embed the reading aspect of literacy throughout your school? Your answer to this question will be personal to you. There are no right or wrong answers to this activity, but below are some examples of the ways you may have contributed to literacy across your school: liaising with the literacy co-ordinator liaising with the heads of departments liaising with the head of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) liaising with the admissions officer to ensure you cater for any students in the incoming cohort for whom English is a second language. Organising author visits can be a really effective way of engaging your students and helping them to develop a love of reading. For example, by recounting their career, an author may be able to inspire and raise the aspirations of the students in the audience. This power of role models to influence behaviour and inspire students is a theme you will explore further in the next section where you will consider how to take advantage of the popularity of certain teachers and celebrities to help promote and champion reading. Some students need persuading to pick up a book and read. So far in Sessions 4 and 5, you have considered some of the strategies you can employ to encourage reading and literacy in your school. In this section, you will focus on one strategy in particular, namely, the enlistment of role models to your cause. Positive role models have the power to influence, motivate and inspire and as such, they can help elevate the status of reading. This makes them valuable assets in your mission to create a reading-rich culture in your school. The use of role models is especially important for boys, particularly those from single-parent households. Not only are single-parent households more likely to face economic hardship (IFS, 2022, pp. 41–3), but according to recent data, 88% are headed by a woman (ONS, 2021). This is significant, as for many boys reading is seen as a feminine activity (Cho, 2020). Even for boys with fathers in the household, research has shown that those whose fathers don’t read to them are significantly less likely to read for pleasure than those whose fathers read to them for 30 minutes a day (Mullan, 2010). However, where fathers do indeed read, the positive impact on the child actually increases as the child gets older (Toivonen, 2018). Such is the transformative potential of male role-models that in 2012, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Literacy recommended that weekly support from a male reading role-model should be essential for all school boys (National Literacy Trust, 2012). An acknowledgement of socio-economic status is, therefore, crucial to understanding and addressing the inequalities of male reading. Celebrity role models can be particularly useful to librarians as their reading habits can be something students look up to and try to emulate. Some celebrities such as Zoella and Reese Witherspoon even have their own book clubs, which can be a useful tool for encouraging students to read. This trend of sharing what you read is also popular amongst YouTubers and social media influencers on Instagram, many of whom may already be familiar to students in your school. Footballers can also make useful reading champions. Marcus Rashford’s Book Club is worthy of special note for teenagers; and for younger students there are plenty of football-related reading resources on the Premier League Primary Stars website. Equally, including books in your collection that have been written by celebrities can draw students in, whilst posters displaying their favourite books can be used as both a talking point and a source of inspiration. Even a quick search on the internet can provide you with endless quotes and inspiration from famous people, which you can use to create bookmarks and posters to engage reluctant readers. Collectively, these have the potential to make a huge contribution to raising literacy. You needn’t stop at celebrities though; you can readily find reading champions within the walls of your own school. By identifying who's highly regarded in your school's community and associating them with reading, you can exploit their appeal to promote your library and its resources. Teachers who are held in high esteem, for example, can infect others with their love of books, offering book recommendations, writing book reviews and inspiring students to broaden their reading. It is especially useful to use male role models who have enormous potential to engage boys who are reluctant to read. Whether they're featured reading a book in your poster campaigns or invited to read book excerpts in your library during breaks, popular teachers are a valuable commodity you should routinely take advantage of. Video 2 NICK: So getting students and staff involved in the promotion of reading can be very powerful, and it can motivate even the most reluctant readers to pick up a book, especially if they're not the usual suspects. So PE teachers can be great reading role models, but there might be others in school as well that students might not expect, perhaps maths or science teachers. Students can be good role models for their peers as well. So you might think about including sports captains or students with SEN as your reading champions. It needs to be visible as well. You can get students to help make posters, take part in reading assemblies, or make videos that you can put on your library management system or on your website. You can get teachers to put pictures of the books that they're currently reading on their classroom door or encourage them to put an "I am currently reading" on the bottom of their emails. But whatever you do, you need to keep things fresh to keep the profile high. So think about having weekly updates from your reading role models, keep updating posters and signs, promote new books when you get them in, perhaps tie into a film or a TV show that's out, and maybe even have a champion reader of the week as an incentive. Once you've done the hard work of getting everyone on board with reading, it really is worth the investment. The library will then be a busy, active space at the heart of the school.

As well as celebrities and teachers, peers can also be excellent reading role models, as Nick suggested in Video 2. Sports captains and students with special educational needs, for example, can help to build a whole community ethos around reading and using the library. Do you have any role models in your school? Activity 3 Allow approximately 10 minutes Provide two examples of potential reading role models you can use in your school. Why have you chosen them? There are no right or wrong answers to this task, but below are two examples of role models you may have chosen. Colleagues’ partners who do jobs all students can relate to. Getting a fireman, police officer, nurse or farmer, for example, to discuss their reading habits and its importance to their jobs, provides students with real life context for reading beyond school. A local celebrity, for example a politician, successful business person, or athlete. Visits by celebrities, no matter how minor, will always cause a stir so getting them to endorse reading can change attitudes and give books wider appeal. In the next section, you will discuss the importance of promoting non-fiction resources, as well as look at how working collaboratively with colleagues can ensure that your collection management is relevant, supports the curriculum and helps satisfy students’ intellectual curiosity. For lots of teenagers, reading for pleasure is a concept associated with fiction rather than non-fiction. Indeed, it may not even occur to many of them that reading non-fiction has the potential to be enjoyable. Instead, the idea of reading around a subject can seem little different from doing extra homework. However, doing so can help broaden student’s knowledge and give them a deeper appreciation for their subject. It is therefore important that as a librarian you encourage students to engage with non-fiction and extra-curricular reading as much as possible, helping them to see it not as a chore, but an opportunity to satisfy their curiosity and push the boundaries of their knowledge. To repurpose a metaphor by Cressida Cowell, the author of the How to Train Your Dragon series, we should be aiming for students to view non-fiction books as sweets rather than brussels sprouts (Cowell, 2018). By encouraging students to engage with reading in this way, you can help them develop lasting habits which will stand them in good stead for success in later life. It’s important to recognise that many students will already engage daily with non-fiction content online so encouraging them to make a connection between their digital reading and the physical books in your library can help make non-fiction books less daunting. However, online reading should still be encouraged as much as possible, as students who read extensively online, whether that be emails, chat messengers, the news, or online discussions ‘are generally more proficient readers than students who do little online reading’ (OECD, 2010, p. 12). Recent studies have also shown that reading e-books supports children’s vocabulary, spelling, and reading comprehension skills, and is just as effective in the development of literacy as reading traditional print books (López-Escribano et al., 2021) Additional resources If you are interested in looking at the differing roles of digital and physical books in encouraging reading for pleasure you may find the following OpenLearn badged course of use: Developing Reading for Pleasure: engaging young readers For students who struggle to devote their attention to books, non-fiction and reference books are perfect for dipping in and out of. Encouraging an avid sports fan to pick up a non-fiction book about the Olympics, for example, can act as a gateway to further reading. Building a collection of books and resources which not only reflects the subjects and topics taught in your school, but also evokes curiosity amongst students is, therefore, an important part of your job as a librarian.

