Issue 115
Term 4 2020
School libraries transform
SLANZA believes that all school students in New Zealand, at every level of their education, should have access to effective school library services that will support their reading and learning.
School libraries across New Zealand are supporting a nationwide campaign to ensure that every child has access to a well-resourced library with a specialist librarian who can help them develop a lifelong love of reading. Many children in schools in Aotearoa do not have that right. SLANZA (School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa), which is leading this campaign, wants that to change.
Here are the SLANZA campaign's three core aims.
- Every child should have access to a school library that has a specialist librarian. This should be ring-fenced, funded by the Ministry of Education.
- They have heard of many stories of libraries in hallway cupboards, libraries where the space has been taken by a classroom, budgets that are frozen and while they understand the difficult situation Board of Trustees are in, they feel these stories need to change.
- The impact that a school library has on students’ learning, academic outcomes and their hauora must be highlighted, as reflected in the campaign’s title: School Libraries Transform.
SLANZA needs support for this campaign, so invites us all to visit its website schoollibrariestransform.org.nz to find out the practical things we can do as whanau, friends and supporters.
#schoollibrariestransform
