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2025, here we are! We are well and truly in the swing of term one and it feels like we have never been away! For those who are new to the profession or new to schools, welcome! The school library space is a wonderful, supportive and vital sector of the profession and ALIA Schools is here to support.
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ALIA Schools professional development is here to support you in your librarianship practice. Throughout the year we will be offering a number of webinars, focusing on evidence based research, best practice and hearing from creative and inspiring library professionals.
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What do you want?
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We want to provide the sector with the best professional development, resources and research access possible, but we can't do that unless we know what you want. Have your say here.
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and the newly launched school library specific template to build connection at your service and demonstrate the ethics and values held by information professionals.
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Get involve in the research!
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Researchers, Dr Kay Oddone and Dr Kasey Garrison from Charles Sturt University are studying the changing nature of information literacy as perceived by teacher librarians in Australian primary schools. As a member of ALIA Schools, they are interested in collecting your thoughts and experiences through an online survey questionnaire.
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The survey will take you about 15 minutes to complete. Apart from the last question which you may choose to omit, your answers will remain completely anonymous. Please click the link below for more information about the study including the link to consent and proceed to the survey at the bottom of the screen.
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SPOTLIGHT ON: MELISSAH LESTER, Librarian
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Tell us about yourself. How did you end up becoming a librarian in a school?
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I had always wanted to be a librarian and work in a library. I guess I dreamed as a child that the books would all be mine and I could use a stamp pad to stamp dates in the books! I had a previous career in marketing, events and tender writing and decided when I had my children that it was time to think about a new career.
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I started studying a Certificate in Cultural Studies, which was really interesting and required placement in a library so I reached out to my children's primary school and this placement was the start of my library career. I was hooked. I loved working with the teachers, staff and the students – it was everything that I had hoped for. The noise, the joy and watching students discover something that they loved to read, or learning how to study, and connecting with other students over books, it is really special.
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Tell us a bit about your role and what it looks like on a day-to-day basis?
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I currently work as a Librarian at Mount Alvernia College, a girls school, in Brisbane. I am an Alumni of my workplace and believe me when I say that I never thought that I would be working in my old high school library. Every day is different, times certainly have changed since I was here as a student, and the library (or iCentre as our space is called) is certainly not as quiet as it once was. It is now vibrant and full of learning and joy. I work closely with our Head of Department, as well as our amazing Library Assistant, and I provide research support to teachers and students. A lot of what I do is behind the scenes, and I relish the time that I get with students and teachers when working through the Research Guides we provide, out events, craft activities, one-on-one assessment help and referencing advice.
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What is one of the most successful programs/events you run in the Library?
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We are lucky as we have a very supportive school community. We have two events that are the highlight of our year, our International Women's Day High Tea and our Read with your Dad evening (open to Dads, Uncles, Grandads or anyone who is a Father figure in the student's life). One year we were lucky enough to successfully apply for a grant to secure our guest speaker for our IWD event, we booked and paid for Tarryn Brumfitt, the week before she was announced as Australian of the Year – how lucky! Our Read with your Dad event is a low key evening with an Australian author as our guest speaker, Dads and Daughters are provided with the author's book a few weeks before the event, they read the book (mostly!) and then on the night we have quizzes, eat pizza and listen to our guest speaker. It is one of the highlights to see Dads and their Daughters come along and spend some time together in the iCentre, and bond over a book.
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How do you promote the love of reading in your library and what are you reading at the moment?
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I run the iCentre Instagram page @icentremta with the aim that the page is a reflection of the iCentre itself. We promote new books, old books, book stories, students - #HumansofMtA – We often have lunch time themed campfires, we had a thriller campfire c for Halloween with hot chocolate, marshmallows and spooky stories. We also have a program called The Literacy Society under which we hold events like the IWD and Read with your Dad, book clubs, writing groups and we celebrate Literacy Week once a year which is our version of Book Week. I also try to keep up to date with new released. I am currently reading ‘Here One Moment’ By Liane Moriarty and listening to Slow Horses by Mick Herron (because I love the TV series).
