Darpana Baria
This month we look at critical literacy. The article raises a series of questions. Do we see stories of those lesser privileged than us only from our lens? Do we question the stories enough? Do we question the adversity in a story and whether we as citizens have played a role in the existence of the adversity?
Category: Off the Library Shelves
Nurturing readers through reading aloud
Pooja Sagar
A library in today’s time is less about a physical space and more about the librarian’s connect with children and with her ability to connect children with books. It is about the librarian’s reflecting on her actions, being flexible, about her helping children connect books to their real-life experiences and a lot more.
The library as playground
Alia Sinha
Adults and play? Imagine a group of adults indulging in silly games. A funny sight indeed. But play helps you loosen up, awaken your senses, and opens you up for fresh new possibilities — all qualities that are necessary when you teach and learn.
A 10-year-old romance: libraries in schools
A group of people with a passion, a goal of setting up and transforming libraries into active learning spaces, and schools and children who learnt to celebrate libraries. Looking back on a decade of Libraries in Schools programme.
Thematic displays changed my practice
Jangchup Nyingpo
How can librarians help children to get familiar with all parts of a library collection? Or help them develop their book selection skills? Here is where displays are important. Choosing a book for a young reader is a skill in itself and not an easy task. If the books are displayed according to a theme then children get to know different genres of books and are able to identify their preferences in reading.
Becoming a library practitioner
Sajitha
After attending a library educator’s course, the author realized that despite working for 10 years in the education sector in various roles, she had never understood the true meaning of a children’s library. It is now her mission to establish libraries for children, strengthen existing libraries and make them more accessible, and introduce more schools to the benefits of libraries.
Searching for meaning in a school library
Geetanjali Mehra
How can a school library be more welcoming of its participants/readers? Is there a way that a school librarian/teacher can be more effective in her engagements with children? For instance, teaching-learning tools can make a big difference in library sessions. Using story-telling methods that resonate with children can bring about a deeper understanding of the books. A teacher-librarian reflects on her journey.
Literature in the language classroom
Sreya Rakshit
A literary text can open up whole new vistas for children in a language classroom because it gives them a chance to engage with ideas of inequality, emotions, gender, justice, integrity or even friendship without any sense of discomfort. In this article, the author explains how one such literary text, Dear Mrs. Naidu, helped her students reflect on various dense subjects.
Unsettling the library educator
Sujata Noronha
A project idea by a course participant led this library educator on a path of self-realization, acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that by being only a passive observer and not engaging with social problems like casteism, she is actually a part of the problem and that she has to actively work toward finding solutions to such problems.
Libraries as windows and mirrors
Indu Nair
Extending relational scholar Emily Style’s concept of the school curriculum as windows and mirrors to the library, this librarian shares her experience and challenges of putting together a book collection that she hopes will serve as mirrors to enable readers to see themselves and their reality and as windows to help them see the same of others.