International Libraries Week 2019...Read All About This Idea & How You Can Get Involved!

Here in the United States, we just finished an amazing School Library Month sponsored by the American Association of School Librarians.  As we celebrated, connected and shared, our school librarian friends in other parts of the world have been cooking up a special event of their own. 

When my friend Danny Glasner, who will be a school librarian in Thailand very soon, reached out to me last week to share his ideas, I was so excited and couldn't wait to share these ideas with all in hopes that other international school librarians would want to get involved and participate too. 

This is what Danny had to say....

Shannon, It would be great if you could help share this out. Asia is extremely well represented already, and we're working on bringing on more from Europe, Africa, South Pacific, N. and S. America.

We’re looking to start an international version of school libraries week in 2019, focusing on UN SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals)

So, the idea arose when we noticed that the US has a national libraries week. Why not an international one too? So a few TL's began a discussion and Nadine Bailey of Canadian International School in Singapore (and soon to be at Western Academy of Beijing) suggested the date as it coincides with UN world book and copyright day which is April 23, and we can focus on UN Sustainable Development Goals. We have a year to brainstorm and execute innovative ideas, with lots of student voice student-initiated action. We're using Evernote because it's a good storage tool, it now has a chat engine, and it's not blocked in China.

This is an opportunity for librarians to “lead from the middle”. We’re looking to innovate. First we’ll brainstorm ways of collaborating, ways of connecting people and ideas. Then librarians will promote and support the programs that students in the school have chosen (scaffolded by age/ability) to take initiative and action upon. How it manifests in each school is up to them, based on their context. At it’s core, this program is about collaborative student action around UN SDG’s.

If you would like to get involved, please reach out to Danny at danny.glasner@uwcthailand.ac.th He will be able to answer questions and will love hearing from any of you interested in International Libraries Week too.  

I can't wait to see what happens and to celebrate here in the United States with my international school librarian friends too.