Tag Archives: education

The 10-Minute International Librarian #37: Think of a learning resource you can create

We all have knowledge and experience that we can share, just as we all have things to learn from others.

If you completed our 31st 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, you will already have thought about what it is that you can offer.

Of course, effective sharing of knowledge can be as much about the way you do it – your technique – as the knowledge itself.

So it’s worth thinking about the way in which you present what you want to share, so that you are as effective as possible.

And in particular in times that digital tools are the main – even the only – way of teaching and learning, developing materials that can work well online is more and more important.

So for our 37th 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, think of a learning resource you can create.

It doesn’t need to be complicated or long. Indeed, the simpler you can make it, the better!

Think about how you can lead the learner through the process, step-by-step. Bear in mind that they may not have much time, or brain-space to be able to deal with large amounts of information.

Think about your own learning style, and those of people you know. What will work best for them.

Of course, actually creating a resource will take more than 10 minutes. But if you are able to do this, you can then share it on a website or Open Educational Resources learning platform!

Share your best experiences of learning resources – or links to resources you have created yourself! – in the comments section below.

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! Key Initiative 3.4: Provide targeted learning and professional development.

You can view all of our ideas using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box.

Libraries on the Road to Recovering and Revitalising Education

2021’s International Day of Education (24 January) carries a different weight than it has in past years. Although universal access to education is well-established as a human right, as well as a driver of sustainable development, the COVID-19 pandemic has added a new-found urgency, as well as a new set of challenges, to its delivery.

Fittingly, this year’s International Day of Education is dedicated to the theme: ‘Recover and Revitalize Education for the COVID-19 Generation’.

From UNESCO: “Now is the time to power education by stepping up collaboration and international solidarity to place education and lifelong learning at the centre of the recovery.”

Libraries are an essential piece of this recovery.

As the world begins to look towards a post-COVID world, the theme of this year’s International Day of Education is a call to libraries to advocate for – and deliver on – their role in building back better through enabling and promoting learning.

The groundwork is there – libraries are already helping to reduce inequalities in education. One example is through their role in providing access to the internet, which increasingly is becoming a deciding factor in a student’s ability to engage in school.

In so many places already, libraries and their staff are helping their communities stay connected with the resources, support, and tools that are needed not only to recover, but also to revitalise, education, and through it, lives.

Therefore, we are marking this day with some lessons-learned during the pandemic, as well as a look to the future of education – and libraries’ role in it.

COVID-19 and Support for Remote Learning

Since March 2020, IFLA has been monitoring library responses to the pandemic. This has provided a picture of how libraries have continued serving their communities despite physical closures and other restrictions. It has also provided a trove of stories showing how libraries have upheld support for education through challenging times.

You can find many examples to inform your own initiatives on our website.

Shared Stories: Public Libraries in Egypt

Heba Ismail, Secretary of the CPDWL Section and Libraries Technical Manager at Egypt’s Society for Culture & Development has shared a look at how libraries across Egypt have found success in engaging users during the pandemic. Here are some of ways they have supported education at all stages of life during this time:

  • Sharing links to educational resources in science, arts, culture, and heritage
  • Storytelling workshops for young readers
  • Free training workshops for school-aged students to assist with research-based projects, which replace end-of-year exams for most students
  • Online training services on topics including English Language and Computer Skills, conducted via Facebook
  • Participation in a national initiative to provide virtual programmes to train and qualify youth for the labour market
  • Conducting online courses in cooperation with civil society institutions such as the Arab Women Association.
  • Providing COVID-19 and public health information

See her full article online here.

COVID-19 and Professional Development

Librarians are not only the providers of lifelong learning. Librarians must also be recipients of ongoing training and professional development to enable agility in the face of rapid change.

IFLA’s CPDWL Section shared experiences and explored this concept further in their January 2021 newsletter.

Shared Stories: Tips and Lessons-Learned

Rajen Munoo, of the Singapore Management University Libraries, shares a key lesson regarding opportunities that may come hidden in the challenges of COVID-19: “Continued learning and upskilling is the new vaccine in managing our own personal professional development”.