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Having a pupil suggestion box, making notes of any informal conversations of note, and liaising with the student council, are all ways you can maximise the likelihood that your resources reflect what students want. However, it is crucial that your collection is primarily influenced by the curriculum. As we discussed previously in Session 1, it is, therefore, particularly beneficial for you to develop close working relationships with your colleagues who can guide you to useful resources and help you decide which to invest in. These resources might support specific topics taught within the classroom or provide broader subject-related materials to aid students’ research and wider reading. Whether it’s a simple email, an informal conversation, a scheduled meeting or a formal presentation, liaising with colleagues from across the school can only have a positive influence on your library and its contribution to teaching and learning. Developing these close working relationships can be symbiotic in providing opportunities for you to find new and helpful resources for your colleagues. To explore this subject further, watch the video below where Sarah discusses the ways you can maintain a high profile amongst your colleagues and identify opportunities for collaboration. After you have done this, complete the activity, reflecting on your current approach to collaborative collection management. Video 3 SARAH: I think collaboration and being proactive with teaching staff is absolutely crucial. Because if you don't have your resources that you've got visible, they just gather dust on the shelf. And nobody even knows they're there. So we have to maintain a high profile. And that means going out there and finding the people we need to engage with. So we might be talking at staff meetings. Quite often I would just make up a question, just so that I could get my voice heard at the meeting by the other staff. It's also getting that slot for the new teacher induction and making sure, even if it's only five minutes, that you're on that agenda. Ask for slots at training days, inset days. Invite them into the library as a venue for an event they're holding, or perhaps give an assembly, if you can. And sometimes that can link in well with an event such as World Book Day. It's important to find, who are the teachers in your school that are interested in working with the librarian and your library resources? That way, you can select the resources you need together. And another thing I used to do was I always, even if it was on a non-fiction topic, I would pop a fiction reading list into that topic box, so that they could read around the subject and learn the vocabulary in a different way by reading a story. Another thing we can do is to find out who is the school governor who's got special responsibility for the library. If we know who they are, we can demonstrate and show them all the vibrant things that are going on in the library. Invite them in to shadow us for a day. Student voice is often ignored. We think, as teachers, part of the staff, teaching and learning, that we impose our ideas on them. But actually, if we listen more to the students, they can give us ideas about which are the best resources to use. Sometimes I take a box of books into the classroom for a topic. And I get them in pairs to look through it and then to tell me which ones they thought they'd use in the project and why. Then I could put notes on the catalogue to show how it's been used in the past by students. For instance, I could say, year seven castles project, ook on page 23 of this book, and you'll get the diagram that you need for your work. We need to appear knowledgeable. We need to show the people, the teachers that we deal with that we know the curriculum, that we know the syllabus. And if we listen and watch other teachers, we can speak the speak as well.

Attending training days, assemblies and departmental meetings are a good way to develop a high profile in your school community. Approaching and building a relationship with the school governor who is responsible for the library can also help to ensure your position is well represented in decision-making. Activity 4 Allow approximately 20 minutes In the table below, note down two colleagues you liaise with and how they have influenced which resources you have invested in. Table 2 Influence of colleagues on resources

Colleague	Influence on resources invested in
EXAMPLE: Admissions officer	Books in foreign languages for students with English as their second language

Now that you have completed Table 2, note down two colleagues you don’t yet interact with and explain why it would be beneficial to do so. Table 3 Colleagues you haven’t interacted with before

Colleague	Benefit

Now that you’ve completed Session 5, you can take a short quiz to help you to reflect on what you’ve learned. Open the quiz in a new tab or window by holding down Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) when you click on the link. Return here when you have finished. Session 5 quiz. In this session, you have a gained an understanding of the library’s major contribution towards literacy and considered how it can be embedded in your school through a variety of methods, both inside and outside the library. In particular, marketing your resources is key to maintaining your library’s profile and championing reading. This can be achieved through a variety of means including posters, assemblies, and displays around school. Author visits, reading schemes, and the promotion of topical or themed books are also brilliant ways to encourage good reading habits and engagement with your library’s offering, especially amongst reluctant readers. In this session, you have also examined the power of role models such as celebrities, respected teachers and popular students to influence behaviour. This is something you can harness to encourage good reading habits in your school, particularly amongst those who are more likely to be reluctant readers, for example, teenage boys. Finally, you explored the crucial importance of non-fiction resources, which can help support the curriculum, advance learning and embed literacy in your school. In the next session, you will learn how to encourage independent learning, raise awareness of plagiarism, and teach students how to navigate both physical and digital resources. You should now go to Session 6. Session 6: Independent study and information literacy Having the ability to seek, evaluate and use information effectively, as well as a capacity for carrying out self-directed study, are all valuable life skills. Although your students will be accustomed to undertaking some form of independent study such as homework, they may not be as familiar with the ability to learn for themselves. To encourage greater independence, you can inspire your students to be self-motivated and develop their concentration, organise their work and prioritise their time. By helping them gain control over their studies in ways such as these, you can exercise an important influence over the intellectual development of your students. Although students will be familiar with using IT to conduct research, the concept of Information Literacy (IL) may be new to them. However, knowing how to locate and identify the most appropriate information — what to search for, what resources to use, how to evaluate information, etc. — plays an essential role in both academic and professional success. This is also true of daily life where the skills associated with information literacy are vital. For example, as the information landscape rapidly changes in relation to fake news and social media, being able to recognise the integrity of resources and discern truth from falsehood is an important skill to have. The extent to which you can shape students’ understanding of these life skills will depend on your role in your school. However, whether you contribute to lessons, help students with research and homework, or produce leaflets and displays, having a personal understanding of information literacy can only be an advantage. By the end of this session, you should be able to: familiarise students with the skills necessary to identify and retrieve information support students in their independent learning teach students about plagiarism and basic referencing techniques. To begin this section, listen to Nick in Video 1 talk about information literacy as an important life skill, which you as a librarian can help to develop in your students. Video 1 NICK: It's important that students and staff understand what we mean by information literacy, and what it looks like in practice. CILIP defines information literacy as the ability to think critically and make balanced judgments about any information we find and use. So it's a life skill that we all need for education, our physical and mental health, in the workplace, and in everyday life. So it's really useful to be familiar with this. We've never had so much access to information as we do today. But sometimes we can overlook the fact that while young people may be confident users of technology, they still need to learn the skills to be proficient. So to search effectively online, students need a good vocabulary, and know how to use key words to find the information they want. They also need to evaluate the information they find, and learn how to use it appropriately. Information literacy is something that underpins the curriculum. So as librarians, we need to understand students' learning needs, and then we can direct them to appropriate resources. There's useful guidance on the research process through the information literacy guides produced by CILIP ILG. And for older students there are really useful resources on many university websites. But it's also a way that you can engage with other subjects in the library, not just English. You could try to get history, geography, or RS involved with project work, using books as well as online resources. And of course, you can have a vital contribution to sixth form study skills and support for International Baccalaureate or EPQ qualifications. The higher the profile that's given to information literacy in school, then the more that your role as librarian will be appreciated and valued.

