ACCESS - Current Edition - Editorial

Rachel Hoare, Editor

Welcome to this bumper issue of ACCESS, which is jam-packed with fascinating and informative articles for your reading pleasure. Thank you to our wonderful authors and contributors for providing us with such great reading material.

First up is Holly Godfree's fabulous article, 'School Libraries: Good for What Ails Ya', where she assesses the COVID-19 health crisis and the contributions teacher librarians have made:
... all across Australia (and the world), there are qualified school library staff, just like me, who had that moment of realisation and began kicking goals for their staff and students during this crisis.

Tehani Croft follows this with 'The WestMAC Library response to COVID-19'. The library team created a new library presence in NEST to share library resources, reading recommendations and remain connected with their students during the difficult lockdown period.

Dr Margaret Merga has very generously shared her article, 'How Can School Libraries Support Student Wellbeing? Evidence and Implications for Further Research' with ACCESS readers. This paper explores how school libraries operate as safe spaces for young people, promote and resource mental health and wellbeing initiatives, and support and promote bibliotherapeutic practices and reading for pleasure. This is a valuable contribution to the research into student wellbeing, during and post-COVID-19.

Softlink's Jen Sheridan brings us a 10-year review of school library funding, staffing and resourcing, as she reflects on the Federal Inquiry and presents a review of the data and responses collected from Softlink surveys during this time.

Joyce Sendeckyj then introduces us to her 'flipped' reading program to support students during lockdown.

We also include an introduction to the National Centre for Australian Children's Literature Inc.'s database of books for children written by and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. A comprehensive article about this database will be included in the November issue.

Finally, we have very interesting reports from two Charles Sturt University master's students who are completing their virtual placements with ASLA and news of the 2020 ASLA Virtual Literacy Research Summit. You will also find two great book reviews.

Enjoy!

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