Here are some ways that Section members found they could continue their own continued professional development (CPD) and learning during the pandemic:

  • Attend virtual conferences and webinars. Take the opportunity to discover new topics, such as research data management, open science, advocacy, and leadership. Not needing to travel may help you get approval from your institutions’ leadership to explore new areas.
  • Find opportunities to upskill in areas that support your institution’s digital transformation. This may include building competency in tools such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Outlook, Blackboard Collaborate, Mentimeter, and Leganto (Ex Libris resource list management system).
  • Get familiar with new formats for teaching and sharing information virtually, such as creating short videos.
  • Focus learning on open access information, such as online databases, repositories, scientific periodical portals, electronic book collections
  • Don’t forget personal well-being. Training in stress management and mindfulness can be helpful for both staff and users.
  • Get involved with mentoring programmes to facilitate knowledge-exchange between professionals at different career stages. Involvement in a national (or international) library association may help connect you to these opportunities.

While enriching librarians’ careers, these skills go beyond personal growth. They can be instrumental in helping library and information professionals meet the challenges of a post-COVID world.

Beyond COVID-19: The Future of Education

Perhaps as much as anything, the pandemic has made the deep inequalities that persist within our societies abundantly clear.

In terms of education, this means that those who are most disadvantaged have also been impacted the hardest.

The UN refers to COVID-19 as the largest disruption of education systems in history. While closures of schools and other learning spaces have “impacted 94% of the world’s student population”, the UN reports that this impact is up to 99%  in low and lower-middle income countries [source].

Pre-existing education inequalities, such as reduced opportunities for those living in poor or rural areas, girls, refugees, persons with disabilities and forcibly displaced persons, have been worsened by the pandemic. These inequalities must be addressed to both recover and rejuvenate global education.

Reimagine Education

One of the UN’s recommendations to prevent further crisis is to “reimagine education and accelerate change in teaching and learning” [source, page 3]. This includes focussing on the needs of marginalised groups, offering employability programmes, supporting educators, and remove barriers to connectivity.

Innovative methods developed during the pandemic to provide services remotely, engage the public online, and connect more people to library services can continue benefiting society in the future.

IFLA stands ready to support the library profession in this work as we look to recovery and rejuvenation.

What can you do?

Advocate! – gather stories of how your library has adapted during the pandemic in order to support education and learning, and how it will continue these services in the future. Share these stories on your communication channels, with decision-makers, and with your local library association.

Learn Yourself! – be sure to take note of lessons you have learned during the pandemic, think about how they can help others now and in the future. Take advantage of opportunities to develop skills that can help you more effectively provide access to information and education.

Start Local! – identify inequalities in learning that exist in your community and align your programmes and services to address them. Look to team up with educators at your school, university, or within your community to amplify and support each other’s work.

 

Building Capacity in Copyright: Gathering existing resources

In 2019, IFLA’s Advisory Committee on Copyright and other Legal Matters (CLM) and the Information Literacy Section represented by its former chair Lisa Hinchliffe, are exploring the theme of copyright literacy education in library associations. The presentation of the research carried out by Lisa Hinchliffe, Kaylen Dwyer and Jayde Rose is available here.

Building on this work, and in line with its mission to support its Members, IFLA continues to engage in the subject of copyright literacy and is putting together a collection of educational resources on this topic. We welcome submissions and suggestions.

Copyright, a legal area that remains crucial in libraries.

Whether this is about reproductions of collections in heritage libraries, scholarly communication in university libraries, controlled digital lending, or eBook licenses, many major issues in the field of libraries are linked to copyright.

Therefore, there is a necessity to continue supporting libraries in building copyright capacities on a regional, national and international scale, and to ensure that libraries are well-represented in these discussions.

The topic of copyright for library associations generally requires a national approach, given that the legal framework for copyright is primarily defined by national regulations.

Nonetheless, it is possible to look to the international level for materials to help understand copyright trends. Furthermore, IFLA and others’ work to advance exceptions and limitations to copyright internationally aims to provide leverage in discussions, but in turn, relies on the implication of libraries nationally.

The development of educational resources: key learning materials

There is an uneven distribution of expertise around the library field concerning copyright laws and ways of initiating changes with policy-makers.

To address this, many institutions and professionals continue to engage in learning activities on these issues. It seems helpful to encourage these initiatives and to continue to connect these professionals in order to build an active network.

IFLA is therefore looking at how best to support the development of educational resources on copyright in the field of libraries, and to facilitate training and strengthen the advocacy capacities of libraries.

Gathering educational resources on copyright

IFLA, therefore, encourages members to share existing educational resources on copyright, such as:

– Manuals and textbooks
– Documents and resources
– Courses
– Games
– Practical tools
– Videos and podcasts

We will gather them per country and languages to facilitate to identify resources in your country!

