May is a bumper month for ASLA. We began on Wednesday 4 May with a webinar presented by Fabian Amuso titled 'Creating Internal Wide Reading Challenges.' Fabian's presentation began with identifying the goals and objectives for creating an internal wide reading challenge and then gave practical examples that could be easily applied in any school setting. If you missed the webinar you can purchase a copy of the presentation in the ASLA shop. Our AGM was held on Saturday 7 May and included voting for a special resolution to accept proposed changes to the ASLA constitution. The special resolution was passed with 95% yes votes. Thank you to those who worked on the document and contributed to the consultation period. 

The National School Library Advocacy Summit will be held on 14 May at Evelyn Scott School in Canberra. It is a hybrid summit so we welcome colleagues from around Australia joining us online. Registrations for participating live in Canberra have now closed, however you may still register for the online link up until Friday 13 May. We would love you to join us. Dr Margaret Merga will present a keynote Leading literacy policy from the library. This keynote will look at how libraries can lead whole-school literacy policies in Australia. You will learn how to position yourselves as key change agents and how to develop a whole school literacy policy that works in your context. 

This keynote is based on recent research that is covered in Dr Margaret Merga's new book. My copy of the book arrived yesterday and I am looking forward to reading it and also listening to Margaret's presentation. 

Message from Dr Margaret Merga (ASLA Patron)

Claire Madden will present her keynote Engaging the Emerging Generations in Learning and Libraries

For Generation Z and Generation Alpha (born since 1995), a world of Wi-Fi is the only one they have ever known. Digital is their default, Siri is their personal assistant and with over 6 billion Google searches every day, access to any piece of information is only ever seconds away. Whilst previous generations memorised content ‘just in case’ they needed to know it, for these emerging generations it is about accessing content ‘just in time’.  Libraries continue to adapt to the changing ways that content is accessed, in many cases becoming ‘virtual libraries’ that create spaces for collaboration between students.  It is essential that students have access to spaces which facilitate effective learning in this digital era and that promote engagement with deeper learning in this fast moving, information saturated society. In this session, Claire will unpack these key trends and the implications and opportunities for teacher librarians.

Message from Claire Madden

Welcome to our new board members.

National Education Summit - Melbourne DISCOUNT code

ASLA members can register for the National Education Summit in Melbourne using the code below. We look forward to seeing you there.