Relevant Conferences and Reports

2007

1) SA Library Week 2007: 19-23 March 2007
LIASA has declared 19-23 March 2007 South African Library Week. During this week stakeholders will celebrate and promote library and information services throughout South Africa with the theme: "Libraries: your key to the future."

2) The next Internet Information Retrieval Tools and Techniques short course
will be presented again by Knowledge Leadership Associates in association
with the University of Stellenbosch Centre for Knowledge Dynamics on 12 - 13
March 2007 in Midrand and 2 - 3 April in Stellenbosch.
Fees: SAR 3050.00 (Excl. VAT). 7.5% discount for more than one registration
from the same organization. Due to the interactive nature of the course only
a limited number of participants can be accommodated

3) Meraka INNOVATE Conference for Educators
18-20 April 2007
http://www.meraka.org.za/innovate/

Supported by IST-Africa 2007 Conference (Maputo, 09 - 11 May)
In partnership with Mindset and SchoolNet South Africa.

4) 14th International Learning Conference
Wits University
June 26-29, 2007
www.learningconference.com

5)

Schoolnet/Intel

http://www.school.za/conference/index.htm
East London, Mbewu Centre 4- 6 July
Bernie Dodge of WebQuest fame is a keynote speaker

6) The 2007 IASL Conference
National Taiwan Normal University
Taipei, Taiwan, 16 - 20 July
Organizer: Library Association of the Republic of China (Taiwan)

http://www.iasl-slo.org/conference2007-gen.html

7) Connecting Cultures … Respecting Differences
A global dialogue for development and sustainability

iEARN 14th Annual International Conference
&
11th Youth Summit
July 21-26, 2007
Cairo, Egypt

8) 5th Pan-African Reading for All Conference
August 6-10, 2007, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana. Contact Comfort N. Boison, phone (+233 20 8175208).

9) World Library & Information Congress: 73rd IFLA General Conference & Council
"Libraries for the future: Progress, Development and Partnerships"
19 – 23 August 2007
Durban, South Africa

...click here for more information

10) Third Conference on South African Children's Literature
17 to 20 September 2007
Potchefstroom, South Africa, South Africa

Contact name: Betsie van der Westhuizen
E-mail: Betsie.VanDerWesthuizen@nwu.ac

South Africa is a multilingual society in which its people are increasingly taking pride in the development of their own languages and cultural inheritance. Children's literature plays an important

11) International School Library Day 22 October 2007

School Library Day 2007 Posters

School Library Week 2007 Posters

2006

RASA Conference Report
11-12 November 2006

ELITS 4th Annual Conference
10-12 July, Richards Bay

• Programme

• Opening and Closing Ceremony

• Conference Proceedings

2006 Multimedia and e-Education Conference
5 – 7 April 2006
Gauteng Department of Education
Theme : Empowering teachers to develop learners in information usages
http://www.e-edconf.co.za

Cape Town Book Fair 17-20 June 2006

http://www.capetownbookfair.com/ctibf/en/index.php

The Multiple Faces of Literacy

International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) 2006 Conference
3 – 7 July 2006
Lisbon, Portugal
http://www.iasl-slo.org/conference2006.html

Libraries Linking Learning and Literacy

ISASA (Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa) Librarians Conference
8 – 11th August 2006
St Andrews School, Bedfordview, Johannesburg

http://www.adlibschoollibrarians.co.za/2006%20Conference/Default%20libraries_linking_learning_and_l.htm

IFLA General Conference 2006
World Library & Information Congress: 72ndIFLA General Conference & Council
20 – 24 August 2006
Seoul, Republic of Korea
http://www.ifla.org

LIASA 9th Annual Conference 2006
25 – 29 September 2006
St Georges Hotel, Pretoria
http://www.liasa.org.za/

Hand-Held Learning

October 12-13th 2006
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster, London.

http://www.handheldlearning.co.uk/hl2006/

London Online Conference 2006
28 – 30 November 2006
Olympia Grand Hall. London UK
http://www.online-information.co.uk/

2005

ELITS 3rd Annual Conference Hilton College - 26 September 2005
A single day conference to which over 200 delegates attended and ELITS was graced with the presence of Dr Mbokazi and Dr Mbatha. The occasion was important because the Reading Policy was formally launched as was the ELITS website.

INTEL Innovation in Education Hilton College - 27 - 30th September 2005
http://www.hiltoncollege.com/intelconf/

LIASA Eighth Annual Conference - 2005 Theme: Taking Libraries to the People
Date: 26-30 September 2005; Venue: Nelspruit, Mpumalanga Province
http://www.liasa.org.za/conferences/conferences.php

Internet@SchoolsEast Washington DC, United States 16 - 18 March 2005 http://www.infotoday.com/I@SE2005/default.html

e-Education Conference Bloemfontein 2005 http://www.z2a.co.za/e-ed/

IASL Hong Kong, China, 8-12 July 2005 http://www.iasl-slo.org/conference2005.html

Computers in Education Stellenbosch July 2005 http://www.sbs.co.za/wcce2005/about.html

2004

ELITS BookFair Conference
by Mrs S. Nzimande

• Report (.ppt)

e/Merge 2004 Online Conference Blended Collaborative Learning in South Africa 28 June to 10 July 2004 http://emerge2004.net/

INTEL Cape Town 2004 http://www.innovation.school.za/

IASL Dublin 2004 The 2004 SLA/IASL Joint Conference Dublin, Republic of Ireland International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) From Aesop to E-book: The Story Goes On... 17-20 June 2004 http://www.iasl-slo.org/conference2004.html