If you know of any copyright education resources in your country and would like to share them, contact camille.francoise[at]ifla.org

Access to Information, Access to Connection: libraries countering intolerance

Our world is faced with a range of challenges linked to intolerance, and its consequences. These have dominated the headlines in 2020: large-scale demonstrations demanding racial justice, inequalities facing the LGBTQ+ community around the world, terrorist activity, the rise of nationalist groups, and the ongoing xenophobia that threatens the livelihood of the world’s most vulnerable communities. Existing tensions have been compounded in 2020 as the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is a great deal of progress that must be made in order to create a world where every person’s human rights are upheld – despite differences between us.

What can libraries do to help counteract these challenges that feed a climate of intolerance?

For UN International Day of Tolerance (16 November) let’s take a look at the role of libraries in countering intolerance, and discuss how library professionals can advocate for their role in building tolerance within individuals and communities.

Countering Intolerance: The UN’s Perspective

The UN outlines the following key areas for countering intolerance:

  • Laws: Governments are responsible for enforcing human rights laws, for banning and punishing hate crimes and discrimination and for ensuring equal access to dispute settlement.
  • Education: Laws are necessary but not sufficient for countering intolerance, greater emphasis needs to be placed on educating more and better.
  • Access to information: The most efficient way to limit the influence of hatemongers is to promote press freedom and press pluralism, in order to allow the public to differentiate between facts and opinions.
  • Individual awareness: Intolerance breeds intolerance. In order to fight intolerance individuals should become aware of the link between their behaviour and the vicious cycle of mistrust and violence in society.
  • Local solutions: When confronted with an escalation of intolerance around us, we must not wait for governments and institutions to act alone. We are all part of the solution.

Libraries are champions of access to information and life-long learning, as well as being community gathering places.

Therefore, if education and access to information can counter the fear of the “other” that drives intolerance, then we – the global library community – have a vital role to play.

Read on for some advocacy tips on how libraries can make a difference in several of these key areas.

Education

Over the past five years, there has been a troubling rise in xenophobic sentiment. Gallup’s 2020 update of its Migrant Acceptance Index found that the world has become less tolerant of migrants since the Index was launched in 2015.

As worrying as this trend is, it is important to remember that no one is born harbouring feelings of intolerance. This behaviour is learned, and therefore, it can be unlearned, or at least countered, through education.

In 2020, the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) reiterated results from their International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) carried out in 2016. These results show a positive correlation between the civic knowledge of young people and their level of tolerance towards immigrants in Europe [Source, page 1].

As young people with higher levels of civic knowledge tend to be more tolerant, the IEA urges policymakers and educators to strengthen efforts to provide learning opportunities that focus on building this understanding. Key competencies include the importance of ensuring equal rights for different groups in a democracy, as well the ability to identify potential threats to democracy [Source, page 8].

Although focussed on migrant acceptance, it follows that these lessons are also relevant in terms of marginalised groups within an existing population.

Advocacy point:

Libraries provide learning opportunities outside of the formal education system. They can build on the skills students learn in the classroom, enhancing them with a variety of materials, resources, and opportunities to engage with others in the learning process.

Libraries also provide lifelong learning opportunities – which can be a vital way to deliver civic knowledge to adults who may not have had access to these lessons in their schooling.

If education on civic participation and democratic society is essential for social cohesion, then library educators can help these learning opportunities reach people at all ages.

Access to Information

We live in an information society. On average, people have access to more information than at any other point of human civilization. However, the past years have seen a growing trend of “fake news”, conspiracy theories, distrust in the media, and a rise in disinformation campaigns that erode the foundations of democracy. Many of these campaigns gain power by capitalising on people’s fear of the “other”, deepening mistrust and intolerance.

In 2020, we have seen the impact that misinformation can have towards people’s health and livelihoods, and the dangerously powerful effect it has on public opinion. UNESCO has dubbed this the “disinfodemic”.

Beyond personal health choices, misinformation around the Coronavirus also has an impact on rising intolerance. For example, it has caused an increase of anti-Chinese sentiment [source] and hate-speech directed at Asian people [source]. This reflects trends of past health emergencies, such as the association of homophobic sentiment with the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s [source].

Accessing health information, as well as information about other cultures, beliefs, and world events is vital to a society that is equipped to handle the challenges of today. However, this access to information also comes with a responsibility to learn to navigate the current climate of misinformation that seeks to deepen societal divides.

