Judith Thomas
Here is an interesting account of how an attempt was made to reopen the school library, despite the pandemic, in order to give children an opportunity to move out of their homes, meet their peers, make small but important choices for themselves – giving them a sense of autonomy and freedom. The idea was to reconnect with students, building a bridge between the school and the online learning space.
Category: Off the Library Shelves
Corona days in a neighbourhood library
Drishti Tyagi
This is the story of how a home based neighbourhood library survived the corona days and the lessons that the library educator learnt.
The power of read-aloud
Yasin Khan
Reading aloud is an art that people working with children need to learn and learn well. Not only does it help develop the reading habit in children, but it also facilitates the overall wellbeing of the child even while improving their cognitive skills.
Literature circles in libraries
Sonia Deshpande
Reading together as a group can help deepen children’s engagement with books and also bring them together as a reading community. It is also about the group finding value in thinking together and discovering different perspectives. A look at how literature circles enable better understanding of a book.
Breathing life into a public library
Nayan Mehrotra
This article talks about the writer’s intervention in the public library space. She finds that there is no single factor that hampers the growth and popularity of the public library, rather it is more of a serious systemic issue.
“Opening” up a school library
Anuradha Pachanooru
Discover the excitement, enthusiasm and learnings that a library can pass on when used properly. This is the story of the transformation of a school library from a neglected storeroom to an active and vibrant learning space.
Bringing Non-Fiction into the light
Anandita Rao
The reading world is divided into those who love fiction and those who can’t see beyond non-fiction. And it is often difficult to persuade one to try the other. This librarian too was happy in her world of fiction until she was challenged to step into the other side. In her journey of exploring non-fiction she surprisingly realized that there is very little to differentiate fiction and non-fiction.
Exploring children’s agency in the library
JoAnne Saldanha
How can collaborations across the school community enhance a school’s library program? First, a school library must reflect the active presence of children. Second, the collection of books must be curated keeping the students interests, needs and requests. Sharing a non-judgmental environment also helps students take ownership for the library. Here are some more tips on how students themselves can team up and make the library a more cheerful space.
The Storymaker factor
Sowmya Ravindranath
All of us read and enjoy storybooks. But how many of us try and find out more about the authors of the books we read? A short library course on how knowing the author helps us understand their stories better opened this educator’s eyes to a whole new experience of reading books.
The school library: a place for everyone
Nirupama Kaushik
This article traces the journey of a school library. Though it was a place that had books and resources in abundance, it was sorely under-utilized with the odd teacher coming in to borrow a subject-related textbook, and perhaps attend staff meetings. With a lot of time, effort and constant review, the library has now transformed into a place that is buzzing with people – students, teachers and parents. Alluring displays and unorthodox collection of books has changed this into a joyful learning centre.