Students Need School Libraries

Parents, grandparents, friends are invited to join classes in a whole school read-in. Small groups scattered around the school - the school library can supply books for loan to the groups or students bring their own. Tip: Hold it straight after the Book Week parade as parents are already at school.

Many schools don’t require students to present a card to borrow books. Either as an activity during a library session, or as a school-wide competition to raise awareness of Australian School Libraries’ Day, invite students to design a school library card.

Students can write, draw or build what their dream school library would look like. What would the furniture look like? What technology or other resources could be included? Which authors/illustrators would they want to come visit?

Set up a display in the school foyer where staff, students and families can add to a wall outlining why they love their school library.  Share selections in the school’s newsletter or social media.

Kids love to hear stories of the past, particularly stories from their parent’s childhood. Invite a few parents (or grandparents) to come in and share about their childhood school library, explaining why it was special. 

Students design a poster that promotes their school library: what they love about it; why their school library is important to them.

Share images or stories to show what has been, what is, what could be for your school library.

Invite groups of students to create a book display for the library related to the CBCA theme.

In the lead-up to Australian School Library Day, you can build anticipation and awareness by running a campaign to find a student(s) who could shadow the teacher librarian or one of the library team members on the day.  Then they can share a PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting) about the experience.

Ask your community to help create a list of the top ten things the school library does. Hold voting to choose the ranking.

Display of drawing or pieces of writing from students, parents, teachers, staff about what they learned in their school library.