UNESCO’s Media and Information Literacy Programme seeks to fight the trend of misinformation by helping communities engage with media in a ways that promotes equality, intercultural and interreligious dialogue, peace, and freedom of expression.

See the Five Laws of Media and Information Literacy for more background on UNESCO’s position.

Advocacy Point:

The importance of critical thinking in regard to the media we consume is more important than ever. A tolerant information society cannot be achieved without it.

Note Law #5 from UNESCO: “Media and information literacy is not acquired at once. It is a lived and dynamic experience and process.”

Libraries play a vital role not only in access to information, but in building media and information literacy skills. Libraries enable media and information literacy to be a lived experience for learners at all levels, providing tools, resources, and assistance in accessing information, thinking critically about sources, and using it ethically.

For more resources, start with the IFLA Media and Information Literacy Recommendations.

For countering Fake News, see IFLA’s How to Spot Fake News – COVID-19 Edition

Local Solutions

The UN stresses that every individual has a role to play in building tolerant societies.

Although complex, global issues can seem insurmountable, change begins at the local level. Libraries are welcoming public spaces – free of charge – that in some parts of the world, have seen a marked social turn, “changing focus from collections to connections” [source].

In this unique role in society, libraries can be on the front lines in promoting not just tolerance, but an appreciation for multiculturalism. The IFLA/UNESCO Multicultural Library Manifesto reiterates the role that libraries can have in promoting cultural and linguistic diversity at the international, national, and local levels.

IFLA has also stressed that racism has no place in the society libraries are working to build. Libraries reject discrimination and actively promote inclusion, working at all levels to provide everyone a meaningful opportunity to realise their rights to information, culture, information and science.

Advocacy Point:

IFLA has found that countries with more public and community librarians tend to have higher levels of social cohesion.  By crossing statistics from IFLA’s Library Map of the World with those from the OECD’s Society at a Glance 2016 publication, we can begin to visualize the role that libraries have in building social cohesion through general societal trust in one another.

Graph: libraries and tolerance

For more, see Library Stat of the Week #26: Countries with more public and community librarians tend to have higher levels of social cohesion

What can you do?

For librarians working at the local level, here are some ideas of steps you can take to help combat intolerance within your community.

  • Share resources on tolerance and anti-racism
  • Help raise awareness within your community on world events, discuss reasons for migration and immigration from a global perspective.
  • Ensure your collection features a wide variety of stories, and storytellers of different backgrounds
  • Offer programmes targeted at reducing inequalities in your community. See IFLA’s SDG Stories on Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities for inspiration.
  • Engage with local NGOs, citizen movements, and educational institutions to celebrate the diversity of communities and promote positive, inclusive discussion.
  • Enhance your library’s offering of media and information literacy resources. See this guide for low/no-cost ideas.

Do you have other ideas on how libraries can help their communities fight intolerance and build social cohesion? We’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts below.

Library Stat of the Week #42: Students from foreign language backgrounds rely more on libraries than their native-language peers

Over the past few weeks, our Library Stat of the Week posts have been looking at the degree to which students from different groups rely more or less on libraries.

We can gain insights into this from the results of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s  (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which in 2009 included a strong focus on libraries.

Today’s post looks at a further variable – whether students mainly speak a foreign language or the national language at home. In practical terms, in a country like the United Kingdom, we are looking at the difference in library use between children in English-speaking households, and, for example, Polish-speaking households.

This can have an impact on scores in reading and literacy, with young people with less exposure to national languages potentially struggling. Added to this is the fact that children of parents who do not speak the national language fluently cannot necessarily call on them for help with homework.

Graphs 1a and 1b therefore look at the difference in levels of library usage between these groups, expressed as the average score for students who come from households which mainly use a foreign language minus the average scores for students from households using the national language.

Graph 1a: Difference in Reading Index Scores Between Students who Speak a Foreign vs the National Language at HomeGraph 1b: Difference in Reading Index Scores Between Students who Speak a Foreign vs the National Language at Home

These demonstrate that on average, there is a gap of 0.24 points within the OECD, and 0.19 globally in favour of students from households using a foreign language, on an average that runs from -1 (no library use) to +1 (very intense library use).

The biggest gaps are seen in Hungary and the United Kingdom, although in total, 44 of the 55 for which data is available see students from foreign-language-speaking households making more use of libraries than those from national-language-speaking households.