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Are there any current issues or challenges facing your library and how are you working to overcome them?
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We always need more space, more tables and more chairs! It is a great problem to have really as we know that our iCentre spaces are all being used and students know that they have somewhere they can study, be with their friends, read, play cards, do some craft. We are always moving furniture around to try and create some extra study nooks, it’s a balance!
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I love libraries because…
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They are a space for everyone. I love libraries of every kind, school libraries, public libraries, old and new libraries. How lucky that we have a place that is open for everyone, provides resources to help you learn, relax, educate and on and on. I love libraries.
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Tell us a little bit about yourself.
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I am an author and illustrator currently based in Newcastle, NSW. I love all things weird and wonderful and enjoy painting realistic flora and fauna. I studied a Bachelor of Natural History Illustration and have published six books.
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When I’m not making books, you can find me playing with my dog Frankie (she’s an energetic 12 year old staffy), going for bush walks, listening to music, doing Muay Thai or practicing the guitar.
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How did you become an illustrator and or author?
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It was only natural that I became an illustrator, as I have been painting, drawing and creating since I was a little kid. When I was able to pick up a pencil, brush or any other mark making tool, I was always scribbling and drawing with it. While it most certainly wasn’t always good, it didn’t seem to matter as being ‘good’ wasn’t the point. I enjoyed the process. I carried on with that outlook throughout my life until I was in Year 12 and I found out about a degree called a Bachelor of Natural History Illustration and I completed this with Honours, learning so much about different techniques on a range of topics. I never stopped drawing or painting over those years and my skills improved enormously.
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The journey of my writing career however, was very unexpected. I was at the end of my third year of university and had entered some artworks into a scientific illustration competition held by the Australian Museum. One of the submitted artworks was a portrait of an Australian white ibis and it was accompanied by an artist statement discussing the reasons as to why we should appreciate the wonderful birds. I was ultimately awarded as a co-winner and my artwork and words were printed in the Sydney Morning Herald. It just so happened that the head of Children’s Publishing at Hachette Australia was reading the paper and saw my article. She quickly got in touch with me via my lecturer and asked whether I was interested in writing and illustrating a book based on my love of ugly animals. I was just a month shy of my 22nd birthday.
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What does your process look like?
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I do months of researching for each book, which comes before the art. I believe that with scientific illustration, the science is just as important as the illustration, so if one is lacking, the other will too. A lot of my initial research comes from the IUCN Red List website, which is a great database for learning the basics about almost any animal in the world. Other sources I visit for my information are National Geographic, Australian Geographic, Australian Museum, local
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The text drafts are then sent off to be edited and I begin the illustration side of things. I use graphite pencils to sketch my subject onto scrap paper and then use Winsor & Newton watercolour paints and Arches Hot Pressed 300gsm watercolour paper to make the final piece. With a mixture of wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry techniques, I am able to create depth and detail with each of my paintings.
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Who are your favourite illustrators and authors?
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I have loved authors and illustrators like Graeme Base and Shaun Tan since I was young. The Water Hole, The Lost Thing and Animalia were constantly on rotation in my house. Their books inspired me to love nature, unusual things and also showed me that it was possible to be both a writer and an artist, and that I didn’t have to choose just one.
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I also loved reading the books book stack before bed. I’d go from reading The Twits, to The Day My Bum Went Psycho, to graphic novels like Stitches. You can imagine the wild dreams I was having… As I got older, I fell in love with the writing styles of Patrick Ness and Michael Grant. Intense and incredible story-telling skills that truly take you to another place.
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How important do you think school libraries have in a student’s world?
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They are vital. It’s important to have a place for students to explore the world around them without having to actually go anywhere. They can pick up a book on any topic and learn something that they didn’t know of before, or be taken to another world to escape whatever troubles they might be facing. Libraries can also be a safe and quiet hide away for when the school yard doesn’t feel very welcoming. I also love seeing what librarians and teacher librarians have been doing with books in their curriculum. Their creativity and unique approaches allow for the readers to become immersed in the captivating stories behind each and every book on the shelf.
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