Although the internet now means that there is wealth of information available at our fingertips at all times of the day, it is important that users are proficient and effective in finding the information that they want. To do this, as Nick suggested, students need a good vocabulary. Knowing where to source information from is another key component of information literacy. To help with this, people and institutions typically seek to organise and order information. Internet search engines, for example, ‘crawl’ the web for new pages, analysing their content, and adding them to their searchable indexes, which allows users to locate information using keywords and phrases. Similarly, books are indexed to allow users to find specific passages or themes, whilst libraries categorise their books into different classifications. Although the sophistication and scope of different ordering methods may vary, what they all have in common is the aim of making the recovery of information easier, helping users to identify connections and make sense of information that would otherwise be overwhelming. To be able to take full advantage of your library, students will, therefore, benefit from understanding how its resources are classified. By giving them the appropriate knowledge for navigating your library and by teaching them the skills they need to use an index or select the appropriate keywords for searching online, you will equip them with the skills necessary to identify and retrieve information effectively. For example, in schools or smaller libraries, fiction is often simply shelved in alphabetical order or by genre. When organising larger collections, particularly non-fiction, librarians often use more sophisticated classification systems, the most common being the Dewey Decimal System. This Dewey Decimal system is used in schools, universities and public libraries worldwide and categorises subjects into ten broad groups shown in Box 1. The Dewey Decimal System 000 – Computer science, information and general works 100 – Philosophy and psychology 200 – Religion 300 – Social sciences 400 – Language 500 – Science 600 – Technology 700 – Arts and recreation 800 – Literature 900 – History and geography These groups are then sub-divided into more specific categories which are, in turn, sometimes followed by the first three letters of the author’s surname. This group of numbers and letters is known as a ‘call number’ and allows library users to locate books with precision. To understand how this works in practice, take a look at the following two examples: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a work of ‘literature’ (800). A subdivision of ‘literature’ is ‘English literature’ (820). Within ‘English literature’ is ‘English fiction’ (823). This is refined further by period: since Pride and Prejudice is a work of ‘early 19th century fiction’ (823.7) you can deduce that Pride and Prejudice’s full call number would be 823.7AUS. The Roman Revolution by Ronald Syme is a work of ‘history’ (900). A subdivision of ‘history’ is ‘ancient history’ (930). Within ‘ancient history’ is the classification ‘Italian Peninsula and adjacent territories to 467AD’ (937). Since the Roman Revolution falls within the period ‘Civil strife, 146–31BC’(937.05) you can deduce that the Roman Revolution’s full call number is 937.05SYM. As well as having a knowledge of how the library resources are classified, students should also be encouraged to think about how to navigate digital resources. They can be taught about these matters through the use of leaflets, posters, or guides on shared file areas such as the school’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Alternatively, if a class in your school has an upcoming project where they would benefit from having an understanding of handling resources, you may choose to take part in a lesson where you can engage with students directly. Whichever way you approach it, familiarising students with these skills will help them in their studies and equip them with lasting knowledge for life beyond the classroom. Of particular use are Boolean searches. By using Boolean operators in their searches (‘AND’, ‘OR, and ‘NOT’), students can refine their results and locate information more efficiently. For example, the search ‘cats AND dogs’ would only bring up results that mentions both search terms. Similarly, when using Google, putting quotation marks around your search term (e.g. “cats and dogs”) will only bring up results that contain that exact same wording. Other useful ways of refining searches include the use of keywords, specifying the date so only the most recent articles are retrieved, or including the domain name so only content published by a specific source is returned. For further tips on how to improve search results, Google has put together a handy guide which you can access here. Activity 1 Allow approximately 10 minutes How confident do you feel personally about information literacy? Now, irrespective of how you rated your level of confidence, identify one way in which you can further develop your knowledge and skills and in this subject. Irrespective of your perceived level of confidence, one way you can develop your knowledge of information literacy is by engaging with professional library organsiations. In particular, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) has an Information Literacy Group which caters to those of all confidence levels by organising meetings, seminars and training events; maintaining the Information Literacy website; publishing the Journal of Information Literacy (JIL); as well as organising the Librarians’ Information Literacy Annual Conference (LILAC). More recently, CILIP and the Information Literacy Group have also co-sponsored the creation of the Media and Information Literacy Alliance (MILA), which aims to champion media and information literacy in the UK. In the next section, you will explore the related theme of independent learning and discuss how it can be encouraged amongst your students. In the previous section, you looked at the importance of teaching students to navigate and retrieve information. This ability to ‘search and find’ is just one component of information literacy. Other key elements include ‘subject-specific learning’, where students are equipped with the skills appropriate to their subjects of study, and ‘enquiry-based learning’, a student-led form of education where students are encouraged to adopt an active and independent approach to their studies. These aspects of information literacy all have complementary roles to play in students’ educational achievement. For example, the ability of students to ‘search and find’ appropriate information efficiently is essential if they are to learn independently. This skill, in turn, is crucial to future success: by adopting an active approach to work, as well as learning to analyse and synthesise information in a sophisticated way, a student will develop skills which are highly valued by employers and of great use in daily life. The ability to learn independently also enables students to satisfy their intellectual curiosity, thereby offering great potential for personal enrichment. As librarians, you can help students develop the skill set necessary for independent learning by encouraging them to adopt a strategic approach when approaching research. Whether using the internet or traditional resources such as books and journals, drafting a search plan, identifying sources of information, and carefully considering keywords or terms, such as the subject, title or author of the resource, can all help guide students towards a successful outcome. They may also find it profitable to maintain a search record and structured notes. By introducing them to these practices, you will enhance their ability to undertake effective research and, consequently, prepare them to approach learning independently. For further tips and ideas about how to encourage independent learning amongst your students, watch the video below. Then, complete Activity 2, reflecting on the current habits of your students. Video 2 SARAH: So with information literacy, there are a variety of different models, theoretical models that you could use with students, and basically they boil down into three different types-- the search and find, inquiry based for inquiry based learning, and subject specific. And the point is not to really just slavishly go through them all, but to choose the elements of each model that will fit what you're trying to achieve. Research is quite a messy process and students are unfamiliar with this approach where they might fail. So part of your remit is really to get them to understand that that's a way of learning and to bolster their self-esteem. I think you have to be a guide on the side rather than somebody who's formally telling them what to do. You might also decide to take an informal games-based approach, so that it's less structured and allow them again to explore the competencies they need for information literacy. One of the issues you might come across is that the curriculum in England is not inquiry-based. And this might mean that some teachers are quite reluctant to work with this approach to learning. So what you need to do really is to find those teachers who are willing to give this a go and to concentrate on collaborating with them.

Activity 2 Allow approximately 20 minutes Indicate whether or not your students are familiar with the examples of independent learning that appear in the table below. For those practices that you’ve marked as unfamiliar, how do you think you could help students become more familiar? What activities could you set up? Table 1 Students’ familiarity with independent learning practices

Students who use my library				How you could help students become more familiar
Practice	Familiar	Unfamiliar	Unsure
Devising a search plan/strategy
Identifying information sources
Considering keywords, terms and phrases
Evaluating and selecting results
Keeping a diary to record sources and results

Now that you have completed the activity, consider whether there are any areas for improvement. If there are practices which you feel your students are unfamiliar with, you can raise awareness through leaflets, posters, and study guides. Alternatively, you could adopt a more targeted approach and contribute to lessons where you can engage directly with students and answer their questions. So far in this session, you have seen how effective research not only involves identifying relevant sources of information, it also includes using that information appropriately. This includes referencing correctly. Therefore, in the next section, you will focus on the concepts of plagiarism and citation and look at ways to educate students on the importance of academic integrity. When students find information relevant to their work, they may not appreciate the necessity of acknowledging their sources. By providing references, readers can assess the foundations upon which the work is built. This enables them to judge the arguments, determine which thoughts are original, and explore the topic in greater depth. Most crucially, it acts as a deterrent against plagiarism and the theft of ideas.