LIASA 2004 Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) Libraries and Democracy: The vital Link 27 September -1 October 2004 Polokwane, Limpopo Province http://www.liasa.org.za/conferences/conference2004/conf2004.php

29th IBBY World Congress (International Board on Books for Young People) Cape Town 5-9 September 2004 http://www.sacbf.org.za/congressprogramme.html http://www.ibby.org/

IFLA Argentina 2004 International Federation of Libraries and Institutions (IFLA) World Library and Information Congress: 70th IFLA General Conference and Council "Libraries: Tools for Education and Development Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 22-27, 2004 http://www.ifla.org/

2003

ELITS 2nd Annual Conference 2004

IASL Durban 2003 IASL Conference in Durban 7 - 11 July, 2003 http://www.iasl-slo.org/conference2003.html

REPORTS

IASL Conference, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland: 17–20 June 2004

Conference Theme: “From Aesop to e-book: the story goes on....” The Conference was a joint endeavour for IASL and SLA (School Librarians’ Association), so many of the issues discussed were related to school libraries in other countries. This report will give a brief synopsis of the sessions attended and make a few recommendations pertinent to ELITS.

Assembly of Associations

We were able to attend the Assembly of Associations regional meeting on the first day.

Summary of issues discussed in regard to South Africa:

Summary of general international issues:

Keynote address: “Because a fire was in my head.”

The speaker, Patricia Donlon, made one very significant point in her interesting address. She was first drawn to stories and to reading by the RADIO. Each afternoon when she and her sister were children, they would listen to the broadcast of a story on radio. This very significant avenue is to some extent explored by OLSET here in KZN, but ELITS should look at possibilities of collaborating with the staff to produce reading-related activities and stories to encourage reading further. Other points made in this address related to the power of stories to:

BUT as in South Africa, there is NO ring-fenced funding for school libraries in Ireland, and no substantive, recognised posts for teacher-librarians. The Irish library service mainly serves primary schools, and has very limited funding. It is mainly volunteers who run children’s library associations.

Keynote address: “What counts as growing up in reading?”

It was a privilege to hear the address of a speaker such as Margaret Meek Spencer, who has been involved in literacy and reading for many years. One particularly memorable point made in her speech was that children could readily be encouraged to read by introducing them to poems – short, fun and full of meaning.

Keynote address: “Listen up!” A storytelling residency in Northern Ireland

This was a 3-year programme initiated in 15 – 20 highly disadvantaged project schools and directed by professional storyteller, Patrick Ryan. Storytellers made twelve half-day visits and helped teachers develop curriculum-related activities. Children learned the art of storytelling and in the process also learned the following skills:

ALL stories were created, told, rehearsed, re-told and only written after a great deal of editing. The method of teaching was to teach children to plot their stories on six blocks provided:

Children draw pictures in the blocks, mapping elements of the story, as partners or small groups, and then rehearse the story, making props, masks, puppets, etc as enhancements of the story. After the presentation, the stories are then written, for others to read, as additions to class readers or to the library collections. Anecdotal evidence has shown an improvement of between 2 and 3 years in children’s reading ages as a result of the storytelling activities. Teachers found the methodology easy and fun to apply.

Paper: “ Toss out the textbook.”

The speaker, Jane Connolly, is an Education Officer in Brisbane, Australia. Her work involves Library Services to 52 000 students in 136 Brisbane Catholic Schools, the majority of which have libraries and teacher-librarians. Her main argument centred on the necessity for literature to have an equitable and enduring place in curriculum delivery. In 1997 a new curriculum was developed for Australian schools, with new syllabi in 8 learning areas. In implementing this outcomes-based framework, teacher-librarians were regarded as partner teachers, working collaboratively with other staff members in promoting reading and literature, to develop expanded learning opportunities for lifelong learning in reflective, self-directed learners.

The overall curriculum outlined the key learning outcomes, each core learning and discretionary learning outcome ‘nesting’ within the next, so that there is a seamless progression from one grade to the next, at the learner’s pace. In this system, it is not what learners know, but what they DO with that knowledge that becomes crucial. In contrast, the danger of the textbook is that it assumes the same learning pace and the same learning platform, ignores any prior learning and assumes the same level of understanding in all learners.

Literature-based curriculum delivery emphasises collaborative partnerships between curriculum-deliverers (teachers) and teacher-librarians. In this methodology, the focus is on fiction as a springboard for curriculum delivery. Another very important point: training of teacher-librarians MUST include a clear understanding of the curriculum. The manner in which library services in Jane’s area delivers on these premises is to expose teachers and teacher-librarians to a flood of good children’s literature.

As groups they would then examine each novel for the major themes and characters, making use of printed keyword or theme flashcards, to suggest curriculum-related activities possible around each novel. Novels and their themes, together with a few activity guidelines are then captured in a database, which in turn is used to assist schools in the selection of suitable novels for literature-based teaching.

(The speaker has since been contacted and has posted a CD of her paper to ELITS.)

Paper: Student Learning through Ohio school libraries : 13 000 Ohio students tell their story: ‘Yeah, the school library rocks!’

Always a dynamic speaker, Ross Todd, from Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, was very optimistic in reporting the positive outcome of a 2002 – 2003 13-month research project conducted among school students at 39 “effective” Ohio schools. The main focus of this report-back was specifically on students’ attitudes to reading in the school library, while the main research project was designed more generally to assess Student Learning through School Libraries.

Some of the conclusions drawn from the report to illustrate an effective school library:

Essentials in making the school library effective are:

Ross Todd advocated that the school library be seen as a DYNAMIC LEARNING AGENT, with human intervention by the teacher-librarian as essential to make this happen.

