There’s a new Librarian in town!

Blue dragon wearing glasses and holding book, sitting on top of pile of books. Text: In a world of bookworms be a book dragon,

Artist: Katie Tholke

I’ve been spending the first few weeks here at St Margaret Mary’s and St Oswald’s getting to know the Library and the school. With all the S1 inductions complete, I can properly introduce myself here on the Library blog!

My name’s Kathleen O’Neill, and I’m in the Library on Mondays and Tuesdays, from 8.45am to 4pm. You can visit the Library at interval and lunchtime, but please have your snack/lunch before or after your visit. Pupils in S1, S2, and S3 will also have regular opportunities to visit the Library during English classes.

A little about me – when I’m not here, I’m at Lourdes Secondary in Cardonald, but you can always send me an email at gw16oneilkathleenmar@glow.sch.uk. I am owned by three cats. My favourite book genre is fantasy fiction, including books like The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien, the Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, The Princess Bride by William Goldman, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. My all-time favourite book is Possession by A. S. Byatt, which is about two university lecturers researching two Victorian writers, and solving the mystery of the relationship between these writers. It goes from university libraries to the wild coastline of Brittany in France, going back and forward in time, with lots of fairy tales, poems, romance, and Celtic mythology all coming together. I started playing the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons about 6 years ago, and over the years have tried out other RPGs as well. If you are a Stranger Things fan, you’ll almost certainly know about D&D. Basically, you make a character – you could be an elf, a goblin, a wizard, a warrior – and go on adventures with other characters made by your friends. The decisions you make decide what your group’s story will be. Since I started playing, I’ve been a druid, a cat wizard, a medium in 1920s America. I’ve been killed by vampires, and I’ve flown on a griffon. Since October 2019, I’ve been running a very popular Role-Playing Games at Lourdes.

You can follow the Library on Twitter. If you would like to create something – a book review, a story, a poem, some art – for the Glasgow School Libraries magazine Swatch, please let me know. Here are some previous issues: Autumn 2022 and Summer 2022. You could also share your creations through this blog.

Artist: Munashichi

The most important thing that you need to know about the Library is that it is your space. It’s full of books that you like to read, and you can help me with the book shopping list by giving me your suggestions and recommendations. It’s a place to visit with your friends to just sit and chat, to do your homework, to make new friends, to get some quiet time. If you would like to volunteer to help out in the Library, come along and we’ll chat about your ideas. If you have an idea for a club, a celebration, an event, a book display, I can’t wait to hear all about it.

Looking forward to seeing you in the Library soon!

Kathleen (Librarian/Book Dragon)

October 2022 Roundup – Shawlands Academy School Library

With the mid-term break sandwiched between the beginning and end of the month, October felt like it was over before it started! We still managed to squeeze in some great activities over the last few weeks, so read on to see what we’ve been up to.

Schools of Literature: Our group has finished reading Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu by Maisie Chan and are currently finalising our paper lampshade disco balls that tie in with the book. Our Tweet was liked and shared by Maisie Chan who absolutely loved the activity!

Crafternoons: Pupils participated in our Black Out Poetry crafternoon event to celebrate National Poetry Dlay. We used pages from 1984 by George Orwell (this was a faulty copy with missing pages!) to create some amazing poetry. Most pupils were not aware of blackout poetry so found und the event fun and education, and English teachers participated too. The blackout potery was then displayed in the Library.