Illustration of woman holding a light bulb looking like trying to protect her idea from another figure who is running away with what is inferred to be her bulb

Whether intentional or not, a failure to cite your sources can be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty. This can have serious real-life consequences. For example, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), the organisation which represents the eight largest examining bodies in the UK, considers plagiarism a form of malpractice. In the most serious cases, the awarding body reserves the right to bar students from entering exams for a set period of time. Similarly, students applying to University will find that their personal statements are scanned by plagiarism detection software. Once at university, students found guilty of plagiarism can even be expelled from their courses. It’s therefore prudent to familiarise students with the concepts of plagiarism and referencing whilst at school. Although plagiarism – the act of passing other’s work off as one’s own – is a concept which can be easily be explained, the methods of citation will require more in-depth instruction. There are several main ways to reference information. The most popular method used in UK universities is the Harvard style (Caulfield, 2022), but other common examples include the Modern Language Association (MLA) style, the American Psychological Association (APA) style, and the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) style. Whichever method is used, students should recognise that the source of their information, be it an idea, image or direct quotation, must be cited, even if it's been paraphrased. To do otherwise is plagiarism. Although younger students don't need to be taught how to cite and reference, it's still wise to stress the principle of not passing others' work off as your own. To this end, it may be helpful to encourage teachers of as many subjects as possible to include references in their handouts and presentations. In turn, teachers could get their students to list the books and websites they’ve used at the end of their own work. You may also wish to go a step further and collaborate with staff on an academic integrity policy which can be used to promote referencing throughout the school. For older students, it may be instructive to look at examples of real academic citation, consult university plagiarism guides, assess their peers’ work, or complete activities where they have to identify which elements of a text should be referenced. To think further about this topic, watch the video below where Sarah discusses the importance of acknowledging sources and sets out strategies for educating students about plagiarism. Video 3 SARAH: I think it's important when we're talking about information handling that we are aware of the aspects of academic integrity. It's never too early to start showing students how important it is to develop best practice in avoiding plagiarism. There've been some researchers who've done a global study, which has actually shown that when people start acting on plagiarised articles that have appeared because of their exams or because of things that have been duplicated in the international press, that actually has a direct effect on the economic prosperity of that country. So we've got to be very careful that we are a society, a human society that builds ourselves on the shoulders of giants. If those giants are a bit wobbly, then we've got to watch out about the decisions that we're going to take. And it's because of this and because of the consequences of it, that exam boards are very hot on people who plagiarise and you could even be banned from taking exams in the future if you are found to have copied without reference to where the source of the information was. Exam boards now actually have detection software that not only looks at exam scripts, but it also looks at the personal statements that the students might write for going to university. So it's got real life consequences. We need to show what best practice is. And as librarians, we can help write the school policy and promote the idea amongst teachers that they should be showing and expecting students to do referencing on any work that they find, and also to be aware of the laws surrounding paraphrasing and self-plagiarism. And of course now, we're faced with not just text, but also pictures, and music, and other media. Well, how do we do this? Well, the good news is actually there are a lot of fairly good games out there that people can play and that's a lighter way of introducing what can be quite a dry subject. University websites, if you look at those, have got plenty of advice on how to go about teaching these aspects of information handling. And also, we shouldn't be too afraid to get the students to mark their own work. So if we say to them, look, these are the practices you should avoid. Get them to swap work with each other and have a look at that, then that's really worthwhile. Little thing we can do very easy little exercise here is that you give students a postcard and you give them a timer of 1 minute to write as many words about their wonderful holiday they had on that postcard, and then you get them to write their name on the top and you swap it with the person next to you. That person scrubs out the original writer's name and writes their own name instead, then you get them to count up the number of words and the one with the most words gets the reward. This exemplifies plagiarism very, very realistically.

Activity 3 Allow approximately 25 minutes How confident do you feel about avoiding plagiarism yourself and explain why you made that choice. Do you think there’s room for improvement? If so, how? Now indicate whether or not your students are familiar with the concepts that appear in the below. Table 2 Familiarity with important concepts

Practice	Familiar	Unfamiliar	Unsure
Plagiarism
How to cite
How to reference

If you have answered ‘Unfamiliar’ or ‘Unsure’ to any of the practices above, what methods or activities could you use to get your students to feel more confident? As you saw earlier in the section, for example, you could encourage younger students to list websites they use in their homework. Likewise, could any of the methods Sarah suggested be useful to you? Table 3 Activities to encourage students to feel more confident on referencing practices

Practice	Methods/activities
Plagiarism
How to cite
How to reference

Now that you’ve completed Session 6, you can take a short quiz to help you to reflect on what you’ve learned. Open the quiz in a new tab or window by holding down Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) when you click on the link. Return here when you have finished. Session 6 quiz. In this session, you have looked at the significance of fostering information literacy in a world where students have greater access to information than ever before. Whether teaching them about your library’s classification system or how to use the internet for research, furnishing students with the skills necessary to navigate, retrieve, and critically assess information has never been more important. This session also looked at how to support independent learning and reasoning amongst students. For example, this may involve providing students with a template for approaching research methodically and analytically. Finally, you discussed the importance of acknowledging one’s sources, the potential consequences of plagiarism, and some of the ways in which you can encourage best practices amongst students of all ages. In the next session, you will explore the theme of advocacy. In particular, you will learn why it is important, how you can advocate for your own library, and more broadly, how networking and awareness of new developments in the field can make you a better advocate for the profession as a whole. You should now go to Session 7. Session 7: Championing the library In previous sessions, you have looked at how, as a school librarian, it is beneficial to promote your library and embed literacy through marketing and public relations. This can raise the profile of your library throughout the school and remind both colleagues and students of your offering and the work you do. More widely, you should also look to promote the library profession as a whole, as this provides support to other librarians who often work alone or in small teams. By gaining membership of professional organisations such as CILIP, attending events, and following blogs or social media profiles, you will be able to network with fellow librarians and keep abreast of developments in the field. These organisations will, in turn, promote the benefits of libraries on your behalf through professional events and campaigns, such as the Great School Libraries campaign. To raise your libraries profile and the library profession as a whole, the professional organisation of which you are a member may send representatives to a conference targeted at, for example, teachers; whether this involves manning stands in the main conference area or taking part in fringe events, these representatives can advocate for the profession in settings librarians may not ordinarily find themselves in. In turn, you yourself can give back by speaking at conferences, serving on committees, writing articles, or delivering training to fellow librarians and colleagues within your school. These present the perfect opportunity to develop professionally and share your ideas amongst your peers. By the end of this session, you should be able to: understand why championing the library is important and how it can help you establish and sustain your library’s goals develop effective channels of communication keep abreast of new developments in the library sector and know where to find support. Raising your library’s profile is something that brings numerous benefits. In Session 4, you looked at how everything from posters and displays to social media and author events have a role to play in encouraging students to read. Promoting the library is not only beneficial to your students though; it is beneficial for you as a librarian as it helps to give you the recognition you deserve by enlightening parents and the wider school community about the work you do. It also serves as a reminder that your library is not just a place that houses books, but rather a facility fully integrated into the teaching and learning process. This can help you to transform the image of a librarian to one of dynamism and digital expertise. It’s essential, therefore, that you actively find practical ways to lend your library a bold voice, which may at times involve questioning the status quo. In Session 1, you looked at how a library development plan can help you to set out your vision for the library that aligns with your school’s mission statement. To expand on this, you could, in collaboration with your manager, devise a strategy to raise the profile of your library and generate awareness of the benefits it offers to the entire school community. For example, creating a strong library brand, contributing to staff training days, and hosting library events will all ensure you raise the profile of your library. Whatever you do, being explicit about your achievements and your integral role in the school will help your library fulfil its potential. It will also help you achieve the goals you’ve set out in your library development plan, for example embedding literacy in your school or increasing usage of digital resources to support blended learning. To think further about this theme, watch the video below where Sarah explores the benefits of championing your library. After this, consider how you currently promote your library and the work you do, and then complete Activity 1. Then, in the next section, you will discuss how developing effective channels of communication can help increase the impact of your library advocacy. Video 1 SARAH: If you look at the media, the image they often portray of a librarian is some old woman in a bun and specs. And we know that that's not true. I mean, if you look at librarians today, they're dynamic, they're engaged people, they're interested, they're modern. And it's important that we change the story, that we are somebody that can help and can be dynamic. The library brand is really important to the school. And because if we can construct it so that it actually supports the wider aims, and the mission statement of the school and we publicise, maybe on our library page of the website, how we're going to achieve those goals that the school has got, then it's going to have much more impact. And it makes our job visible to others, and they can understand the importance of our role. And it's important that we show our role in a language that they can understand, the other members of the school community. It leads to respect, and it means that people want to work with us. They'll come and seek us out rather than us having to go to them all the time. It's got some other advantages, as well, because if we can say that we're providing this impact, we might get some extra funding for our library, because it's supporting the school mission. It takes a bit of courage. It means you've got to step out of your comfort zone, and you've got to start questioning the status quo because schools are terrible about making changes, they like things to stay year after year the way they should be. And part of the dynamism of a librarian, is that we can actually change things and make things happen.