Meanwhile, in only 10 countries do children from national-language households use libraries more than those from foreign-language households.

 

The data here appears to make a similar point to that made in previous posts in this mini-series – that young people who have characteristics often associated with disadvantage tend to use libraries more intensively than their peers.

Again, as before, the implication is that any moves that make access to libraries more difficult are likely to have a disproportionate impact on those who are already more at risk.

 

Find out more on the Library Map of the World, where you can download key library data in order to carry out your own analysis! See our other Library Stats of the Week! We are happy to share the data that supported this analysis on request.

Library Stat of the Week #39: Globally, 1st and 2nd generation immigrant students make more intensive use of libraries than their native peers

One of the most worrying aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences has been the deepening of the educational divide.

As highlighted in the Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers report, there is a significant risk that the closure of school buildings will increase inequalities. In effect, groups that previously faced risks of worse educational outcomes face an even higher risk now.

While it is difficult to gather statistics on what is happening already, we can at least look back at available data to understand what factors might contribute to combatting this inequality. This can provide a basis for planning for the recovery afterwards.

Fortunately, the dataset from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment (OECD PISA) 2009 offers insights here.

We have already been able, in previous posts, to note the connection between access to a library and enjoyment of reading, and library availability and literacy skills.

This post looks to understand the connections between library use and just one potential vector of inequality – immigrant status.

As part of its data collection, as well as measuring levels of literacy and asking questions about library use, PISA 2009 also asked if the 15-year olds involved were first or second generation immigrants, or ‘native’ (i.e. all others). This allows us then to look at how far immigrant children, and the children of immigrants, depend on libraries.

Graph 1a: Difference in Library Usage (1st Generation Immigrants minus Native)

Graph 1a looks at the situation for 1st generation immigrants, providing for each country a figure for the difference between immigrant and ‘native’ 15 year olds in terms of scores on the index of library use compiled by the OECD. This index is made up of figures related to how often students borrow books – for work or pleasure – or use the library in other ways, and runs from -1 to 1.

In the graph, a longer bar to the right indicates that 1st generation immigrant students use the library more intensively than natives. A bar to the left indicates that they use it less.

Overall, the conclusion is clear – in all but two countries, 15-year olds with a 1st generation immigrant background make much stronger use of libraries than native peers.

Graph 1b: Difference in Library Usage (1st Generation Immigrants minus Native)

Graph 1b replicates this analysis, but comparing 2nd generation immigrant students to ‘native’ students. While the effect is less strong, only 9 of the 43 countries for which data is available see 2nd generation immigrant students use libraries less than native students.

In both graphs, the United Kingdom and Norway share the top spots in terms of how much more immigrant students use libraries than natives.

These graphs also send a clear signal – libraries tend to be better used by students who can risk otherwise being left behind. It follows that any reduction in the possibility to use libraries is more likely to hurt students from immigrant backgrounds.

 

Graphs 1a and 1b allow us to look at individual countries. What about overall trends, for example when we compare these figures with how students perform in general on literacy, or how much native students use libraries?

Graph 2: Difference in Levels of Library Use (1st/2nd Generation Immigrants vs Native) Compared with Overall Reading Scores

Graph 2 looks at the first of these questions, comparing the difference in library usage between 1st/2nd generation immigrant students and native peers (horizontal axis) and average scores for literacy for the whole population (vertical axis). Each dot represents a country.

Overall, there appears to be a positive correlation, with higher gaps in levels of library usage between immigrants and natives leading to higher overall reading scores.

In reality though, it perhaps makes more sense to see the countries presenting as falling into two groups – one of higher performers (usually richer countries) in the top right, and a group of less developed ones in the cluster in the middle-left.

In each of these groups, there is in fact little correlation between differences in library use and overall reading scores.

The lesson from this is then that the value of libraries to immigrant students does not depend on how well a country is performing in general – libraries seem to matter in both cases.

Graph 3: Difference in Levels of Library Use (1st/2nd Generation Immigrants vs Native) Compared with Native Library Use

Graph 3 repeats this, but this time, the vertical axis looks at levels of library use among native students. Here, there is a more obvious correlation, with differences in library usage higher in situations where native students are using them less.

To some extent, this is logical – if natives use libraries less, and immigrants use them to the same extent, of course the gap will be higher.

In policy terms, however, the implication is that even where there is less use of libraries by native students, they continue to be important to immigrant students.

