HEALING THROUGH LITERATURE, ART, AND GOATS

For many students, whether they want to admit it or not, school is a welcoming place. They get to see their friends, partake in extracurricular activities, step into leadership positions that build confidence and organizational skills, and support one another. They often even have fun. However, when the 2021-2022 school year began, the anxiety and loneliness that many students had felt while quarantined for the previous year and half followed them. Masks were still mandated, and the threat of catching COVID-19 had many students keeping their distance from others. Contact tracing had everyone in the building recounting where they'd been and with whom they had been in contact. Furthering the anxiety and isolation was the ban on clubs meeting in person, live theater and musical performances being relegated to streaming only, and cancellation of many traditional school events.

Empathetic Conversation in the Library

One of the most challenging aspects of the pandemic was the limited ability to gather socially and connect with others in person. This was especially difficult for many of the students, who were isolated and disconnected from others in their rural community. To address this issue, Gilbert designed a project that focused on creating spaces for engagement and conversation, using literature as a lens to explore the human experience. In essence, students were invited to bring their lunches to the school library (it usually isn't used as a place to eat) to join them in conversations. They would weave in books they had in the library, but it was not at all necessary for them to have read the books before the conversations.

Remote Leadership: A (Re)qualification of School Leaders in Portugal

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about new challenges to schools' organization leaderships and to school leaders. This study, of qualitative nature, aims at understanding the impact occurred in the area of school management, in pandemic times, from the leaders' perspective, in Portugal. The investigation question is: what prevailed during the remote school management of the leader's team amidst the COVID-19 pandemic time? The sample is a video, with 2 min and 47 s, done by the Leader of a Cluster of Schools, in the North of Portugal, within the context of activities related to affection, promoted by the group of Schools' Libraries, entitled "Month of Affections”, when COVID-19 lockdown was mandatory. The content analysis was done using the webQDA® software. All ethical rules were accounted for. The main results are: (i) adaptation and remote management;(ii) challenges to leadership and (iii) vision for the future. It was concluded that, due to the mandatory social distance, the Leader chose for an active and creative virtual presence (re)qualifying his leadership. The concept of this remote leadership kept the organizational balance, leading his co-workers to achieve the defined objectives. The remote leadership will have to be a dialogical field in the Public Policies of the Ministry of Education and Science in Portugal. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The Advocacy Efforts for School Library Staffing during the Pandemic

Amid the ongoing pandemic, school librarians across the country have been facing a different kind of battle, one that has been going on for years in some cases: the fight for every student to benefit from the instruction and carefully curated resources a certified school librarian can provide. Several states are working to introduce or retain legislation that requires a certified school librarian in every school building. States across the country have seen a decrease in certified school librarian staffing. In some districts, positions have been reduced dramatically or cut entirely despite research showing the benefits students, staff, and the entire school community receive from these specifically trained educators. State school library associations are working diligently with lawmakers, fellow state-level education organizations, and national-level partners to advocate on behalf of their students. This article are the stories from Arizona, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania about their states' fights for the right of every student to receive the services provided by a certified school librarian.

Reinventing Reading in a Pandemic

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) is the second largest school district in Tennessee. With 159 schools, 79,651 students, and 126 languages spoken, the student population is incredibly diverse, not only culturally but also socio-economically. MNPS shifted to virtual learning in late March 2020 on the heels of devastating tornadoes that ripped through the community on March 3, which abruptly caused the closure of schools. The early days of the pandemic were spent searching for hope amidst the devastation experienced by the community as it was cleaned up and re-built with the shadow of COVID-19 looming. With the start of the 2020-2021 school year, MNPS had to restore and increase access. The MNPS team of 130 school librarians were not only thinking about how to provide equitable services to their students and school communities, but together were also were thinking about how to provide equitable services across the district. This article shares how MNPS re-invented reading by breaking old rules and creating new ways to provide book access and support student literacy during virtual and hybrid learning.

Diving into School Librarianship during the Pandemic

March 2020 kicked off a period of unprecedented change and new experiences for all school librarians, but for one group of school librarians, the months to follow would be incredibly unique. In this article, three elementary school librarians share their experiences as brand-new school librarians, seeing everything with new eyes at the exact moment in time when the school library profession (and the K-12 educational system) was busy reinventing, reimagining, and reconsidering every best practice. By drawing upon their creativity and the strong foundations of what a school librarian does and what a school library should be, these school librarians were able to create supportive library spaces for their students. Under incredibly challenging circumstances, they taught fundamental research and reading skills and did what school librarians do best--analyze, adapt, and move forward.

Stoking the Reading Flame with Personalized Book Baskets

Williams presents using personalized book baskets to connect learners to books that will ignite enthusiasm for reading, encourage expansion of reading genres, and allow the school librarian to understand and support students on a deeper level.

