“Power to imagine better”

“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.

You must travel it by yourself.

It is not far. It is within reach.

Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere — on water and land.” — Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass.

Libraries are important cornerstones in the healthy community of young children, youth, and grown-ups at all proficient levels, making a tremendous commitment to support a reading culture and forming an informed society. 

Chapter during the pandemic.

 The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever. The educational delivery process distinctively changed and gave rise to e-learning on digital platforms. Libraries, which are about uniting individuals and considered a loved place of children, are now isolated, and thousands of books are lying untouched for months.

The custodian of the space, many school librarians were in the total shake to this change. Most libraries were not prepared for this transition. Many were wondering how to provide services remotely and make resources available to the stakeholders.

It is rightly stated, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Lao Tzu

Here comes the Liferarian Association in the picture, which strives to support librarians who desire to pursue contemporary strategies and ideas to stay current and relevant. They believe that reliable collaboration can empower the librarians to give better library services.
School librarians of the Liferarian Association met through Zoom meetings, and google meets to create meaningful engagement to impact student learning positively.
To further support all librarians, the core team assembled a substantial assortment of learning technology tools, incorporating new pedagogical practices to help students, teachers, and parents.

List of Accomplishments in 2020:

Resource Sharing

Sharing and learning together is the first venture in the sequence. The core team curated the resources on Padlet with assorted academic resources that were shared with the library community. The padlet includes essential agreements, IBO documents, resources to support academic integrity and copyright, PYP, MYP, DP resources, and many more. A dedicated tab was recently created to share job opportunities for unemployed or individuals looking for a change.

Professional Development 

To support the librarians in the group, the core team arranged Peer Learning Circles (PLC) and Online Meetings via Zoom and Google Meets.

During the PLC, groups of people with common interests came together to learn from each other. 

Every Saturday, the core team arranged Online Meetings at 5 pm to learn technology tools, bringing the librarians’ up to speed with the new virtual learning protocols.

Some PLC and Zoom Session were based on the following areas: 

• Integrating ATL 
• Learner Profiles
• Understanding students’ voices and choice.
• Collaboration and integrating into the units.
• Learning tech tools like Wakelet, Padlet, Edpuzzle.
• Understanding Copyright.
• Learning tools to curate e-resources for teachers and students.
• Restructuring Library Budgets
• Visible Thinking Routines
• And many more.

Blog Space

The Liferarian Association continues to provide a space for librarians to write and share their experiences and practices. The editorial team reaches out to novice writers and encourages them to contribute to the blog space. Thus empowering and building writers. Blog posts are published fortnightly, and the librarians learn through the posts. 

Virtual Liferarian Conference 2020

Each year, the Liferarian members meet, and a sponsored school hosts the librarians. However, this was not possible this year. The core team arranged a Virtual Conference with the theme: Role of Librarians in a Hybrid Learning Environment. 

 

 

Highlights of the Conference were :

• Keynote Speakers
• How to plan effective Library Lessons 
• Digital Citizenship
• Research for Elementary School Students
• Modelling Values in the Library
• Authors Presentations
• Panel Conversations
• And, many more

Each hour was filled with learning, sharing, and networking with Library Professionals from many countries. This conference is a feather in the cap because the Liferarian Core Team was able to meet the needs of over a thousand participants from all over the world.

Read Bloom Books: Children’s Voice – Choice – Freedom

 Read Bloom Books gives children a platform to share their thoughts and ideas. This platform provides a safe environment to create geniuses without any disparity in education class or background. Mini-reading and writing workshops are organized to support young learners when bound at home. 

Bloom Fest – It’s all about stories!  Is being organized to honor children’s writers and celebrate their work. This program is designed for children by children. The keynote speakers, panelists, and the moderators are all children. 

Outreach Program

The Outreach Program is another public-spirited initiative to support education. The pandemic has not stopped the determined liferarian members from reaching out to the rural school and ashram shalas. 

 For meeting literacy challenges, the Liferarians are trying to provide:

• Access to print and digital materials for these communities
• Promote and build knowledge and skills for librarians/educators/community helpers to promote reading, writing & research skills through a variety of projects when school reopens.

To help build Libraries, you may donate by clicking here. Your contributions are valuable; they will go towards building a community of readers.

Last but not least, Liferarians take pride in sharing fantastic news with the whole professional group of academicians on seeing themselves on the IB Community Blog.

IB published a blog featuring Liferarian achievements and initiatives the team has made during these unprecedented times and actively promoting the IB framework in the Pandemic. Click here to read the blog.

Future Plans:

Learning continues with the vision, new aspirations, and a bright future.

 

With this note, we wish you all a Happy New Year 2021.
May this year bring new satisfaction, new objectives, new accomplishments, and many new motivations in your life. We wish you a year completely stacked with joy. Wanting the entire new year to be loaded up with progress, bliss, and success for you. Happy New Year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work Cited List:

COVID-19 and the Global Library Field. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ifla.org/covid-19-and-libraries

Written by Cathy Li, Head of Media. “The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Changed Education Forever. This Is How.” World Economic Forum, www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning/.