The more the librarian helped or mediated in the constructive knowledge development process, particularly in the early stages of reading and learning, the better the progress made and the greater the progress by each student. The percentage of such help began to taper off in the high school years, when reading enrichment is LAGGING.

Other findings of the research included the necessity for teacher-librarians who READ, who give personalised service to students, who market reading resources, and who use the curriculum as a link to reading resources.

In conclusion, evidence from the research project strongly suggests that students engage with reading when they have a personal service from the school library. Both the school reading programme and writing interventions rely on the teacher-librarian’s personal intervention.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1 That teacher-librarian posts be recognised by the Department since research here discussed reflects the need for their intervention in firstly encouraging reading and, in collaboration with other teachers, their facilitation of literature-based curriculum programmes.

International research has shown that personal intervention by a professionally qualified teacher-librarian has a dynamic impact on the development of reflective, independent lifelong learning.

2 That the regular provision of a wide variety of resources of all kinds, from print to technology-based, in the school library, is essential for the effective learning environment of a school.

3 That active and ongoing collaboration between teacher-librarian and teachers within and outside of the school is crucial to the successful development of a learning environment and of curriculum delivery. Relationships between schools in clusters, between schools and public and community library services must be generated if collaboration is to be truly successful.

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Intel Conference- some highlights

Dr Sugata Mitra spoke on Minimally Invasive Education in developing countries. He runs the ‘Hole in the Wall’ project in India – Kalkaji, Shikputi and Madantusi Experiments. Essentially, robust and vandal proof computers are placed in public venues and the users videoed over a period of up to three months. These experiments have proved that outside or teacher intervention is not essential for learners to establish computer skills. India has 600000 primary schools, 400 million children; it needs 6 million schools and 18 million teachers. 50% of children will not go to primary school so an intervention was necessary. To date 6000 learners have taught themselves using 20 computers and over 100 children are computer literate within three months using one PC.

A presentation on the White Paper on e-Education was given by Dr Mike Chiles (on the National Committee). It has been mooted that 43 billion rand will be spent on rolling out the policy over the next 15 years and that there will be an ICT specialist post created in every school in the country.

Mindset did a presentation on data casting via satellite technology. Essentially this is a strategy for combining and sharing of the expertise (educational database creation) of a given set of educators in South Africa. A reasonable amount of technology is a prerequisite even in deep rural areas. It is however an exciting development on the South African educational technology landscape.

The Digital Doorway is an Eastern Cape version of the Hole in the Wall of Dr Mitra. Standalone kiosks are provided in public places and the usage monitored. This experiment again demonstrated that a single PC can have a profound impact on a community of learners – 8300 visitors in three months, of whom 60% were regular visitors to the kiosk.

The National Education Portal was demonstrated by Neil Butcher of SAIDE in a plenary session. It will take some months before it is completely up and running as data is still being captured from the tagged templates that have been submitted.

Mike King from Bishops also gave a presentation in a plenary on learning programme's created on the Intranet at his school.

Shelley Shott from the US gave four workshops ranging from ‘Asking Critical Questions’ to elicit refined research strategies to project based learning (problem based/authentic problem solving learning) to scaffolding the learning experience (similar to supported self study).

Anne Schlebusch demonstrated the WCED OBE for FET Orientation Kit CD. An excellent resource as it covers numerous aspects of teaching and learning and is very reasonably priced at around R62.00 for the whole package, which includes a video. Available from Edumedia Tel: 021 6899536. They have a catalogue of their educational materials and it includes the EDULIS published list of subject headings which are based on the 13^th abridged Dewey for R20.00, plus a whole lot of other library resources.

There were many other sessions of note, in fact 269 in all so the above does not attempt to do the programme any justice. For the full programme, sponsors list and photo gallery go to http://innovation.school.za

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1st International Storytelling Conference, 21 – 23 April 2004.

1 General comments:

The principle behind the Conference was worthwhile – to assemble a number of presenters from around South Africa and the rest of the world to workshop and address the issue of storytelling, its multiple roles in recording heritage, healing, the business environment and in the classroom and related to the curriculum. Zanendaba Storytellers, the Conference organisers, stress these aspects in their Mission Statement:

Utilising the age-old art of storytelling to instill values, identity consciousness, love, harmony and general awareness of practical issues towards a more progressive South African society.

Perhaps since this was their first conference, it was clear that the logistics and fundamental organisation of sessions had not been planned thoroughly. Sessions tended to begin late, catering was unsatisfactory, and by the last day, it was clear that the organisers themselves were exhausted. In spite of these drawbacks the Conference did offer insights into the craft of telling stories, so delegates each left with some new concepts.

2 Highlights:

2.1 Storytelling for healing

This was a worthwhile session because it demonstrated the importance of establishing a list of simple do’s and don’t's when eliciting stories from another person or persons. Briefly:

Each of the delegates created a doll out of waste materials supplied, and told their story through the doll’s story. This could be a very effective way of combining creative storytelling with life skills and arts and culture, which is the area of the curriculum in which this craft is currently featured. There would be several ways in which the doll could be used, such as to teach vocabulary in language, as an introduction to puppetry and for creative writing in primary school.

2.1 Shadow theatre

An impressive dramatisation of Kipling’s ‘The elephant child’ was presented by Brenda Shafir and was very well received. What made the presentation worthwhile is that Brenda demonstrated that shadow theatres can be very easily created with the simplest of materials, and in fact does give workshops to teachers interested in this craft.

2.2 Stories for edutainment

Paul Middellijn from Surinam presented storytelling as a vehicle to inspire and teach children and young people a variety of aspects of the curriculum at both primary and secondary level.