Library instruction and information literacy 2021

Purpose This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy. It provides an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts. The selected bibliography is useful to efficiently keep up with trends in library instruction for busy practitioners, library science students and those wishing to learn about information literacy in other contexts. Design/methodology/approach This article annotates 424 English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, theses and reports on library instruction and information literacy published in 2021. The sources were selected from the EBSCO platform for Library, Information Science, and Technology s (LISTA), Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Scopus, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and WorldCat, published in 2021 that included the terms "information literacy," "library instruction," or "information fluency" in the title, or keywords. The sources were organized in Zotero. Annotations summarize the source, focusing on the findings or implications. Each source was categorized into one of seven pre-determined categories: K-12 Education, Children and Adolescents;Academic and Professional Programs;Everyday Life, Community, and the Workplace;Libraries and Health Information Literacy;Multiple Library Types;and Other Information Literacy Research and Theory. Findings The paper provides a brief description of 424 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions. Originality/value The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested as a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy within 2021.

The First Year Setting Up A School Library

Wallis shares his experience of reopening a school library that was shut for a year due to covid, after taking on a new job as a librarian for the first time. It was Monday 7 Jun last year when he pulled open the Twynham School library doors for the first time. He had no previous experience as a librarian. What qualified him for the role were the ten years he'd spent as a primary school teacher (including a stint as English Subject Leader), a voracious appetite for reading, enthusiasm, and the somewhat dubious distinction of being an (unpublished) author of children's fiction. The combination of the pandemic and the departure of their last librarian meant that there were a lot of year groups that had not been in the library for over a year. Expecting to transform them into repeat library users inside a couple of terms is unrealistic. Building a reading culture takes time.

Libraries as an Essential Wellbeing Resource in Schools

Merga outlines the key role school libraries can play to help tackle wellbeing and mental health issues among pupils (and staff). The school library can be a place where students feel a sense of belonging, where they can find sanctuary and recharge their resilience. For example, a primary school librarian described a vulnerable student who often sought refuge in the library. During the COV1D-19 pandemic, students need access to reliable health information, as well as skills lo source and interpret this information. Greater health literacy is related to better health outcomes, so the benefits of improving students' health literacy extend beyond the current pandemic conditions. Reading books can enable students to escape the stressors of everyday life, bringing enjoyment and peace, and my earlier international research with avid readers found that 'the escape of reading was often used in order to regulate emotion'.

A View From

Several school librarians offer their views regarding their job. One of Rebecca Campling's favorite parts of her job is the extracurricular clubs she gets to run. The children who come to these are always there by choice and so supply the richest and most creative ideas, conversation, and engagement. Eleanor Booth explains that libraries are much more than a room full of books. Libraries, including school libraries, are a lifeline for people in an array of circumstances;they are, by design, a space for everyone. For Sarah Smith, it feels like they are almost back to normal now and will soon be able to start putting the disruption caused by Covid-19 during the last two years behind them. Jaqueline Castro believes that events are one of the best ways to attract people to the library, to the books and to reading. Planning joyful events is something she has always enjoyed about being a school librarian.

New Year, New Life for Italian School Libraries?

Marquardt talks about the challenges facing the Italian education sector. The Italian school system has faced numerous challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic, affecting many aspects of learning and teaching. Many students could not access online teaching because of a lack of space and/or computers, or due to bad internet connection. Critical issues include the early school leaving rate (13.5% in 2021) and declining competences, especially at secondary level, in Italian, Maths, History, and English, mostly among students with poor socio-economic-cultural conditions, and, in particular, in the southern regions. The pandemic seems to have confirmed the problems already present in the school system. In such an environment, school libraries have faced considerable problems, including closures and the suspension of services and activities, the "conversion" of a classroom into a warehouse of disused desks, as well as experiments with new ways of providing services and teaching support.

International Perspectives

When approached to write this piece, the author was overwhelmed with the magnitude of problems and deep challenges faced by school libraries in South Africa. As librarians, we resort to literature to make sense of the situation. Secondly, as we conduct activities of School Libraries' and Youth Services Interest Group under Library and Information Association of South Africa we can bear testimony. This makes sense, and one paragraph from the Government's literature could not be ignored. The adopted curriculum assumes all learners are competent and information literate. The seeming lack of political will to create functional school libraries cannot be ruled out. Since democracy, only 25, 82% of schools have libraries.

REINVENTING READING IN A PANDEMIC: School Librarians in Metro Nashville Harness Creativity to Support Student Literacy

As school librarians are continually innovating, yet there is nothing like a pandemic to push them past their limits and demand they re-envision reading to bridge the gap between access and opportunity for their learners. While attending the School Library Journal Virtual Summit in the fall of 2020, Marlon Styles, superintendent of Middletown City School District in Ohio, said something so simple, yet so important as they search for ways to continue providing continuity of services. To understand how they re-envisioned reading in Nashville, it is important to rewind and share their story. Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) is the second largest school district in Tennessee. With 159 schools, 79,651 students, and 126 languages spoken, our student population is incredibly diverse, not only culturally but also socio-economically. MNPS shifted to virtual learning in late March 2020 on the heels of devastating tornadoes that ripped through the community on March 3, which abruptly caused the closure of schools.

Library instruction and information literacy 2020

PurposeThis paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts.Design/methodology/approachThis paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2020.FindingsThe paper provides a brief description of all 440 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.Originality/valueThe information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested in a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.