A fantastic symposium held in Adelaide. Participants from a range of sectors were involved, the topics were just as diverse but all fascinating.
I presented my research from my U.S. and Canada trip; which I loved doing. It is always very affirming to share your research with professionals in your field. Looking forward to ALIA 2016 in Adelaide. Fingers crossed my abstract is accepted for presentation. I am very excited!!! I have been invited to co-present, with Tess Prendergast from UBC, at the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) National Institute (division of ALA) Conference next year in North Carolina. Our presentation is titled, Inclusion Means Everyone: Critical and Emerging Research about Inclusive Library Services for Children with Disabilities and Their Families.
In July I was able to attend the DOCAM 2015, the 12th annual meeting of the Internatinal Document Academy at University of Technology, Sydney.
The theme of the conference was Documents Unbounded. It was fascinating to learn about the challenges of understanding what consitutes as being data, documents, records, artefacts, evidence and memory. The changing landscape of new media and communications has much impact on this. Follwing on from this conference was the 2015 Research Applications in Information and Library Studies (RAILS) conference, als0 at University of Technology, Sydney. This conference focusses on informed and innovative research practice, and research-informed teaching practice. RAILS was a wonderful opportuntiy to present preliminary findings of my research into access to pubic libraires for children with special needs and their families. I was also given the opportunity to discuss my PhD during a Doctoral workshop and also through a poster presentation of my PhD. This was an excellent opprotunity to receive feedback on my research. I will load my poster presentation in the conference presentations of this blog. While on tour in the U.S. last year I attended a SNAILS (special needs and inclusive library services) meeting in Illinois. This is a fantastic network of over 40 public librairies in Illinois that support each other to provide programs and services to children with special needs and their families. While a the meeting a gave a brief overview of the South Australian public libraries and the program for children with special needs that is run at my library, Adelaide Hills Council. Following the meeting I was asked blog about my program for the SNAILS group. Here is the link to my blog entry on the SNAILS blog.
Library Lions: Storytime for Children with Special Needs I am currently looking for public librarians in Australia and New Zealand to undertake a survey on access to public libraries for children with special needs and their families. The level of experience you have with this topic is no barrier. For my study to be as informed as possible I am looking to find out information from librarians with all levels of experience wiht the topic (including none at all).
More information, including how to access the survey, is on the PhD Research page of this Blog (accessed ftom the side bar menu). Alternatively you can email me direct from the address on the right of this screen. Thank you. I recently attended and presented at the AUSLIB conference : Beyond the walls in Adelaide. The conference was focused on Public Libraries and Community. It was informative and inspiring - with speakers detailing the different ways that their library has engaged with the community beyond the library walls. It was also fascinating to hear from several speakers who desribed and outlined that the future for public libraries is 'Community'. A number of speakers also discussed that despite the hype about libraries being in decline and becoming irrelevant - public libraries are have in fact never been busier or more relevant.
My paper focussed on the Library Lions program (a literacy based progam for children with speical needs) at the Adelaide Hills Council as well as detailing the initial findings of my research in the U.S. and Canada. The paper will be published as part of the conference proceedings. Stirling, AdelaideWhat a wonderful journey and an amazing learning experience.
After being home a little over a week I have returned to work and routines. After three months of travel this is not an easy task. I am slowly trying to absorb and analyse everything I have seen, heard and learnt. Over 20 professionals particpated in my research interview and survey. This has given me lot of very useful data. Thank you to all those that were involved in some way with my reserach trip. I have greatly appreciated this once and in lifetime opportunity. Over the next few months I will be analysing data and writing reports and conference papers on my research. I will be posting some of these papers, so come back to my blog in a few months. My first conference paper will be presented at the Auslib conference in Adelaide in March 2015. The SNAILS group is based in Illinois and is made up of over 40 public libraries.
I was extremely fortunate that one of the quarterly meetings was held during my stay in Chicago. I was invited to attend and to present at the meeting. This was a wonderful opportunity to meet other librarians with an interest in programs and services for children with special needs. It was also great to see how well the group functioned, its role and how the members support each other. The afternoon was spent in training with a play therapist from an organisation that specialise in play with children who have special needs, Lekotek. Another beautiful and big Illinois Library, built in 2011.
Glenview Library run a Friendship Club for children who would like to make friends in a supported environment. Some of the activities in this inclusive program include: music, craft, adaptive karate etc. Teens interested in becoming involved are asked be either a Friendship Ambassador (for which training is provided) or a friend. This is a very successful inclusion program for Glenview. |
Jo KaedingChildren's Librarian and PhD student. Interested in library programs for children with special needs. You can follow me on Twitter :
@KaedingJo Archives
April 2017
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