 

As highlighted last week, there appears to be a strong link in almost all countries surveyed between library use and scores in the literacy component of PISA.

This week’s statistics indicate that, in turn, 1st and 2nd generation immigrant students tend to be more intensive library users than their native peers. This connection tends to hold, regardless of the overall level of literacy in the population, and even when native students use libraries less.

While of course correlation cannot be taken for causality, the data here supports the argument that ensuring access to libraries will be an important part of any effort to close the education divide.

 

Find out more on the Library Map of the World, where you can download key library data in order to carry out your own analysis! See our other Library Stats of the Week! We are happy to share the data that supported this analysis on request.

A Vital Job at a Difficult Time: Libraries Supporting Teachers During COVID-19

The closure of schools as part of the response to COVID-19 has had major consequences that have not only been felt in the short-term, but that may continue to be felt well into the future.

Teachers have been obliged to change their way of working dramatically at short notice, going from in-person teaching to online. This has forced a rapid learning process which, however successful, has still left the frustration of not being able to interact with and support students in person.

In turn, while many are still able to continue to work from home, teachers have again been among the first to return to their jobs.

Of course, librarians in all library types involved in promoting education and learning, will share these feelings. Stories of shifting activities online, adapting and innovating using digital technologies, and overcoming challenges are common to both professions.

But the shared experiences are not just limited, in abstract terms, to the type of work being done. Collaborative working is also happening in reality, on the ground, with librarians working hard to support and complement the work of teachers, even in difficult times.

To mark World Teachers Day 2020, this blog highlights just some of the examples we have seen of support being given:

 

From Physical to Digital Materials: clearly one key form of support provided by librarians to teachers was access to materials both to support lessons, and to encourage wider reading (itself a key driver of literacy skills).

Even with libraries physically closed, this role has continued, for example at the Marisa Escola Social Santa Monica in Brazil, where the library engaged closely with teachers in their lesson planning to identify and provide access to appropriate materials. With so many materials available on the internet, help in finding the right ones has been strongly appreciated.

Similarly, the Portuguese School Libraries Network created consultation hours where teachers could approach school librarians in order to identify available materials for lessons. Meanwhile in Massachusetts, United States, school librarians joined teacher Zoom meetings in order to understand needs, as well as proactively reaching out to set out how they could help.

Other libraries have stepped up, with the National Library of Spain for example expanding and promoting its offer of curated materials to support education.

 

Continued Support for Literacy: another key way in which libraries support teachers is by helping develop the wider literacy skills that ensure that students can engage more effectively with other subjects on the curriculum. School and public libraries in Malaysia, for example, have used social media and other tools to advance the country’s wider programme for reading promotion, eNILAM.

School libraries have worked to make the most both of physical and digital collections, even under pandemic conditions. For example, Roosevelt Elementary School in Lakewood, OH, United States set up a ‘book-grab’ service based on a virtual school library, looking to give children as strong a sense of continuity as possible, alongside activities such as ‘battles of the books’.

Children have also, of course, benefitted from work in public libraries to maximise access to collections, develop online storytimes, and in particular, to deliver digital library cards thanks to agreements between schools and libraries.

 

Wider Skills Provision: libraries have also been working hard to realise their potential in providing after-school or other extra-curricular learning opportunities that complement what children learn in school. For example, in Portugal, libraries have coordinated with schools in order to run programmes that start soon after school hours, in order to keep children engaged and learning.

Arlington libraries, VA, USA have encouraged children to create ’quaranzines’ in order to express their creativity and share their experiences, while the National Library of Jamaica has developed programming focused on helping students towards their exams.

While activities such as summer reading challenges (in the northern hemisphere) have often not been possible in person, this has not stopped libraries running programmes online, with the National Library of France running events every week in coordination with the Ministries of Culture and Education. Meanwhile, in the US, libraries are finding new ways to run maker-spaces, teach STEM skills or promote information literacy and critical thinking.

 

These examples of course only scratch the surface. As such, they give just a tiny view of all that libraries can do – and are doing – to help teachers during extraordinary times. Across these, the value of close cooperation between teachers and librarians appears clear, both in order to ensure that teachers understand what libraries can offer, and librarians understand what teachers need.

As the world looks to imagine a future post-COVID, we can hope that a key part of this will be enhanced cooperation with libraries. As we have seen, when cooperation succeeds, students stand to benefit, reducing the risk of long-term negative impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.