The KidLit Club

Dr Susan La Marca and Sally Rippin. This is a fantastic interview with Susan. Sally interviews Dr Susan La Marca (Susan is Chief Executive officer of SLAV, School Librarian’s association of Victoria) Susan discusses the role of SLAV and its’ position in supporting and advocating for school libraries and school librarians. She also explains the difference between Teacher Librarians and librarians, and their role in promoting reading while also understanding the importance of educational pedagogy. Susan also explains while trained librarians are not being replaced, and the senate inquiry into the importance of school libraries.

This also ties in with the campaign supported by many amazing authors and many other organisations which has been shared widely on social media Students Need School Libraries

There has been a lot of research in the area of reading and literacy over the past few decades and the following article explains what is happening in America which is also reflected across Australia. Poverty and reading: the sad and Troubling Loss of school Libraries and Real Librarians.

Nancy talks about schools replacing books with computers, and saying schools saying that Librarians becoming “digital learning specialists, digital media content specialists, technology integrators, and information literacy teachers”. I would agree with Nancy that schools need books and digital technology and digital media specialists. There is a lot of research now becoming available on the effect of too much screen time on children and encouraging mindfulness. I would argue that the best mindfulness comes from immersing oneself in a great book and developing the love of reading early.