Wednesday, February 1, 2017

JAW for library staff in KL in December -- a report back from GESS library officers

When we first heard about JAW 2016 @ISKL, we knew we it would be a great opportunity for us to meet people who shares the same profession as us but comes from a different country. We quickly signed up for the workshop and before we know, it was time for us to pack our bags for this trip.

To make it more enjoyable, we decided to bring our spouses along and did a road trip to Malacca and KL before attending the workshop. We got to experience the beautiful KL city and definitely enjoyed the makan there! Buffets after buffets, food trucks – we loved it!

We made our way to ISKL on the morning of 20th Dec 2016. The session started with the groups introducing themselves. The first presentation was on the topic of ‘Readers Advisory’ done by Azlin Library Assistant from ISKL followed by groups discussions on how ‘Readers Advisory’ are handled at the different schools. The different sources librarians use to provide book recommendations for our readers.  In between breaks and the different sessions we had throughout the day, participants were encouraged to try quizzes and participate in ice breaking games which promises great prizes for winners. One of the most interesting activity was the part where we had to guess the total no. of pages from a book tower that was on display! Both Rosnita and myself were happy to walk away as winners for two of the games – Unlock the Ring and Kahoot game.  Another good topic was on Weeding where we shared amongst ourselves some best practices used to give the book that got weeded another chance to ‘live’ and we discovered a few schools there donate their books to refugee centers.

It was enriching to learn from our friends there and we surely picked up some practices that we can apply back in GESS. We also had the opportunity to share our knowledge with the participants and we got to work in groups and everyone was given a chance to present their ideas through active group discussions. We discovered that in KL they also have something like the Red Dot Awards but it’s called Novel Knockout.  Some other topics covered at JAW was ‘how to handle student behaviors in school libraries’, weeding practices, library displays and also what I personally like best is the last topic for the day on how ISKL successfully implemented EzProxy in their school. It’s a one stop sign-on for all the databases that the school have subscribed for their school community.

Last but not least we want to thank ISLN for offering some sponsorship for our trip. It was a great learning experience for the both of us and we look forward to future JAWs!

-- submitted by German European School Singapore (GESS) Library Officers
  • Rosnita Mohamad
  • Sharifah Nooraiza

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