Throughout the world, one of the main problems in education is the LACK OF CONCENTRATION – TV, video games and computers have bombarded children with mass media communication, so that a common complaint is that children are only able to absorb small ‘bites’ of information and knowledge. Stories, if told well and interactively, can teach abstract concepts, engage their interest and assist in enhancing their listening skills. Using short but appropriate stories, the teacher can also engage learners in their learning in a variety of amusing and interactive ways. Follow-up activities (e.g. group discussions, drawings, further group or individual research) reinforce the ‘lessons’ learned in the stories.

Paul emphasised that the tools for story telling are very simple – the voice (with its library of sounds, range of pitch, etc), the eyes (for contact with listeners & to reflect the emotion of the voice), the ears (to listen for audience responses), the expressive face, the hands and expressive body language. The story itself is simple to tell if one remembers that it should answer 5 questions spelt out on the fingers – When? Where? Who? What? And Why?

For example, he told the story of ‘The Monkey, the mango and the crocodile’ for primary school learners, who in the course of taking part in the telling of the story learn the importance of a balanced natural environment, the meaning of trust, the importance of family support and the rhythm and rhyme of language, to name a few aspects of the curriculum. A different and more complex story was told to illustrate how stories are relevant at high school level as well.

From the presentation, it was clear that with careful preparation and integration with the curriculum, the teacher can make learning fun as well as memorable throughout the children’s school years.

3 Recommendations:

3.1 It is recommended that storytelling be featured in the annual ELITS Conference programme, in particular, a practical hands-on workshop on stories for healing and on the creation of shadow theatres. Appropriate speakers would be invited for each aspect.

3.2 From ideas gleaned from the Conference, and after consultation with regional subject advisors, it would be useful to create a storytelling guide for advisors to workshop and distribute in the coming year, as part of the promotion of all aspects of reading, writing and story enacting.

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ELITS 2ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE

14 – 16 OCTOBER 2004

Since the Conference theme was “School libraries in the 21 st century”, it is to be expected that the majority of the presentations were concerned with issues and priorities involved in establishing and running successful school libraries in this millennium. These included issues of ICT (Information Communications Technology) use in schools, the provision of Learning and Teaching Support Materials (LTSM), and the practicalities and problems of the school principal and teacher-librarians.

This year’s conference was focused on practical, hands-on solutions, with case studies by educators and principals, and demonstrations of techniques such as the use of picture books, simple shadow theatre and homemade toys to enhance storytelling and reading among KZN school children. The importance of parental involvement in supporting children’s learning at school and at home was also touched on, as was the role of storytelling in a business (or school) context.

The highlight of the Opening Ceremony was the launch of ELITS’ School Library Policy, a pioneer achievement for KwaZulu-Natal, since there is no national school library policy. Instead, provinces have been urged to create their own, and KwaZulu-Natal's is the first provincial school library policy in the country: a major accomplishment.

Morgan Pillay , representing the National Department of Education, took delegates through the principles and application of the National LTSM policy. He outlined one of the principles underlying the draft policy: “A priority for all education providers is ... the creation of a transforming, democratic, open learning system, fostering in all users a strong commitment to lifelong learning and development.” In other words, the draft National LTSM Policy underpins outcomes based education in the RNCS, with consequences for the establishment of school libraries to manage and utilise those learning and teaching resources.

The NDE defines LTSMs as “any materials that facilitate learning”, including a list of resources, from print media to “tactile materials” (realia), educational toys, computer software, globes and all audio-visual media. Busy teachers readily use lTSMs because developing their own materials is difficult and time-consuming. However the dangers of exclusively utilising these materials were pointed out: the chosen resource could easily become the only source of curriculum delivery.

This results in an increasingly important role for the school library – “from being a passive repository of resources to being a dynamic, learner-orientated resource based learning centre.”

Finally, he emphasised that one of the best ways of educating South Africans for lifelong learning “is to ensure that we establish school libraries where they do not exist and sustain and support those that we have with a passion and commitment.” These were certainly encouraging words for those who promote and mentor school libraries in KwaZulu-Natal.

Professor Ocholla echoed the importance of lifelong learning and the related importance of information literacy in his address. His definition of information literacy was usefully brief but inclusive: “information literacy is about information needs analysis (why information is required), knowledge of where to get information (resource types), how to access the required information and how to understand or interpret the found information for solving a problem. Simply put, information literacy is about ‘learning how to learn’.” Professor Ocholla then went on to explain the information literacy process, standards, benchmarking, initiatives and research interventions.

One of the greatest drawbacks in curriculum delivery and ultimately information literacy is the absence of complete and comprehensive national policies for school libraries. A number of guidelines do exist which “recognise their role and problems and suggest how their development should occur”, but the policies themselves “remain at origination or initiation stage.” Curriculum 2005, with its stress on resource-based and learner-centred education, makes the development of school libraries and media centres more crucial than ever. Yet the SA Schools Act of 1996 did not provide concrete guidelines on school library development or establish the central role of information literacy (IL) in the learning process. It is his contention that “We will need a strong and government action packed intervention to take IL and school library development forward” since fewer than 30% of South African schools have libraries, putting further pressure on the public library system to cope with learners’ IL needs.

Finally, Professor Ocholla made recommendations that

• IL teaching should be integrated into all areas of the curriculum
• Schools and provincial government should formulate IL plans, strategies and policies (this has been partially addressed by ELITS’ School Library Policy for KZN)
• Strong partnerships should be forged between teachers and teacher-librarians where school libraries exist
• Continuing teacher education in IL should be supported by tertiary education institutions
• All members of the school community should be involved in the IL strategies for each school
• Public libraries should be better supported for their role in assisting where school libraries do not exist.

