Dear Mr Gove, please speak to some actual teenagers before assuming that you know ‘what’s best’ for them…

I am very angry about Mr Gove’s comments on teenagers’ reading habits. I realise that lately this blog has largely turned into an outlet for my school-librarian-wrath, so instead of another rant I’ll just say that I agree wholeheartedly with this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/may/15/twilight-middlemarch-michael-gove and that I would be delighted to see any teenager in my school reading Twilight as it is age-appropriate, it has resonance for modern teenagers (i.e. falling in love with the wrong person, being different to your peers) and it demonstrates an awareness of current trends and culture.

Perhaps if Mr Gove spoke to some actual teenagers he would understand that given the plethora of alternative modern distractions, a teenager enjoying any book is something to be celebrated and encouraged.

Infuriated Information Professionals

I was very angry and saddened to hear Terry Deary’s recent comment that “libraries have had their day”. I’m not sure why Deary has failed to notice that libraries offer free internet access to people who would be otherwise completely unable to take advantage of ‘the electronic age’. Public libraries also offer people who did not grow up with computers the opportunity to learn how to use them, in turn allowing them to participate in an increasingly digital society where everything from job applications to shopping is done online.

If anything, the increasing use of digital resources is making libraries more prevalent. The library is the place where my pupils do their internet research and print off their homework – many of them do not have access to their own personal computer or printer. The library is also the place where reliable information sources can be found when Wikipedia or Google prove to yield insufficient information on a topic.

The irony of his comment makes me feel very sad as the Horrible Histories books are still very well borrowed in my library by pupils who may not have access to many books (particularly non-fiction) at home.

Despite Deary’s swipe at ‘sentimentality’, this word aptly describes the emotions I feel towards the Horrible Histories books, having grown up reading them…at my local library…because my parents couldn’t afford to buy me them and the library offered a safe haven from my often hectic household.

Rant over. I’m still angry though.

Thing 16 – Advocacy

I know, I know… this is very very late. I could give many excuses (starting a new job, my LIS course…) but I’ll just get on with it!

As you may know (I’ve gone on about it lots!), I’ve fairly recently started a new job as a School Librarian(ish – still working on the MSc). Advocacy in school libraries is HUGE, and is a bit of a hot potato at the moment. I’m still getting my head around it really, so I decided to cheat a little and start small – advocating the library in my own school. Which essentially is the most important thing really, as the students and staff at the school are my library users after all!

October is International School Libraries Month, which gave me a great excuse to try a bit of self-promotion. Because I work with kids, I thought it would be essential to get them involved. This allowed me to (rather lazily I suppose) turn school library advocacy into a competition, and let the pupils do the promotion for me! I did think it was really important to get the user voice, and for me (as the new librarian) to hear what the students love about their library. Librarians can go on about how great libraries are until the cows come home, but it’s the user perspective that really matters.

So I created a display about International School Libraries Month and asked the students to write, draw or create something to represent why they love their school library. I’ve even added some jazzy colour photographs of my display and some of their responses below!

Book of the week (1/10/2012)

My book of the week for next week is Howl’s Moving Castle (yes I’ve started my new job as a School Librarian, but more on that later). I’d almost forgotten how much I loved the Studio Ghibli film, and now I finally have a good excuse to re-read the book! Revisiting the magical world of Sophie, Howl and Calcifer actually makes me look forward to my morning train ride.

I found these amazing postcards on liveforfilms.com and couldn’t resist sharing them :)

The architecture of Librarianship

So yet again I am inadvertently lagging behind with 23 things…

This time however, not only do I have an almost legitimate excuse, but it has also saved me writing two posts about my career development plans. I did have a career development plan, albeit a rather rudimentary one (it was in my head, but it WAS a plan, okay?) – but more on that later.

I have spent this year doing my Graduate Traineeship, which was the best work-based experience I’ve ever had. I’ve had a go at a bit of everything I ever imagined libraries would involve and far more besides. From customer services to e-resources, my Traineeship has given me a brilliant taster of life as a Librarian – and most importantly, I haven’t gone running for the hills. In fact I have loved every minute and am more excited about having a career in Librarianship than ever before. I know it’s rich at this stage in my career for me to be giving anyone careers advice, but to anyone thinking of starting out in Librarianship, I think being a Graduate Trainee is essential.

It sounds like a tiny thing, but the one of most valuable assets my Traineeship has given me is contacts – Over the past 9 months I’ve met more new people and got more useful careers advice than ever before in my life.

I’m actually feeling ever so slightly tearful writing about my Traineeship now it’s so close to the end!

Back to the future….

In my ideal (purely internal) plan, I was going to find my perfect 4-day-a-week library job starting in September and go to Sheffield part time to study for my Masters. In fact my plan was so advanced that I’d even saved a considerable amount of money to do this.

Sadly, what I hadn’t factored into my plan was ‘real life’ – a place (in case you are as unfamiliar with this as I am) where perfect 4-day-a-week library jobs do not exist. Believe it or not ‘real life’ also happens to be a place where potential employers offering full time jobs do not like to be asked whether you can ‘have Mondays off for two years to go to Uni please’.

The (new improved) Master plan

So obviously, my advanced prototype needed to be altered, and modelled on something quite frankly a little more realistic. And then out of nowhere (as in all good novels) something wonderful, amazing and totally unexpected happened – I got offered not one but two School Librarian (School Library Manager, LRC Manager, whatever else I may get called) jobs!

So it turns out I will be working 5 days a week, from September (this was essential as I was very determined not to leave my Traineeship early), getting hugely varied experience and working with some of the most challenging (and hopefully rewarding) library users possible.

Now obviously this does not factor in the part of my plan that says I will do my Masters next year, but I’m coming to that…

Fortunately for me, I was in a strong enough position (having been offered two jobs) to ‘encourage’ (barter with) the School to offer me considerably more money than was initially proposed. This means that I can (hopefully) afford to save enough extra money to pay the substantially higher fees to do my Masters distance learning.

Distance learning is far from the ideal option for me, especially whilst working full time. But unfortunately I do not have the luxury of unlimited time and money, and I’m really keen to work alongside my studies so that I can put what I learn into practice (in my humble opinion Library School should be far more practical anyway, so here I get the best of both worlds). Any feedback from anyone who has done a distance learning course (good or bad please!) would be very much appreciated. I would also love to hear from anyone who is/has been a School Librarian.

Putting the new plan into action

So, in no particular order, here is a list of career development options I hope to pursue in the near future:

• Certification
• Masters in Librarianship/Library and Information Management
• Getting more involved with the School Library Association in my new job (I have signed up but not pursued it yet)
• Join the School Libraries Network
• Eventually Chartership

So here’s to new beginnings!