#66 CILIP CPD

CILIP are often accused of non-representation in the school library community. They take £17 off my pay every month, and I still can’t figure out why, other than the fact that I can continue to call myself ‘chartered’. My wife pays £30 a year for the same privilege as a teacher. Something doesn’t add up. I’m sure CILIP would disagree with my assessment, so their end of the stick can be found here.

However, they do have a couple of useful spots on their website, and they offer decent training events if you can afford to travel to London.

LISJobnet is certainly useful if you’re considering a move. Their specialist interest groups vary between the bland (2 shoddy leaflets a year) to the sublime (real support). I won’t name names to avoid litigation, or snippy emails.

Chartership, of course, is the main reason people join. More information here.

That’s as positive as I can get about CILIP. They used to do a useful salary guide for school librarians which seems to have disappeared. If anyone can point me to it, I’d be grateful.

Found it!

CILIP School Librarian Salary Guide

#65 Wall Space

There are several different ways of making use of your wall space, and none of them need to be terribly expensive.

You can display outcomes form any library competitions or activities. There is a double advantage here in that your customers will see their own work and it’s free!

Look out for CPD opportunities for training from specialist companies that show you how to use leaflets, ribbons and posters to best effect. This can be very impressive for little or no cost.

Try something different, like the link below that leads to a site that lets you create genuine looking US road signs that you could use for navigation, or just for fun.

Roadsigns Maker

You can find some more practical examples here.

#64 Staff Manual

For a lone librarian, this one might seem impossible. Where am I going to get the time to create a staff manual?

Also, it will only be of benefit to other people, won’t it?

Well, no. Not really. It’s a good CPD exercise for a librarian (or any other professional) to create a staff manual. It gives you a snapshot of what you’re actually doing and how you’re doing it. You may look at some procedures along the way, and decide that change is required.

It may also save your bacon if you’re off ill for any length of time, or anyone needs to take over your operation for any reason.

What kind of things should you look at? Here’s some suggestions:

University of Waterloo Library Manuals

School Library Handbook (Philidelphia, USA)

Handbook For High School Librarians

For Visually Impaired Users

#63 Curriculum

This one’s a no-brainer. If you’re going to support the curriculum, it makes sense to know what’s in it, and how it’s delivered. The first may seem easy enough, but many teachers are reluctant to share their teaching materials, even with their peers. Methods of delivery and pedagogy are easier; at government and regional level, huge efforts are made to publicise the curriculum and methods of delivery and assessment.

Talk to teachers (offering to create a link-bank is a good starting point), discuss what they deliver on a daily basis, ask how you can support and in what topics. Read the websites, look at the resource collections on the web, and get yourself installed in appropriate CPD events. Often, (surprisingly), you have to shove your way in, but it can be done. The links below relate to Scottish education.

Curriculum For Excellence

Learning Teaching Scotland

SCRAN

5-14 Curricular Areas