Jumpstart -Bringing Books and Children Together - the role of librarians and teachers
A report
26 November 2009, Thursday (seminar)
27 November 2009, Friday (workshop)
Libraries are at the heart of the campaign to get children reading, and to keep them reading. This seminar & workshop was aimed at addressing specific concerns faced by librarians and teachers in today’s world.
With a participation of around 80 persons including school librarians, school principals, teachers, library networks, NGOs and children’s book publishers the seminar was very positively received. The one-day intensive workshop was specifically limited to school librarians and teachers. The 50 or so participants were split into 4 smaller groups and each group did 4 different sessions through the day.
Barbara Pitzer, Wolfgang Lanzinger, Hermann Pitzer and Stefanie Jörgl, from Buch.Zeit, Austria brought in their expertise from an organisation which has more than 60 years experience in promoting reading and speaking skills, reading techniques and interactive class room techniques for children and teenagers, providing material to librarians and consultancy services on reading techniques. Alongwith, John Dolan an independent consultant on library policy and strategy and former Head of Library Policy for England at the Museums Libraries and Archives Council. Complementing the perspectives provided by these international experts, we were very pleased that Mr Dhir Jhingran, Regional Director (Asia) of Room to Read, was part of our seminar panel on Day One.
John Dolan started the seminar with a presentation on the importance of advocacy: how the success of a library depends crucially on the librarian building links and relationships within the school, with the parents and children and becoming a central focus for the local community. His presentation included many useful online resources that are available to help librarians in India create and disseminate information about their work, and to provide helpful practical advice on how to promote and widen the scope of their activities. In particular he emphasised the fact that libraries need to integrate their book-based work with new technologies, that the two work not in competition but dovetail together, each enhancing the other.
John’s presentation was followed by Dhir Jhingran who talked about the strategies adopted by Room to Read in the many countries across the world, promoting literacy among less priveleged communities. Over the course of its nearly 10 year life, Room to Read has built partnerships with local communities throughout the developing world to provide quality educational opportunities by establishing libraries, creating local language children's literature, constructing schools, providing education to girls and establishing computer labs.
Buch.Zeit’s presentation, led by Barbara and Wolfgang, emphasised the importance of literacy and the development of language and reading skills, particularly in areas where there is a significant proportion of children from immigrant families, with diverse cultural backgrounds. They emphasised the importance of the family in creating a book-friendly environment, and how to make the school library not only the centre of the school but also a cultural centre by thinking creatively about how to organise the space, the book collections, and the activities that the library hosts. They also gave an inspiring presentation of the literary festival Leseutopia, which Buch.Zeit organises, and the other events and programmes in which it is involved.
The presentations were followed by a lively round of questions and feedback where we had the participants present the different projects they were involved in, in running their libraries and the challenges they face. We had one of the participants telling us how she conducts storytelling sessions with children in libraries and schools and she gave us a little performance accompanied by the manjira; another teacher asked how relevant a library would be in a few years time, given the advance of technology and the e-book. This lively session had to be wound up due to the lack of time, with closing words from Dr Ramesh Gaur, Head – Kala Nidhi Division, IGNCA. Being a librarian himself and actively involved in campaigning for libraries, he stressed the importance of libraries and librarians, and extended his support as a host and facilitator for any such future events.
The workshop was an intensive one-day affair starting at 9am and continuing till 6pm - an unusually long school day for our librarians! The lively group of Librarians were assembled together for an introductory session by the Austrian Cultural Forum and Max Mueller Bhavan, our partners in this series. They gave useful insights into possibilities for collaborations in the future for library and book projects. The Workshop leaders then introduced themselves briefly and the librarians were assigned to one of four groups, and each group was lead to their respective workshop rooms.
We had Barbara in one room presenting the Picturebook session. Before you knew it, it was back in the classroom and everyone was enjoying stories ranging in formats using pictures, shapes, sounds, puzzles and more and the session ended with everyone wanting more. Barbara very skilfully and simply weaved stories and magic using books in different ways all the time engaging children, holding their attention, helping them retain information and making them curious and wanting to know more.
Wolfgang’s session on Library design and furnishing was a solidly useful session. Giving examples of different libraries and furniture for varying age groups. Simple and practical solutions and at the same time fun and lively designs – using colors, cut-outs, graffiti, different coding etc. it was felt that everyone came out of this session with at least an idea or two to take home and realise in their own libraries.
Hermann and Stefanie together presented the ‘important role’ of a librarian in a school library; How to guide young readers and teachers to the right books and various activities that can be done. They presented examples of work done by Buch.Zeit.
John Dolan’s session was also geared towards practical ideas that the participants could use in their working lives to help build a case for their libraries and promote their work, both inside their institutions and in the wider community. He particularly stressed the fact that the Indian Government’s National Knowledge Commission was set up in order to help such initiative and strongly encouraged people to find out about it and exploit this excellent opportunity. John’s enthusiasm was totally infectious – and everyone came away from his session buzzing with ideas about how to make a real difference to the way their school libraries were run.
Each of the 4 groups attended all four sessions in between lunch break and walking through the corridors of the newly refurbished and wonderfully designed building or rather buildings, of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. At the end of the day we had a round up session with all the four groups coming together. Dr Ramesh Gaur, Head – Kala Nidhi Division, IGNCA and our host for the workshop very aptly gave the closing address with inspiring words encouraging all the librarians to come together and work towards the establishment and better conditions of libraries across public and private schools. He went on to say that if there were to be such an association – they would be very powerful by their sheer numbers and would be able to make a great change together. As with all the Jumpstart sessions this year, it was particularly nice for us as organisers to feel that we had provided a catalyst for future activities and had been able to provide people with a forum to build connections, professional and personal relationships, and come together with a strong sense of shared values and a common goal. Dr Gaur also offered the support of IGNCA in any project related to books and libraries. There was a big round of applause for the workshop leaders who were quite exhausted after repeating their 90 minute sessions 4 times each and quite ready to round up with a hot cuppa chai!
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