Schools Cataloguing Community of Practice

Last month, In posted an entry relating to cataloguing different editions under one SCIS Record.

SCIS Connections (Term 4, 2025), features an article by Renate Beilharz. A networking group (Schools Cataloguing Community of Practice) has been created for library staff in schools to discuss cataloguing within professional settings. Questions such as what I raised on online forums (i.e. multiple editions under one entry) can be discussed as well.

If interested, send an email to education@alia.org.au with 'Schools Cataloguing CoP' in the subject line.

Advocating for better library budgets

Back in 2020, Jan Sheridan's research paper School Library Funding, Staffing and Resourcing - A 10 Year Review was published in ACCESS (Australian School Library Association). It encompasses three areas relating to school libraries:

• Funding
• Staffing
• Resourcing

This entry focuses on the funding of school libraries.

Over the years, working in various schools before gaining permanency has provided me with valuable insight into how different schools approach funding of school libraries, the processes involved and even how different teacher librarians approach their budget submissions. This, combined with the processes involved in my permanent role, has provided me with a what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do list.

It feels like I am preaching to the converted, but there is a need for a reminder, and also in a manner that keeps it simple. This blog is not just a place to reflect or share what I put into it, but to simplify what is out there in terms of research.

I read the reasons why school library budgets were increased, e.g. new principals, new resources to accommodate new curriculum and one-off grants.

But I felt one reason was missing for increased budgets - advocacy

Why?

I have found that advocacy can be used to secure increased funding for a library. Consider the data that is taken to a budget meeting - loan records, resource acquisitions, quotes for equipment and much more. Surveys and feedback have their place as well. 

Even if you are not asked to justify why you want xxx for your library, make sure you do. Take the initiative to do so. For those in systematic schools, especially public schools, make sure your supervisor or Head Teacher is briefed before any meeting to discuss funding. If they know what you want, they are more likely to be able to press your argument forward. It will likely pay off for you.

Whereas if you request a figure and provide no justification, the answer is likely to shift to "no," even if the requested figure is low or conservative. 

Connect it to school initiatives and strategic plans. Does your school have a wide reading program? Establish connections. Relate it to school outcomes—how does the funding help the school achieve the outcome? Consider the connections to curriculum outcomes? How will they be met?

I know of one (now retired) teacher librarian who took the initiative to itemise every item that they needed for the library, especially with stationery. I would also suggest that, as purchases are made for items such as stationery, you keep a record of what you do use and refer to invoices to help you estimate how much they would cost if purchased. You may keep this in a procedures or processes guide or create a system that works best for you. 

Merging different editions under one SCIS Record & local practice in School Libraries

After a recent discussion with a colleague, I was curious whether it would be acceptable to merge different editions of a title into a single SCIS record and whether any schools engage in this practice. 

I posted a request for advice on the OZTL-Net form, along with a Yammer Group for NSW Public School library staff to obtain different perspectives.

A big thank you to the dozen or so who responded to my request in either group and enjoyed reading through each insight. I felt the need to share a summary of those responses with the broader professional community

The majority of responses favoured merging records, though the approaches and circumstances varied by school and its particular needs. Based on my responses, the reasons given were:

• Some want to know how many copies of a particular title are available, not the smaller details, e.g., the edition number or ISBN.
• Simplifies the search process
• Feedback from library users, e.g. if there are two copies of the same title, why do they appear twice in a search result? This included one response of placing the students first.
• Ability to merge catalogue records from SCIS

Some who did posed their own rules, e.g., it would apply to specific sets or collections, such as class sets, or would only create separate copies if the edition was distinct, e.g., an illustrated edition. One would create separate entries if the covers were different, i.e. if the same cover had different ISBN numbers, they were still merged together.

I was given one tip, and I would recommend it: If merging different editions, make sure that there is a documented process for doing it.

There were a few responses suggesting they prefer not to, and, if so, it was because they preferred separate records; in that case, it would come down to having correct data and bibliographic records.

I will take the ideas on board and work towards a practice that best suits my school and our needs. 

Literacy and Science: A high potential and gifted education (HGPE) collaboration

My colleague Lara Curtis has recently had an article published in the current edition of ACCESS by the Australian School Library Association.

Her article focuses on a collaborative project between her and a teacher in the Science faculty at my school. This involved a Year 8 Science class working on a project to present a short film in which they explain various systems in the human body.

The collaboration involved allocating one Science lesson on a weekly basis as a literacy lesson. Like in an English lesson, there were a text in focus (Cells at Work by Akane Shimizu, a manga series serialised between 2015-2021). Extracts were selected and students analysed the text as they would in their study of English along with a factual analysis. It also introduced many students to Manga texts, which itself is a unique form of storytelling. Apart from developing critical thinking skills, it would also support development of ethical storytelling skills.

As Lara's colleague, I am very proud of her efforts in delivering this project. I look forward to seeing where the delivery of the jnit goes. I hope I can contribute to it or even adapt this to another subject area.

R U OK Day

R U OK Day will be on Thursday, September 11. My school decided to bring the day forward by two weeks to enable the Year 11 students to partake in the day ahead of their Preliminary Exams next week. 

Our Library Prefects run the Book Club, which meets fortnightly, and one of our Year 12 Library Prefects conceived the idea of operating a stall where students could make their own bookmarks, complete a quiz, but also write a message on a bookmark that they could insert into any book in the library, ready to be discovered in surprise by the next borrower.

The stall was part of a student-led and run fete that was held yesterday (August 28), running alongside other activities such as a BBQ, wet sponge throwing at (volunteer) teachers.

Our strongest response came from the junior students who were more keen to engage in making their own bookmarks. For those who did, they were able to use textas and pencils to come up with a bookmark that could be truly theirs as opposed to one that would be "mass produced" or "manufactured". Each bookmark featured an object, such as a flower or an elephant, made with pipe cleaners and then pasted onto the cardboard.

The rest was up to the individual. 

Below are some pictures of what was organised for the students.

Raising Readers - Megan Daley

The Sydney Weekend magazine in The Daily Telegraph (July 26-27, 2025) recently published an extract by Megan Daley, author of Raising Readers: How to Nurture a Child's Love of Books. A new edition of her 2019 book has just been published. 

She believes in the Science of Reading, which draws from neuroscience, linguistics, and cognitive psychology, asserting that reading and writing are not natural skills like speaking but need deliberate teaching.

Daley also suggests parents:

• Advocate for evidence-based literacy instruction
• Understand how reading works
• Support children at home with rich oral and print language environments
• Collaborate with educators and specialists (e.g., speech pathologists, psychologists)

For me, this reinforces what I see in the library each day. Children need more than access to books. They need explicit support and encouragement to become confident readers. The research is important, but so too is the human side of teaching — the conversations, the joy of sharing stories, and the chance to guide a student towards a book that sparks their interest.

As teacher librarians, we can bridge research and practice. We create spaces where reading feels valued, support colleagues in evidence-based literacy, and help families see the vital role they play. Each child who moves from “learning to read” to “reading to learn” is a reminder that raising readers is both science and art.