Dr Barbara Stripling, recently retired, has had a long career in the library profession, including positions as Director of Library Services for the New York City schools, a school library media specialist and school district director of libraries in Arkansas, a library grant program director in Tennessee, and Senior Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Practice in the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University.  Barb has written or edited numerous books and articles and is the creator of the Stripling Model of Inquiry.  Stripling has recently developed and published (in April 2019) a re-imagined version of the Empire State Information Fluency Continuum, a PK-12 continuum of the skills that teacher librarians teach to empower students to be lifelong learners.  Stripling has served the profession as president of the American Association of School Librarians (1986-1987), president of the New York Library Association (2016-2017), president of the American Library Association (2013-2014), and current president of the Freedom to Read Foundation (2020-). 

To explore more about our International Speaker Series 2021 or to register;

 visit our events page.

International Speaker Series 2021

Professional Learning Package

5 June & 13 November 2021

A Professional Learning Package featuring:

Dr Barbara Stripling & Dr Sarah McGrew

This professional learning package consists of a series of two online professional learning events featuring international guest speakers exploring inquiry learning and media literacy issues relevant to teacher librarians and teachers in 2021.

Each session is being held on a Saturday morning from 9-11am, with each 2 hour session consisting of a one hour presentation with Q&A followed by one hour of practical workshop-style activities.

Each 2 hour session will take place in SLANSW's Zoom conference room.

To explore more about our International Speaker Series 2021 or to register;

 visit our event page. 

Amber Sorensen shares some wonderful and successful passive programming ideas with SLANSW members. 

Passive programming is something that most teacher-librarians already do without necessarily knowing they’re doing it. “Passive programming encompasses a variety of types of programs that allow patrons to participate with minimal to no staff direction. Often they allow for varying amounts of patron involvement and/or time commitment.” (Forrester, 2014)

To read the full blog post by Amber Sorensen, click here and login to your Member Portal.

With over 200 Department of Education schools impacted by the current weather event, and we assume just as many private and/or independent schools, it’s timely to bring to the attention of our members, resources available to assist with disaster preparedness. SLANSW, in collaboration with SLAV and Blue Shield Australia, presented an Online Meet-up in 2020 to provide our members with practical strategies to deal with disasters, should their library be directly impacted in the future. A copy of the recording, along with additional resources can be accessed via the SLANSW Member Portal. 

Next up in our series of "TL Stories" is the journey to date of our new SLANSW Secretary, Cath Havenaar. In the telling  of our TL experiences, there will be many common threads and shared understandings about the evolution, challenges and rewards of our role. 

To read the full blog post by Cath Havenaar, click here and login to your Member Portal.

Due to restrictions in place related to COVID-19, we are unable to take further registrations for onsite attendance.

In response, we have opened up further online registrations. If you would like to attend The Laureate & The Literacy Leader as part of the online contingent register via: https://slansw.net.au/events

We have been advised by EDConnect, Accounts Payable, Finance Shared Services of the NSW Department of Education, that for SLANSW to be paid for any services or memberships the following is preferred for all Department of Education schools:

• Payment for goods or services be by Pcard.
• a Purchase Order (PO) must be supplied where PCard payment isn't possible. Schools are to ensure that SLANSW receives a PO. Invoices without including the typed PO number, we will not be processed by EDConnect, Accounts Payable, Finance Shared Services.

This notification from by EDConnect, Accounts Payable, Finance Shared Services, supports the transition the Association has been making towards credit card payments.

Any schools wishing to not pay for SLANSW membership or services via credit card will incur a 10% administration fee and the manual processing of a new invoice. Please email info@slansw.net.au to request this.

We thank you for your support in following these processes. 

Member Services | SLANSW

The Laureate

Ursula Dubosarsky is the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2020–2021. Ursula was born in Sydney and has wanted to be a writer from the age of six. She is now the author of over 60 books for children and young adults. She has won many national prizes, including the NSW, Victorian, South Australian and Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award, and has been nominated for the international Hans Christian Anderson and Astrid Lindgren awards for children’s literature. Her books have been published widely across the world and translated into fourteen different languages.

After leaving school Ursula studied classical languages and English literature at Sydney University and then travelled overseas. She married in London, returned to Sydney and had three children. She pursued her writing career while working in various jobs, including some years at the NSW Department of Education’s School Magazine. She completed a PhD from Macquarie University in children’s literature at this time.

Her award-winning work includes picture books, such as The Terrible Plop; novels for older children, including The Blue Cat; and the non-fiction ‘Word Spy’ books about the English language. Three of her works have been adapted for theatre, and her book Too Many Elephants in This House was chosen for National Simultaneous Story-time. Ursula is a frequent visitor in libraries, schools and festivals around the world, talking about books and reading, and teaching children and adults the art of creative writing. She is currently a member of the Library Council of the State Library of NSW.

To explore more about our Professional Learning Summit or to register, please visit The Laureate and the Literacy Leader 

The Years in Review

Want to understand how SLANSW first formed to support Teacher Librarians? Then log into your member portal to read the latest blog post!

In this post, Bill Sommerville reflects on foundational moments in the history of NSW teacher librarianship and the School Library Association of New South Wales. To read the full blog post, click here and login to your Member Portal.

The Literacy Leader

Karen Yager is the Deputy Head, Student and Teaching Excellence K-12, at Knox Grammar School, Sydney, President and Life Member of English Teachers Association NSW and Vice President of the Professional Teachers’ Council NSW (PTC). Karen was awarded the first International Teaching Fellowship by the Singapore Ministry of Education in 2011 and has been invited to present papers at numerous national and international conferences. She was awarded the NSW Professional Teachers’ Council Award in 2009 and the Australian Professional Teachers Association Award in 2014 for her contribution to the teaching profession. In 2003, she was awarded the NSW Premier's Literary Scholarship to research how to connect students with Shakespeare. In 2016, she was awarded the NSW State Library Fellowship.

Karen is the 2020 recipient of the Reading Australia Fellowship for Teachers of English and Literacy. The fellowship supports a leading English and/or literacy teacher to undertake a career-enhancing research project that will benefit the successful Fellow as well as the education sector. Karen is currently undertaking her PhD with a focus on how an effective professional learning model can enable teachers to foster global competency and academic excellence in their students.