Activity 1 Allow approximately 15 minutes In the box below provide three examples of ways you will advocate for your library and the wider profession. Provide a brief explanation of the benefits each brings. There are no right or wrong answers to this task, but below are some suggestions which you might have considered: Maintain a presence at parents’ evenings – maintaining a presence at parents’ evening allows you to engage with parents in person and showcase the range of benefits your library can offer their children. Offer to support and work with other librarians in your local area – by supporting and working with other librarians in your area, you can exchange ideas, develop your personal and professional skills, and establish beneficial working-relationships with your peers. Even if you are relatively new to the profession, what you have learnt can be of benefit to others. As you develop as a librarian and gain more knowledge, your role can even develop into that of mentor. Contribute to school newsletters – school newsletters are an opportunity for you to provide updates to staff, students, and parents, and be explicit about the library’s key importance in the educational process. Advocating for your library will inevitably involve an element of crossover with other work you do. Your blog, social media, website, or newsletter, as well as the activity you do around promoting books and events, will implicitly champion your library. However, you can take your advocacy to the next level by engaging more directly with your stakeholders and developing effective channels of communication. For example, you can further your library’s cause by liaising with colleagues, attending departmental meetings, and delivering school assemblies. Similarly, you may wish to engage with the student council, attend parents’ evenings, and provide the governing body and Senior Leadership Team (SLT) with regular library reports. If no member of the governing body has been assigned responsibility for the library, you could even request that it be adopted as part of their remit. Your reports could then be included at the governing body’s meetings, which would ensure your interests are represented at the highest levels in your school. Putting your claims in writing can maximise impact and awareness, but you should strive to support them with evidence wherever possible, for example, through data from your LMS. It is important that your reports link to the goals set out in your library development plan and the school’s mission statement, as well as explaining how you are achieving these. Whichever way you approach it, actively engaging and communicating with your stakeholders will raise awareness of the work you do, signal the importance of your library to the educational process, and give you greater influence within your school. Additional resources CILIP’s School Libraries Group’s guide to impact evaluation is a useful template to refer to, which shows how you can demonstrate your value and importance as a librarian to others. To consider this subject further, watch the video below where Nick discusses the importance of communication and visibility when advocating for your library. After this, reflect on your own use of communication channels to advocate for your library then proceed to the next section where you will explore the relationship between advocacy and networking. Video 2 NICK: Using the library development plan that you produced at the start, along with the school's aims and objectives, can really help you to decide on your priorities. How can you create impact for your school community? How much time are you going to devote to doing this? And how are you going to record it? Although personal relationships in school are important, you must be mindful that you need to make sure you engage with key personnel and staff in school who can help advocate for the library and for the support that it provides for the school community. So you need to be visible. You need to get involved with parents' evenings and open days, and also things like teacher training days, where you could deliver a session raising awareness of the library, as well as taking part in staff meetings, committees, and things like the school council. So visibility is key. But as librarians, we also need to make sure that we evidence our own impact by collecting data, and through raising awareness of the initiatives and events that the library has put on. You could do this through annual reports to governors and senior leadership, by sending a newsletter to parents and students, or via social media. Again, it's important here that you can show that what the library is doing links with the school's own goals and that you can explain how what you are doing is achieving this. Sometimes it can seem hard to have to advocate for what you do. But if you can show evidence of impact, then you're more likely to get the support of senior leaders, and are more likely to be able to bid for more funding, or get support for initiatives that you really want to run. So it's really worth it in the end.

Activity 2 Allow approximately 15 minutes Provide two examples of ways you use communication channels to advocate for your library. There are no right or wrong answers to this task, but below are some suggestions which you might have considered: Maintaining a presence at parents’ evening allows you to engage with parents in person and showcase the range of benefits your library can offer their children. Using Twitter to boast about your achievements or share information of interest, for example, the number of books borrowed that month, a new scheme you are launching, or any anecdotal feedback you’ve received. Networking, especially for those librarians who work alone or whose team is limited in size, is an important part of the role. By attending conferences, meeting new people, and participating in training days, you will develop new ideas, gain knowledge, and refine your approach to librarianship. This will help you make decisions, tackle problems, and achieve your goals, all of which can empower you to better advocate for your library. In addition to networking, it can be beneficial to read as much about school libraries as you can. This will help you learn best practice and identify different approaches to librarianship which you can adopt in your own library and learn best practice. Just as with networking, reading relevant literature so you are up to date with developments in the school library sector will contribute to your continuing professional development (CPD). By progressing and developing as a librarian and utilising new innovations and ideas, you will elevate your status in your school, be better placed to realise your ambitions, and make sure the library is able to meet the needs of the school community. Video 3 NICK: As librarians it's important that we give back to the profession by reflecting on what we've learned on our journey. And this can also feed into furthering our own professional development. You can do this by contributing to blogs, writing articles for journals, or attending training courses, conferences, or just informally by meeting up with other school librarians in your local area. Try to read as much as you can about school libraries. You're doing this course to find out more. But reflect on how you can incorporate that into your own practice. It can also be useful to see what librarians are doing in other sectors as well, such as in public libraries or universities. One way you can do this is through membership of CILIP, and in particular the School Libraries Group. This will give you the opportunity to learn from the experience of a huge network of school librarians. The National Committee of CILIP helps develop national policy through committees in parliament and initiatives like the Great School Libraries campaign. Working on the committee is a fantastic experience. But you don't have to have been in the trade for years. New school librarians are just as welcome. CILIP membership can give you the opportunity to gain professional qualifications and chartership. But as a librarian, it's keeping your knowledge up to date and reflecting on your own working practice that's just as important. You might be new to school libraries or you might work on your own, but whatever your experience, it's great to know that there's a recognised professional network to support you, and help you grow and develop.

