ACCESS - Current Edition - Editorial

Rachel Hoare, Editor

Happy new year and welcome to the first issue of ACCESS for 2019.

To start the year on a strong note, Tehani Croft has written our commentary and advocacy piece, encouraging teacher librarians to take that next step on the leadership ladder. Tehani offers thought-provoking and valuable advice to readers about applying for head of library or senior leadership roles in school libraries. Her checklist of useful tips will help you kick-start that new role, settle in, get the best from your library team and provide the best service and support to your students.

We then have two great articles on inspiring reading programs. Passionate about reading, Jason Saikaly introduces us to the reading ethos at Barker College. He describes the 'back to basics' approach and a deliberate focus on reading and literacy. Jason introduces the five factors that contribute to build a successful reading culture and nurture a love of reading:

If we, as teacher librarians and educators can help develop the reading ability and literacy of our students, during the few years we have them, we are actually setting them on a path to lifelong success. It is truly a noble endeavour.

Julia Petricevic presents research she conducted at Genazzano FCJ College, exploring the role of the teacher librarian and ways to foster student engagement with reading. Julia's survey looked at how to create a reading community in Year 7 classes and experiment with ways for students to get to know each other as readers. I hope Julia's data and strategies might encourage others to develop similar reading programs in their schools.

Leonie McIlvenny brings us 'The evolution of a library program from rigid blocks to entangled clusters' where she 'wanders down memory lane' and examines the very different library space teacher librarians work in today. Her conclusion is that library staff members are 'a net' that binds these blocks together.

Nikki Curtis updates us on the latest Softlink survey data and introduces lots of interesting ways to promote your library.

At the start of the school year, parents, teachers and teacher librarians alike reflect on online safety issues. The Office of the eSafety Commissioner brings us five tips for families to stay safe online in 2019. Julie Inman Grant also provides a great review of Safer Internet Day, with lots of useful resources and ideas for you to follow up in the library and classroom.

Finally, 2019 is ASLA's 50th birthday, so this is definitely a reason to celebrate. Have you registered for the ASLA XXVI Conference yet? The conference theme is Leading Learning and will be held on 14–16 April at the National Library of Australia. The program is packed with lots of excellent professional learning and networking opportunities. To check out the program and register for the conference, visit the ASLA website.