Heather Barker , Senior Children’s Librarian with Ethekwini Municipality, showed delegates how even an apparently simple story can be used and learned from in a variety of ways. She told the story of Petunia, a silly goose, who learns “that the physical book alone cannot bring wisdom, but that reading is important.” Reading is important because studies have shown that children’s vocabulary extension and cognitive development are greatly benefited when parents and caregivers read stories to them from an early age.

Also important in children’s intellectual development is their exposure to quality visual material, book illustrations for example, because children learn best from what is simultaneously written, heard and seen. Encouraging visual literacy is within the grasp of even illiterate parents, to whom the picture book can offer opportunities to interact with their children in a variety of ways without being bound by the words of the story. Joining a reading group at the local public library with other parents of young children is just one of a number of good ways for teachers and parents to learn visual literacy and encourage a positive attitude to reading in their children. Reading groups enable parents and teachers to get to know good books to read with their children, and share reading experiences with each other.

Her final words were encouraging – “It lies within all our hands whether our children become readers for life with all the benefits that brings or whether they join the cycle of illiteracy which so bedevils our country today.”

Dr Jenni Karlsson’s presentation dealt with the use of school library resources to improve the quality of teaching and learning, outlining firstly the inheritance from the past in the majority of schools, to looking at the whole-school information literacy policy suggested in ELITS’ School Library Policy, with particular emphasis on curriculum, information literacy skills and reading, and the involvement of the whole staff in their delivery. Resource-based learning and teaching go beyond the school, beyond Departmental and school resource provision and involve every member of the teaching staff in collaboration with the teacher-librarian in planning and presenting lessons, discussing resource needs, creating teaching material together and ensuring the optimum use of the school library resources in the classroom.

This would ensure that schools will produce young people who can think critically and independently, have the capacity to question, reason, form judgments, recognise that knowledge is provisional and incomplete, and be capable, environmentally literate and active citizens.

Liz Gomes , librarian at Hillcrest High School (2003 School Library Excellence Award winner) gave delegates a number of excellent ideas on marketing their school libraries. The reasons for marketing school libraries are competition, such as from TV, video games, cell phones, computers, Internet and sport, which intrude on reading time and the environment, customers, product and perceptions, which are ever-changing.

Product, place, promotion and price govern school library marketing as much as the open consumer market. The bottom line is that school librarians should find out what children want from the school library, and then give them what they want. This means moving away from traditional concepts of libraries into the creation of a vibrant, active, welcoming space where learners WANT to be. In her presentation Mrs Gomez also gave a list of suggested activities and methods of attracting learners to the school library – drama productions, a suggestion box for new titles, audio book listening sessions at break times, and so on. Mrs Gomez’s enthusiasm certainly was contagious!

Mrs ES Nzimande , ELITS Director, spoke of a “New Age” teacher-librarian in the context of South African legislation and policies that are attempting to change education quality in South Africa. New legislation and changes in the National Curriculum place new demands on teacher-librarians and affect training and school perceptions, creating a new and very different portrait of the teacher-librarian.

She went on to outline the relevant legislation and its impact on schools and the teacher-librarian in particular. These include the South African Constitution, the Education White Paper (1994), the South African Schools Act (1996), Curriculum 2005, the Revised National Curriculum Statement, the Draft White Paper on E-Education (2003), the National Education Policy Act (1996), and other Labour, Skills Development and Norms and Standards legislation.

As a consequence, the profile of the teacher-librarian that emerges includes a list of qualities ranging from tenacity, professionalism, ICT literacy, creativity, fundraising and finance management, marketing and communication skills, to counseling, career guidance, knowledge management and labour and human relations – in short, a super librarian!

Hintsa Mhlane, CES in the KZN Department of Education, spoke of the concept of e-education and its implications for South African education.

He stressed that computers are at the core of the current information technology revolution, against a background of two dominant educational ideologies – liberal humanism and instrumentalism. The aim of the former is the attainment of intellectual excellence; while the latter stresses that the aim of education is the development of particular skills for identified purposes - learning should not be extended for its own sake. Policies and strategies evolved by an education system will clearly be influenced by the ideology adopted.

In August 2003, the Draft White Paper on E-education was presented for public comment. The Paper revealed that the Digital Divide continues to affect online access; in South Africa only 6% of the population is connected, with only 16.6% of KwaZulu-Natal schools having computers and 10.4% having computers for teaching and learning. This compares poorly with provinces such as Western Cape (82.4% and 56.8%) and Gauteng (88.5% and 45.4%).

ICT policy is based on five principles – equity of resource distribution, access to ICT infrastructure, capacity building, norms and standards and ROSI (return on social investment). What affects these principles is the issue of connectivity. The costs of connection for South African schools via Telkom, currently the only land line telecommunications provider, are often totally out of reach. While Gauteng, Northern Cape and Western Cape provincial governments have committed funding for educational ICT, the same is not true of all provinces. KZN projects have tended to emphasise hardware provision, with less attention being paid to other key areas such as teacher professional development and infrastructure maintenance, and with reliance on uncoordinated NGO initiatives.

In conclusion, he stressed the need for technology deployment to be guided by educational principles to avoid a waste of technological resources, and a sharing of solutions to common problems across all provinces to reduce costs.

An interactive, participatory workshop on Active learning and leisure libraries (ALLL) was presented by Sharon Shevil, Programme Coordinator for Children’s Rights Centre. Principles underlying the development of ALLL are the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 31: the child’s right to play and recreation), the SA Constitution, the promotion and understanding of the value of play, the relation between play opportunities and appropriate equipment to developmental milestones, and the introduction and support of ALLL and Play Right Packs.