As Nick mentioned in Video 3, networking can be a symbiotic process which benefits both your library and the wider industry. It’s important, therefore, to remember the power of unions and professional library organisations to provide guidance, support and an opportunity to network with your peers. There are many of these organisations around the world but some of the most prominent include the following. (To avoid losing your place in the course, if you are studying on a desktop you should open the link in a new tab or window by holding down Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) when you click on it. If you are studying on a mobile device hold down the link and select to ‘Open in New Tab’. Return here when you have finished. You might find it useful to bookmark these links so you can return to them at a later point.) The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) The CILIP School Libraries Group (SLG) School Library Association (SLA) International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Libraries Connected International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) National Education Union (NEU) By exposing you to large networks of librarians, these organisations help reinforce that you are not alone when it comes to defending the library cause. You don’t have to have been in the profession for years; new librarians are just as welcome. Crucially, professional organisations can help you better advocate for your library by exposing you to new ideas, keeping you abreast of developments in the sector, and giving you the opportunity to meet and engage with your peers. Membership also gives you a valuable opportunity to pass your insights on to others and use your expertise to influence national policy advice for school libraries. You may wish, for example, to join committees as part of these organisations or deliver talks where you can defend the interests of other librarians and advocate for the profession as a whole. Now that you have watched the video, you should reflect on your present approach to networking by completing Activity 3. Activity 3 Allow approximately 20 minutes How often do you network with fellow library professionals? Do you feel there’s room for you to network more? If so, how? Now give two examples of ways you could network with other library professionals and keep abreast of new developments in the sector in the future. What advantages do you think this would bring to you and your library? There are many ways you can network with other library professionals but some possible examples might include: joining local or regional librarian networks joining a national or international library organisation joining an online librarian community, for example, the School Librarians' Network (SLN) attending conferences, for example, the SLG or IFLA conferences. Now that you’ve completed Session 7, you can take a short quiz to help you to reflect on what you’ve learned. Open the quiz in a new tab or window by holding down Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) when you click on the link. Return here when you have finished. Session 7 quiz. In this session, you have seen how advocating for your library can help dispel outdated notions about the profession and showcase the dynamic role libraries play in the educational landscape. You have looked at how developing channels of communication throughout the school is key to your advocacy. For example, getting involved with events, attending meetings with colleagues, and taking part in committees can all help raise awareness of your library’s work and improve its visibility throughout the school community. Finally, you have seen how advocacy and networking go hand in hand, helping you to develop professionally, keep abreast of developments in the sector, and equipping you with the experience necessary to champion your library’s cause. In the next session, you will explore how to review your library’s performance, considering in the process how to approach reports, gather evidence, and identify areas for further development. You should now go to Session 8. Session 8: Reflection and review In the final session of this course, you will consider how to think about your experience and learning on your journey as a librarian, and systematically approach the process of reflection and review. This practice is essential in helping you assess yourself and your library’s performance, and the effectiveness of your role. It can also help you to appreciate how you have ‘grown’ in confidence, expertise and professional stature. By placing your projects and strategies in a practical context, analysing them, and arriving at conclusions, you can evaluate your performance, and identify areas of success, areas which require further development, and areas that need changing altogether. This process can often involve a colleague or line manager who may offer an alternative perspective by considering matters from an independent, unbiased point of view. This kind of reflection is vital to your library’s development plans, your continuing professional development (CPD), and is also integral to your performance review. By the end of this session, you should be able to: understand the need to gather data and analyse it in context recognise different ways to gather feedback from your stakeholders use data analyses to review your performance and that of your library. As a librarian, you will often need to review your practices and compile reports which evaluate your library’s performance. When writing reports or undertaking a review, it’s important to identify your audience and tailor the tone of your writing accordingly. For example, a report for governors or the senior leadership team (SLT) should be formal and detailed, whereas an update circulated amongst parents might be briefer and chattier. However, no matter who you are writing for, you should support your arguments with evidence wherever possible, ensuring that you are focused and analytical in your approach. One of your most significant sources of data will be the reports from your Library Management System (LMS). In particular, you may be able to obtain information on the most borrowed books and most popular authors, as well as other borrowing statistics which are broken down by category, for example, by gender or genre. You could even view the borrowing data for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or students with English as a second language (EASL). In doing so, your LMS will be able to supply you with important data on reading and literacy, a topic which will undoubtedly be of common interest to all schools, whatever their teaching and learning objectives. Using this data might influence and inform anything from library funding and procurement to collection management and your school’s literacy development plan. Whether it’s reading and literacy analytics from your LMS, feedback and suggestions from staff and students, the footfall counter on your security gates, or your social media and website analytics, evidence is most useful when viewed in context. For instance, if you are interested in breaking down borrowing statistics by gender, but one particular year group has a gender imbalance, interpreting the data in isolation may lead you to draw misleading conclusions. Similarly, you may find that there’s been a decrease in footfall and borrowing during one week of the year, however, further investigations might reveal that this can be explained by the fact that a year group has been on an exchange visit abroad. Applying context to the evidence you collect can help you to explain anomalies and more confidently identify trends. It is important not to fall into the trap of reporting everything though. This can dilute your message and make those reading the report lose focus from the main points you are trying to put across. You should focus on your school’s goals and development plan and relate your evidence to these, as Sarah suggests in the next video. Video 1 SARAH: When you're writing a report, it's important not to fall into that trap of trying to report everything. You've got to make it far more focused. So we can look at the school's long-term goals and aims, and we can look at their mission statement, and we can look back and think which reports that we write are going to have the most impact, which ones need to be delivered to those stakeholders. How we construct the reports really depends on what we're trying to achieve, but we want to aim really for a mixture of statistics and perhaps some anecdotal evidence as well. We are librarians and we know that we love a story. So if we can put in little stories about to exemplify what we're trying to put over to those stakeholders, they will enjoy that. And also when they write the school report, then having a little anecdote to put into that school report makes a big difference if you're a senior leader. We need to think about the relevance of the data tables that we put in there. Why are they there? What are they doing? How are they going to add to that report? It might be data that we've taken from our library management system, we might be looking at the footfall in our library, or we might be looking maybe at some library social media accounts that we've got and seeing how those have been used not just by students, not just by staff, but maybe the wider community as well. Another thing I used to find really useful and I have to say it boosted up my self-esteem, was to have a diary and every time somebody commented on something on the library, I would write down that comment in this book. So when I was having a bad day, I can look back over it and see the good things that had happened, but also it was so useful for that report. We need to be aware that when we write reports, who is going to read them? And we might want to change the language, or the style of the report, or even the order of report, depending on if it's going to a senior leader, or a governor, or a parent. We need to be aware it could be used by different people and adapt accordingly.

