school libraries – Linking Learning

Quote some see empty space others see opportunity

School Library Professionals as Leaders: Using Leadership Theory to “Read the Room”

Posted on July 31, 2025July 31, 2025 by KayO

Part 2: Understanding Leadership Styles and Frames to Influence School Culture In the first post of this series, I explored how leadership is inherent in the role of the teacher librarian (TL) and school library professionals, even if it’s not always formally recognised. We discussed the value of building fluency in the language of leadership […]

School Library Professionals as Leaders: Practising Strategic Leadership

Posted on July 30, 2025July 31, 2025 by KayO

Part 3: Leading from Where You Are This is an update of my previous three leadership articles posted some years’ ago on this blog. In the first two posts of this series, we established that leadership is already embedded in the role of school library professionals, even though it is not always formally recognised and […]

One for the books: Schools need libraries too!

Posted on October 1, 2019 by KayO

If you travel in library circles, an article published across various Fairfax publications on the weekend has been doing the rounds in your social media this week. The ‘cleverly’ titled: One for the books: The unlikely renaissance of libraries in the digital age is just one of a number of library themed articles published recently, […]

School library collection development: It’s not as simple as you might think

Posted on August 19, 2019August 19, 2019 by KayO

This semester, I have been lecturing in the unit EUN617, Managing and Organising Collections as part of the Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) course at Queensland University of Technology. From the outside looking in, collection development seems pretty straight forward. Why would you need tertiary level study to understand how to buy books and resources […]

Don’t believe what you see – digging deeper for the truth

Posted on June 26, 2019July 3, 2019 by KayO

Feature image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay We live in a world that is mediated by technology. Every morning we wake up and check our phone for the latest news and updates from friends. We make a cup of coffee and sit down in front of a screen to catch up on our emails. We chill […]

Updated! #StudentsNeedSchoolLibraries

Posted on October 21, 2018September 16, 2022 by KayO

The research is undeniable. EVERY school needs a well resourced school library AND a qualified teacher-librarian! Go to https://studentsneedschoollibraries.org.au/for more info. This post was originally shared in April 2017, highlighting the research which demonstrates the essential role of school libraries and qualified library staff in enhancing student achievement. In September 2022, there is still (unbelievably!) […]

Password like its 1999

Posted on August 23, 2018May 3, 2023 by KayO

So yesterday it was revealed that over a thousand government employees in Western Australia are using Password123, and More than 12,000 accounts had passwords with variations of the date and season, such as October17 or Summer17; 6,827 had “123” somewhere in the password; and over 5,000 had different versions of the word “password”. It is […]

Advocacy! Print this poster and spread the word – we NEED school libraries and teacher librarians!

Posted on April 18, 2017July 3, 2019 by KayO

The research is undeniable. EVERY school needs a well resourced school library AND a qualified teacher-librarian! There are a lot of positive moves afoot to protect and promote our school libraries and teacher librarians. Check out the amazing support being provided by Leigh Hobbs, Australian Children’s Laureate, The role that a school library and a […]