The concept and value of play were brainstormed and some of the participants’ responses were:

• Play is crucial to the child’s holistic development
• Play integrates abilities – physical, emotional, intellectual, social, aesthetic and spiritual
• Play enables children to develop skills through experimentation and discovery
• Play offers learning opportunities, responsibility and life skills
• Play prepares children with pre-reading skills

The reasons for establishing an Active Learning Library were also given. They are cost-effective, utilising recycled materials, and can provide children with developmental opportunities and time for relaxing shared play between adults and children. Handouts were distributed offering delegates information on how to start their own Active Learning Libraries, and on local groups available to KZN.

2004 Conference Proceedings

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IASL Durban 2003

Mary Lister reports  from Micklefield, Cape Town, Western Cape
Monday 7 July 2003

 Jenni Karlsson ( South Africa) – The Politics of Making a New Space for School Libraries in South Africa

This keynote address basically spoke about the shape of school libraries in South Africa – pre and post Apartheid. The picture is not a very hopeful one with the number of schools libraries having increased by only 3% since 1996. Much of the problem seems to deal with lagging legislation and red tape and the need for education policies to be put in place to move forward on this issue. Jenni concluded her paper with a comment on how HIV/AIDS is changing the face of education and perhaps schools need to be considering new modes of teaching and learning in relation to the impact that HIV/AIDS is having on our communities.

Jamie McKenzie ( USA) – Libraries of the Future: search for the difficult truth in uncertain times.

http://newlibrary.org/articles.html

http://fno.org

Jamie is a dynamic and exciting speaker. He told the delegates that in spite of what they might think about the USA. most primary schools in the cities do not have libraries and those senior schools which have libraries have very few books in them. He said that 10-12 years ago, he was a huge fan of the idea of technology and digital libraries. Now he has mixed feelings on the subject. He believes that we have been given false promises about digital libraries where there is an over emphasis on information and technologies and an under emphasis on understanding. He said that it is good teaching, not laptop, which makes the student a good thinker and a good reader. Children are drowning with information overload and they need a librarian to guide them, but, we cannot allow children to let someone else do their thinking i.e. directing them on how to search.

He spoke about the search engines, Overture, Yahoo and Altavista which allow people and web site owners to buy rankings. In this way you can pay for your site to always come within the top ten in a search. He gave the example of his own site against the government policy of "no child left behind". He pays 11c to Overture every time someone clicks to his site. Likewise Amazon will put out a list of "recommended reads" containing those books whose publishers have paid for this recommendation.

Libraries of the future need to:

• Emphasise frequent research
• Teach the discerning use of technology
• Reach out into new learning spaces
• Offer quality information
• Stress many literacies
• Show students how to wrestle with the real questions of life.

Role of the Librarian needs to include:

• Professional development (http://staffdevelop.org/howteacherslearn.html)
• Curriculum development (http://fno.org/sept02/slamdunk.html)
• Coach
• Pilot, navigator, sage- leading by enhancing independence
• Info Tech
• Archivist, curator ("new vertical file" http://fno.org/oct00/vertical.html)
• Weaver – leading by making connections
• Storytelling – leading by putting values up front
• Magician
• Plus – all the other longstanding roles.
  

At the Opening Ceremony there was a display of Zulu dancing, Indian dancing and the KZN Theatre Group, plus a choir and orchestra. We were addressed by the following:

IASL President - Peter Genco

KZN Minister of Education and Culture – Hon Mr Narend Singh

Deputy Minister of Education – Hon Minister Mr M Mangena

Penny Moore ( New Zealand) – The School Library Team: How does it Influence Learning and Teaching?

Penny spoke about literature which proves that school library use is correlated positively with learning achievement. She said there is a lot of talk about "well developed library programme's" but how do you actually get there?

Of primary importance is collaboration between the school librarian and the teachers. She emphasised the fact that these partners in collaboration must in all aspects of a work own the outcome. If there is no ownership of the outcome then the various players or partners will not be totally committed to the process. Perhaps the most striking point of her paper was the need for teachers and librarians to respect each other’s abilities and role and to work together. Too often teachers are unwilling to accept that librarians are also teachers and do not make use of this skill or even deny them the opportunity to exercise it.

Susan La Marca ( Australia) – An Enabling Adult: The Teacher-Librarian and the Reading Environment

This was a dynamic and stimulating paper. The basis of her research started with Aidan Chamber’s publication "The Reading Environment."

"What is it that enabling adults, teachers especially, do?

They provide, stimulate, demonstrate and respond.

They provide books and time to read them and an attractive environment where people want to read. They stimulate a desire to become a thoughtful reader. They demonstrate by reading aloud and by their own behaviour what a "good" reader does. And they respond, and help others respond to the individuality of everyone in the reading community they belong to." The bottom line of this research was that the following factors impact on creating a reading environment:

• Attitude
• Relationships
• Library Organisation
• Access
• Ambience
• Professional Debate – the impact of technology on the role of the librarian.