In Video 1, Sarah suggests a combination of statistical and anecdotal evidence can help bring your report to life. Is this something you include in your reports at the moment? In the activity below, you will consider the reports your LMS can generate and how you use them in your reviews. Activity 1 Allow approximately 20 minutes Provide two examples of reports you produce using your Library Management System (LMS) and describe how you use them. Below is an example of a report you might produce using your LMS and its benefits to you. Analysis of non-fiction borrowing statistics by year-group:This will help you to identify which topics are most popular and, therefore, might benefit from further investment.It can help you create a marketing strategy to target year groups that have shown the least interest in non-fiction.It can help you make a judgement as to whether non-fiction books were read for pleasure or were borrowed to assist in schoolwork. Having read this section and listened to Sarah, are there any changes you would make to your future reporting? Could you use more anecdotal evidence, for example? Now you have considered what information you should include in your reports and how you should report it, in the next section, you will develop these themes further and examine the different types of evidence that you can use to substantiate your arguments. Analytics from your LMS, library footfall data, and analytics from your social media and website were all mentioned in the previous section as useful and important evidence to obtain to demonstrate the value of your library. When compiling reports though, it is important to collect both quantitative and qualitative evidence, that is to say, evidence which can be expressed in numbers and evidence which can be expressed in words. For example, the number of students who requested a certain book would be considered quantitative whereas their opinions of that book would be qualitative. Although it may be tempting to focus solely on concrete statistical data when reviewing your service, qualitative information has an important role to play. Qualitative evidence can reveal information that can’t be expressed in numbers. This can be the anecdotal evidence that Sarah mentioned in Video 1 in Section 1, which helps to convey a sense of personality in your reports, and helps to bring your library to life in a way that statistics alone cannot. Striking an appropriate balance between the two is therefore key to a successful report. As well as gathering quantitative data from social media, footfall data, and reports from your LMS, it is also wise to obtain feedback from your library's stakeholders. This might involve using a suggestions box or gleaning anecdotal information from conversations with staff and students. It is also worth making an effort to record impromptu comments in a Word document or Excel spreadsheet. Doing so is easy and ensures compliments and criticisms are not forgotten or ignored. Online surveys also offer a quick way to gather anonymised feedback. Many of these are free and easy to use, making them popular with both staff and students. Other ways of gathering feedback include organising focus groups, circulating physical questionnaires, attending subject departmental meetings, or consulting the student council. Choosing just one or two of these methods will provide you with useful information that can give you an insight into what colleagues and students value in your library and what they would like you to develop or improve. Video 2 NICK: It's important to bear in mind that the data you collect can be both qualitative and quantitative, so collecting views and opinions as well as crunching the numbers. A mix of both is ideal in measuring the effect that your library is having. Quantitative data is really anything you can count, number of books issued, number of library visits, items in stock. You should be able to get lots of useful quantitative data from your library management system, or perhaps by doing something like a head count of students in the library. There are also a number of ways you can collect qualitative data. You might have a suggestions box in the library. But you can be more proactive discussing the library with a focus group of staff or students, or talking to your library committee, or student council. Online surveys can be a really good way to gather data. But with questionnaires, it's important to frame questions to make sure that you get the responses you expect. You might think a question is really obvious, but that's not how other people might see it. so it's always worth testing your survey on a few people first before rolling it out more widely to the whole school. Of course, as well as these structured methods, just chance conversations with staff and students can yield really useful information that you can record. The more active part you play in the school community, the more you will increase your chance of having those useful conversations. So overall, it's worth keeping in mind the school and library development plans, your collection development policy, and the wider aims of the school when you're collecting data. That way, rather than just being something of interest, you can really focus on collecting evidence of the impact that you have and that the library is having supporting the school and the students. And knowing that you've made a difference but also being able to show that is really satisfying.

You should now complete Activity 2, which asks you to reflect on how the feedback you gather from stakeholders affects your approach at work. Then, in the next section, you will look at how both the quantitative and qualitative evidence you have collected can be used to compile your annual report and reflect on your performance. Activity 2 Allow approximately 20 minutes Provide two examples of how you gather feedback from students and other library stakeholders. How do these influence your work and the library’s provision? Reflecting on your answers, do you think there are any areas for improvement? For example, are you using a mix of traditional and digital methods of gathering feedback? Or do you focus solely on one particular approach? Do you regularly implement recommendations made by stakeholders? And if so, how do you demonstrate this to your library’s users, your line manager, and the Senior Leadership Team? To reflect further on how you could refine your use of feedback, complete the second part of the activity below. Is there any other method of gathering feedback which you do not currently use? What benefit(s) might this offer you? As you have looked at so far in this session, evidence gathering is invaluable to instil confidence in the findings of your reports. This is especially true when it comes to your annual report and reviews of your performance. Having data and information to show as evidence for your areas of success and those which need improvement, ensures that you and your line manager can reflect on the previous year and, moving forward, shape your aims and objectives in accordance with the school’s policies. When considering your future goals, you should ensure that they are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time-Related. Each goal must, therefore, be well defined and unambiguous (specific), have an indicator against which success can be judged (measurable), specify who will be responsible for achieving it (assignable), be achievable (realistic), and have a deadline or timescale (time-related). When it comes to your annual report, an ability to demonstrate engagement with evidence gathering can support your claims and requests, equipping you with facts necessary to safeguard yourself against any possible criticism. Likewise, being able to substantiate your achievements will strengthen your position, demonstrate a level of strategic management and professionalism, and help both you and your line manager in your annual appraisal. These are just some of the ways you can use evidence gathering to review your performance and that of your library. Now watch Video 3 in which Sarah discusses the value of evidence in your annual report in more detail. After you have done this, think about how you’ve used evidence in the past when reviewing your library’s performance. Video 3 SARAH: We know that we do a really good job as a librarian, but it's difficult to get others to understand what we do, particularly when some of the parts of our job are invisible. And we make the job look easy, we make it look smooth because we have these underpinning routines. And the difficulty is that when everything looks really smooth, we open ourselves to the possibility that people give us more work to do because they think that perhaps we're not doing enough, so we need to be careful about this. One of the ways in which we can demonstrate what we do is to produce an annual report and it can summarise how we've met the objectives for the year or any new initiatives that we've had or perhaps data for the new targets that we've been asked to achieve and we can give these to our senior leaders and our governors in writing. Now, there's a few things that are important. One is to make sure that we only give them the kind of information that's going to be relevant to them. So that idea of tying it into the school mission statement and aims is really important. And the other thing is giving it to them in advance so that they can actually read it through. So that when you come to the discussion about it, it can be informed and you can say what your aims and objectives are for the following year and talk to them about this. Sometimes if we make good report data, we can use it as a claim for some extra funding for the library. Or perhaps if we're under pressure, we might be asking for more staff. All of this is important to show how what we do impacts on the achievement of the school goals, and this can underpin the whole value of the library and it shows our management skills. If we can demonstrate our management skills, maybe we'll get a pay rise or perhaps, we'll be given some extra responsibility in an area that we would like. So the data that we produce has to be for impact and it has to be relevant to the stakeholders. And we have to show the stakeholders why we might have included it in the report. As librarians, we all like a story. So bear this in mind, when you're writing your report, is it readable? Is it something that the stakeholders are going to get something of value out of?

Activity 3 Allow approximately 20 minutes Provide two examples of how you’ve used evidence to evaluate your performance and identify new objectives. Below is an example of how you might have used feedback and LMS data relating to school staff: Using LMS data on staff borrowing statistics or feedback from teachers on the quality of your subject-specific resources can help you identify the extent to which your library is meeting colleagues’ needs. In turn, this information can help you identify areas for improvement and formulate a strategy for the future. Now that you’ve come to the end of the course, it’s time to take the Session 8 badge quiz. It’s similar to previous quizzes but this time, instead of answering five questions, there will be 15. Open the quiz in a new tab or window by holding down Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) when you click on the link. Return here when you have finished. Session 8 compulsory badge quiz. Remember, this quiz counts towards your badge. If you’re not successful the first time, you can attempt the quiz again in 24 hours. Congratulations on completing An introduction to school librarianship. You began the course by considering how an awareness of school policies, government legislation, the content of the curriculum, and the needs of your stakeholders are all essential if you are to effectively support your school. The rest of the course looked at how to best utilise technology in your library, how to create a reading rich culture in your school, how to embed both reading and information literacy, and how to champion your library. In this final session, you have considered different approaches to writing reports and how you can gather evidence to contextualise and focus your arguments. You have also seen that this evidence needn’t just be hard statistical data gathered from your Library Management System (LMS) or social media pages. Anecdotes and other qualitative information which you can glean from surveys and daily interactions with library users can also be used to great effect in reports. When taken together, the evidence you gather and the reports you produce can be used to reflect on your performance, substantiate your achievements, and devise strategies for further development. One of the common themes running throughout the course has been the creation of your library development plan. Now that you have reached the end of the course, you should be well placed to create your own plan with the ultimate goal of supporting your school and stakeholders to the best of your ability. Although no two schools and no two libraries are the same, by providing a rounded approach to school librarianship this course should have provided you with a secure foundation to build on and the confidence to approach challenges facing the typical librarian wherever they arise. Video 4 NICK: We hope you found this course really inspiring and useful and that you're going to take away lots of ideas to try in your own school library. SARAH: And we hope that it's encouraged you to delve deeper into the possibilities and opportunities that school librarianship will give you as a career.

