Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

Aims and Objectives

The purpose of the ASLA’s Special Interest Groups (SIGs) is to bring together Australian teacher librarians and school library staff across all areas of interest in primary and secondary education. The immediate objective of the SIGs is to establish networked groups of members who share a special interest, expertise and/or experience in specific aspects of Teacher Librarianship. 

The SIGs aim to:

• promote, generate, disseminate and advocate for teacher librarianship.

• develop productive research partnerships. 

• strengthen the research, scholarly and public presence of ASLA, including its leadership in and contributions to policy and public debates relevant to teacher librarianship.

SIGs

Initially, the following three groups have been established, each chaired by a member of the ASLA Board:

• Research – latest trends in best practice, reading, inquiry learning

• Literacy – our role in literature promotion and reading and information and digital literature

• Advocacy – mentoring, guidance, best practice, how to use data 

Other topics may be established over time.

SIGs will be ongoing however, volunteers are requested to commit to their SIG for a period of one year, at least 4 meetings per year. The Board member leading the SIG will provide a written report to be submitted at the AGM. 

The meetings will be online, on the second Thursday in February, May, August and October each year. **NB our meetings for 2023 will be confirmed at a later date. We are focussing on our 2023 Conference and EduTECH programs in the first part of this year.**

Communication Methods

• online platform for member communication, participation in threads, dissemination of ideas; digital presence (eg. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)

• publications (ACCESS and ASLA Newsletter)

• webinars, conferences, or similar events, and

• contributions as a SIG (via, for example, a SIG ‘strand’) to the biennial National Conference.

To Join a SIG 

If you would like to join a SIG please contact the ASLA Executive Officer by email at asla@asla.org.au and you will be added to the SIG membership list. SIG members must be financial members of ASLA - either as a personal membership or part of a school membership - in order to join and contribute to the SIG.