Tuesday 8 July

Barbara Albury ( Bahamas) If you build it, will they come? Redesigning your library (workshop)

Although this workshop proved not to have too much relevance to me and my situation, it was interesting to talk to other librarians and realise just how very privileged Micklefield is. Barbara spoke about their need to rebuild their school and the process that they went through to develop a library and IT centre to suit their needs. After she explained these processes the session broke into smaller groups to workshop ideas. Our group initially looked at rearranging a library. The following points came out of our discussion:

Aim:

Create a user friendly library that will attract more users

Problems:

• Too much space
• Too little space
• Old stock
• Lack of stock
• Lack of staffing
• Closed or locked libraries

Ways forward

• Form an effective school library team or committee
• Allow the students to take ownership of the library – questionnaires, painting the library, creating posters, re-designing the book covers of old looking books, etc.
• Separate the noisy and the quiet areas
• Consult media and library advisors in the area
• Fundraising
• Weeding
• Improve stock
• Make stock complement the new learning areas

One of the libraries that made me realise my privileged position was where the librarian spoke of too much space. He has an old classroom that has been turned into the library. There are bookshelves down one side and an issue desk in one corner. If he puts desks into the space they are usually removed for classrooms and exams. He has over 600 students and 1500 books! He employs someone as a library assistant to ensure that the library is open all day – R400 per month. Another library is kept locked and only opened for board meetings. A teacher has volunteered to manage this – he teaches 8 lessons a day – when can he find the time to have the library open and made user friendly to the students? But all these teacher librarians are enthusiastic and hopeful.

Eleanor Howe (USA) Breaking down barriers to Literacy: Creating a Story Hour that contributes to reading comprehension, tolerance and multicultural experiences.

The greater the student involvement and participation, the greater the student learning. Reading aloud to children increases their listening skills, and then their language and comprehension skills. Eleanor spoke about read-aloud strategies that could extend the possibilities for learning.

listening

hearing

interest

curiosity

concentration

absence of distraction

cognitive processing

selecting

understanding

interpreting

evaluating

organising

assimilating

remembering

responding

The challenge is to select appropriate number and type of activities to promote these skills.

Ann Weeks ( USA) The International Digital Library for Children

http://www.icdlbooks.org

The goal of this project is to have a collection of 10 000 children’s books available in this digital library. They are aiming for 60% of books in copyright and 40% of books in public domain. There are books which are out of print which they are hoping to bring back to life digitally, and also to encourage translations. They consult the White Raven’s List of excellent books and then try to select appropriate books that they could put into the Digital library. They are hoping to identify authors, illustrators and publishers from Africa to add to their list.

Ross Todd (USA) Learning in the information age: School opportunities, outcomes and options.

Rtodd@scils.rutgers.edu rtodd@cissl.rutgers.edu

Learning:

• the active search for meaning and understanding by the learner
• cumulative process of becoming informed through study, instruction and experience
• outcome is the gain of new knowledge, skills, attitudes and values and the transforming of prior knowledge.

Three core beliefs:

• information makes a difference to people
• making a difference does not happen by chance. Teaching learning role is the central dimension of the professional teacher librarian.
• Learning outcomes matter: belief that all students can learn and develop new understandings through the school library and demonstrate outcomes.

Learning outcomes are the reason for school libraries.

The challenge is to celebrate the understood, not the found. Finding is very important, but the understood is what we celebrate.

School libraries:

• Help students find and locate information
• Help students understand and use information
• Build new understandings (knowledge outcomes)
• Improve the student’s technology skills
• Help students with their learning out of school
• Help students with their reading

Intervention + process + engagement ® personalised knowledge outcomes.

What is your fingerprint on student learning?

HIV/AIDS Panel: Bill Luckenbill (USA), Ann Leon (SA) and Mrs S Ngcobo (SA) Panel discussion.

Gerald Brown (Canada) School Library and Information Services: components of a Quality Programme

• Do we understand the vision of who we are and what we are about?
• How do we assess where we are?
• Centre of the Library must be the student as learner.
• Components of a School Library Programme:
• Information literacy
• Independent learning skills
• Resource based learning
• Co-operative planning and teaching
• Literary and cultural appreciation skills
• Information and reference services
• Material production and editing skills
• Media and electronic technology skills
• Inter-Agency collaboration
• Advocacy – leadership – communication skills
• Organisation and administrative functions
• Professional growth and development
• Assessment and evaluation processes
• Research activities
• We need critical thinkers and creative learners.

Wednesday 9 July

Regional Group Meeting – Africa – south of the Sahara.

A meeting was held with delegates from this region to discuss any issues that may have arisen. The importance of being a member of IASL was spoken about and the role that belonging to an organisation like this can have in one’s professional life. The role of LIASA was also spoken about.

Kay Raseroka ( Botswana) Shaping the Future of School Libraries: What is the Agenda.

This was a very stimulating paper given by the incoming president of IFLA (Internal Federation of Library Associations). She spoke about the need in Africa to build on what is there already when building a library. Don’t ignore what is already in place and see Western Librarianship as the only good. She spoke about the many literacies that exist – oral, aural, visual, alphabetisation, technological and digital. Our role as librarians is to attend to all these literacies.

We need to be able to critically analyse information so that we can evaluate and choose, and weigh up this with our own philosophies and principles. If we don’t do this when we are confronted with media and other information then we will be brainwashed.

Although Kay is an academic librarian she needs to know about school librarianship because of the students who come to her institution, so that she can understand their skills or lack of skills. e.g. plagiarism – children are used to copying notes and regurgitating them as this is what they are taught.

All training has been focused on the book and not the people. But we exist because of the person, not the book.

Shaping the future starts with us. We mustn’t allow ourselves to be victims. Our attitude must be "This is what they teach. This is what the children want. How can I facilitate?" Parents want success for their children and so we need to tap into them as a resource. We need to see them as partners.

Kay spoke about the Patriotic Act in the USA where the government can demand to see what people are reading. She compared this to the Terrorism Act. Where is democracy? We have a right to read and a right to think. A right to freedom of access to information and the right to the freedom of expression. When we are talking about information literacy, we are talking about nullifying propaganda. We need to find a way to engage with civil society.