As a librarian, making the decision to develop your learning can involve becoming a member of the School Libraries Group (SLG) a special interest group of the Chartered Institute of Librarians and Information Professional (CILIP). Those at the beginning of their career may wish to apply for CILIP’s Professional Registration Certification, which entitles you to use the post-nominal letters ACLIP. Those with more experience may wish to undertake CILIP’s Chartership. This is the level of Professional Registration for those working in the information professions who wish to be recognised for their skills and knowledge of the profession. You may be interested in the following titles on school librarianship published by Facet Publishing: Creating a School Library with Impact: A Beginner’s Guide, by Caroline Roche, Barbara Band, Nick Cavender, Lucy Chambers, Sarah Pavey, Annie Everall and Ellen Krajewski CILIP Guidelines for Secondary School Libraries, by Sue Shaper The Innovative School Librarian, by Sharon Markless, Elizabeth Bentley, Sarah Pavey, Sue Shaper, Sally Todd and Carol Webb If you’ve enjoyed this course you can find more free resources and courses on OpenLearn. You might be specifically interested in these courses: Digital skills: succeeding in a digital world Developing Reading for Pleasure: engaging young readers New to University study? You may be interested in our courses on education. Making the decision to study can be a big step and The Open University has over 40 years of experience supporting its students through their chosen learning paths. You can find out more about studying with us by visiting our online prospectus. Now you’ve come to the end of the course, we would appreciate a few minutes of your time to complete this short end-of-course survey (you may have already completed this survey at the end of Session 4). UCL Institute of Education (2017) What influences vocabulary? Available at: https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/MCS6-Briefing-01-What-influences-vocabulary.pdf (Accessed: 30 June 2022). Clark, C. and Picton, I. (2020) Children and young people’s reading in 2020 before and during the COVID-19 lockdown. National Literacy Trust. Available at: https://cdn.literacytrust.org.uk/media/documents/National_Literacy_Trust_-_Reading_practices_under_lockdown_report_-_FINAL.pdf (Accessed: 31 August 2022). Clark, C. and Picton, I. (2021) Children and young people’s reading engagement in 2021. Emerging insight into the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on reading. National Literacy Trust. Available at: https://cdn.literacytrust.org.uk/media/documents/Reading_in_2021.pdf (Accessed 1 July 2022). Cremin, T. and Coles, B. (2022) Children’s Reading Choices. Available at: https://www.sla.org.uk/childrens-reading-choices (Accessed: 31 August 2022). Department for Education (2012) Research evidence on reading for pleasure. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/284286/reading_for_pleasure.pdf (Accessed: 17 January 2022). OECD (2002) Reading for change. Performance and engagement across countries. Results from Pisa 2000. Available at: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/9789264099289-en.pdf?expires=1642415828&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=EB5E62C86CB14A5BFED8F9CED5759A1F (Accessed: 17 January 2022). The Reading Agency (2020) New survey says reading connects a nation in lockdown. Available at: https://worldbooknight.org/news/new-survey-says-reading-connects-a-nation-in-lockdown (Accessed: 31 August 2022). Wilkinson, K., Andries, V., Howarth, D., Bonsall, J., Sabeti, S. and McGeown, S. (2020) ‘Reading During Adolescence: Why Adolescents Choose (or Do Not Choose) Books’, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 64(2), pp. 157–166. Available at: https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jaal.1065 (Accessed: 1 July 2022). Yulia, A., Joshi, R. M. and Husin, N. A (2021) ‘Assessing the Effects of Books on Psychological Wellbeing in Malaysia’, Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 19(1), pp. 87–101. Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1295387 (Accessed: 1 July 2022). Yusof, A. (2021) Readinf habits among students in the digital era. Available at: https://aclim.uitm.edu.my/article/article/view/5 (Accessed: 31 August 2022). Cho, M. T (2020) ‘An Investigation into Adolescents’ Self-perception as Readers’, Technium Social Sciences Journal, 11, pp. 268–275. Available at: https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/techssj11&div=27&id=&page= (Accessed: 31 August 2022). Cowell, C. (2018) ‘If we want our children to thrive, teaching them to read is not enough – they must learn to enjoy it’, Independent, 4 December. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/children-reading-for-pleasure-learning-to-read-a8666611.html (Accessed: 31 August 2022). Demos (2018) “It’s no exaggeration to say that reading can transform British society…”: A society of readers. London: Demos October 2018. Available at: https://tra-resources.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/entries/document/3132/A_Society_of_Readers_-_Formatted__3_.pdf (Accessed 5 July 2022). GL Assessment (2020) Read all about it: Why reading is key to GCSE success. Available at: https://reports.gl-assessment.co.uk/whyreading/images/gl-assessment-report-gcse-success.pdf?v=3.2 (Accessed: 5 July 2022). IFS (2022) Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2022. London: The Institute for Fiscal Studies. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/uploads/R215-Living-standards-poverty-and-inequality-in-the-UK-2022.pdf (Accessed: 2 August 2022). López-Escribano, C., Valverde-Montesino, S. and García-Ortega, V (2021) ‘The Impact of E-Book Reading on Young Children’s Emergent Literacy Skills: An Analytical Review’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(12). Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8296384/ (Accessed: 31 August 2022). Mullan, K. (2010) ‘Families that read: A time-diary analysis of young people’s and parents’ reading’, Journal of Research in Reading, 33(4), pp. 414–430. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2010.01438.x (Accessed: 5 July 2022). National Literacy Trust (2012) Boys’ Reading Commission. Available at: http://cdn-literacytrust-production.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/2012_06_01_free_other_-_boys_commission_report.pdf.pdf (Accessed: 5 July 2022). National Literacy Trust (2017) What is literacy? Available at: https://literacytrust.org.uk/information/what-is-literacy/ (Accessed: 31 August 2022). OECD (2002) Reading for Change: Performance and Engagement across Countries: Results from PISA 2000. Paris: PISA, OECD Publishing. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264099289-en (Accessed: 5 July 2022). OECD (2010) PISA 2009 Results: Executive Summary. Paris: PISA, OECD Publishing. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/46619703.pdf (Accessed: 5 July 2022). ONS (2021) ‘Families and households, Table 1’. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/datasets/familiesandhouseholdsfamiliesandhouseholds (Accessed: 5 July 2022). Toivonen, T. (2018) ‘Intergenerational and intragenerational influences on time use on reading’, Research on Finnish Society, 11, pp. 44–57. Available at: https://fjsr.journal.fi/article/view/110779/65130 (Accessed: 31 August 2022). Caulfield, J. (2022) A Quick Guide to Harvard Referencing | Citation Examples. Available at: https://www.scribbr.co.uk/referencing/harvard-style/ (Accessed: 31 August 2022). This free course was written by Rosalind Buckland along with Sarah Pavey, Barbara Band and Nick Cavender, members of the School Libraries Group, a special interest group of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence. The material acknowledged below (and within the course) is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). 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