Mandla Maseko (South Africa) The Role and Importance of a National Reading Promotion and Development Campaign in South Africa.

Mandla spoke about the Masifunde Sonke programme. He spoke about the need to get regular reading programme's into schools, and although Curriculum 2006 emphasises reading and its importance, libraries have fallen off the agenda. We should be stakeholders in the development of the curriculum and yet we were not involved.

Reading today for many is still an academic obligation rather than a pleasure. Only 5% of Africans are active readers, and yet literacy is so important to help direct all people through life – from reading street signs onward. The United Nations declared 2003 – 2012 the decade of literacy, but what is actually happening. The school survey of need from 2000 makes no mention of libraries! A book and media policy is needed.

He then spoke about the various reading activities which Masifunde Sonke promote. He stressed the importance of taking part in these because if everyone participates then people will sit up and take notice.

Kingo Mchombu ( Namibia) Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Education Content and School Librarianship

Kingo spoke about indigenous knowledge systems and traditional knowledge systems, and says that they are not the same, as it would trap the former into a box of traditions. IK systems could be seen to be that body of knowledge and lore and practices which are maintained by a people as part of their history and how they live in the world. It classifies how they live and interact with their environment. It identifies them.

At the Earth Summit in 1992 the ILO called for the protection of the rights of indigenous people. Why did it take so long to recognise the value of IK? The view had been held that development was modernisation and for this to occur, underdeveloped societies needed to abandon their cultural heritage and traditions and embrace a different (Western) attitude. This approach has been taken to extremes such as in Australia where aboriginal children were removed from their homes and cultures and brought up by Westerners. Euro centric, colonial and post-colonial education has resulted in the marginalisation of IK.

IK is a fragile chain that is passed on by generations. "when an elder dies in a developing society, a library is lost."

There is a turnabout as has been seen with medicinal plants. In Namibia there is a school library programme where IK is an important part of the programme as it has become recognised that children need to learn about their own knowledge before they learn about other knowledge. Recognise what they know as valuable and build on it. We all need to be critical consumers of knowledge.

Marguerite Poland ( South Africa) Images of Africa

I attended this paper purely for me. It was a repeat of a paper given at ISASA Grahams town 2002 and was just as wonderful.

School Visits

We visited two schools. North Crest Primary School and Chelsea Preparatory School, both in Durban North.

Thursday 10 July

Special Interest Group Meetings

I attended the Children’s and Young Adult Literature Interest Group which is chaired by Ruth Cady.

This is an IASL interest group which at the moment is not too active. Anneli Silvennoinen from St Mary’s is part of this Interest Group. The LIASA Interest Group on Schools and Youth Services is an associate member of IASL. So there was a bit of discussion about the link between the two, but no real resolution.

Some useful links:

International Reading Associationhttp://www.reading.org

School Libraries Online http:// www.iasl-slo.org

Childlit listserv which is accessible via the University of Rutgers. (Genevieve Hart recommended belonging to this one)

Dr L T Mbatha ( South Africa) The Role of ELITS as a Collaborative Force for Effective Outcomes Based Education Implementation.

Dr Mbatha spoke about how the conference had been bombarded with the vilification of the old education system and said that there needed to be a paradigm shift from the old to the new. South Africa has inherited a system of education which is very different in quality, traditions, management, etc. – all of which were very unequal. Implications of this paradigm shift are that there is now the opportunity to reconstruct our education system underpinned by the new democracy.

OBE as a vehicle for change:

• Shift to create opportunities for South Africans to become life long learners
• Link between education and training
• Make education and training available to all
• Make education and training relevant.

Actual role of ELITS

• Supply of resources
• Knowledge construction
• High level of knowledge and skills (both learner and teacher)
• Design of learning programme's and materials
• Guidance – teaching and learning methodologies
• Development of critical thinkers
• Development of research skills

Current Activities

• Lobbying for more government funding
• Development of a provincial policy on school libraries
• Establishment of education libraries
• Establishment of education resource centres in all regions
• Establishment of video libraries
• Establishment of processing centres

What needs to be done:

Implement a KZN School Library Policy

Allocate more funding to ELITS

Collaboration between physical planning and ELITS in the provision of school infrastructure

Creation of teacher librarian posts

Comment: after Dr Mbatha’s paper, one of the delegates from Australia commented from the floor and spoke about OBE in Australia and how he believed that from what he had seen here, it will work in South Africa because we are so learner focused.

Robert Basson ( South Africa) Libwin 2002

This was a commercial presentation on the Libwin 2002 system : www.libwin.com or www.libwin.co.za

Thamie Mseleku (Director General of National Education in South Africa)

Mr Mseleku spoke about the need for the principle of human dignity for all – illiteracy takes away dignity – when old people rely on children to do their reading for them.

He spoke about humans as being South Africa’s most important resource. "Tirisano" is the motto of the Education Department – "working together to build a South African education and training system for the 21st century."

He believes that the development of reading material and literature in all official languages is central to information literacy in South Africa. He spoke about the need, not for a Tower of Babel approach, but a Pentecostal approach where people could understand in their own languages.

He saw 11 official languages not as a problem, but as a challenge. He spoke about English as the language that most people use here, but any language that robs the dignity of other languages is not a good language. We need to preserve our oral culture, but we also need books.

Schools are now enabled to empower the children on issues like HIV/AIDS, cholera, malaria, etc. and they can then empower their parents. He said that we are Africans in Africa bereft of Africa. When challenged on the need to spend more on libraries and reading resources he commented on the fact that 30% of schools in South Africa do not have water or sanitation. Unfortunately we need to prioritise.

Awards and Closing ceremony followed.

2002 Conference Proceedings

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