Literature Trails: The School Library is working with our Values Ambassadors to create monthly literature trails around school. We select 10 books on a theme and create informational posters about each book that teachers display in their classroom windows. This month we promoted Black History Month and chose a wonderful selection of titles which include:

Becoming: Adapted for Young Readers by Michelle Obama
Black and British by David Olusoga
Young, Gifted and Black: Meet 52 Black heroes from Past and Present by Jamia Wilson
Musical Truth: A Musical History of Modern Black Britain in 28 Songs by Jeffrey Boakye
Windrush Child by Benjamin Zephaniah
Onyeke and the Academy of the Sun by Tola Okogwu
The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta
Black Artists Shaping the World by Sharna Jackson
Superheroes: Inspiring Stories of Secret Strength by Sophia Thakur, illustrated by Denzell Dankwah
Timelines from Black History: Leaders, Legends, Legacies by Mireille Harper and DK Publishing

Pupil Library Collective: Our Pupil Library Collective is officially underway! Teams have been set up, roles have been established, and tasks have been delegated. We are currently working together on ideas for the design of the bulletin board outside the library, themed book lists to feature in the school library newsletter, and activities being planned for Book Week Scotland in November.

eResource Workshops: The School Libraries’ eResource Workshops have started back up just in time for upcoming study leave. The workshops connect pupils with valuable online resources available from Glasgow Libraries and other scholarly and authoritative information and are tailored to the subject and year group.

Publications: Pupils can submit book reviews, art, poetry, or short stories to be published in either the monthly School Library newsletter or the quarterly School Libraries’ eMagazine, Swatch. Access the current and previous issues of Swatch through these links: Autumn 22 Summer 22, Spring 22, Winter 21, Autumn 21, Summer 21, Spring 21, Winter 20, Autumn 20

Trending: October Booklists

Best New Children’s Books – Topptsa

Bookbug’s Book of the Month – Scottish Book Trust

Books of the Month – Love Reading For Kids

Books of the Month – Scholastic

Books of the Month – Waterstones

Children’s Books Roundup – Guardian

Trending Books – Epic Reads

Literary and Cultural Events – November

2^nd-5^th: Faclan: The Hebridean Book Festival | An Lanntair Stornoway (Stornoway, Scotland)

3^rd-6^th: Push the Boat Out: Edinburgh’s International Poetry Festival (Edinburgh, Scotland)

11^th-13^th: A Write Highland Hoolie! Mallaig’s Book Festival (Mallaig, Scotland)

13^th: Robert Louis Stevenson Day (Edinburgh, Scotland)

14^th-20^th: Book Week Scotland

24^th-27^th: Hay Festival Winter Weekend (Hayon-Wye, Wales)

26^th-27^th: Cove and Kilcreggan Book Festival (Argyll & Bute, Scotland)

Literary Awards & Prizes

Winners:

The Booker Prize

Books Are My Bag Reader Choice Awards

Diverse Book Awards

Information Book Award

Little Rebel Awards

Na Duaisean Litreachais | Gaelic Literature Awards

The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction

Book Buzz

November updates!

Leave a reply

Welcome back to the Gaelic School blog!

We have had a lot on recently, with more to come in the coming months. Check back here for news on author visits, Book week Scotland and other library-related news.

Storytelling for Mental Health

We are finally underway with our Storytelling group! Over the course of the school year, our group will be engaging in various storytelling-related activities including games, crafts, reading and much much more. Aside from mental health, a key theme of the group is ‘diversity’. We will be giving updates on what the group have been up to here, so don’t miss it!

For our first session, we got everyone to pair off, tell each other an amusing or interesting story about themselves and the other had to re-tell it but be…economical with the truth. It was a lot of fun and we had some excellent stories. As with every session, we get the pupils to describe how they are feeling in one word at the start and end by scanning a QR code (pictured) and entering it into a linked form.

Book Tok display

Introducing our new permanent display: Book Tok! Come down and find some of the top trending books and authors.

All Saints -Chessnuts, New Books, Black History Month, Book Club

Leave a reply

A busy few weeks in All Saints Library!

The Chessnuts Chess Club has started on Mondays at lunchtime. We’ve had a great turn out of players, some new to the game and some improving their skills and helping out the others.

We received lots of new fiction and non-fiction stock as well. A packed New Books display.

We are celebrating Black History Month with our 3 displays of amazing titles.

Our senior helpers Amber and Reagan have been hard at work; categorising books by genre, putting up our Halloween display and starting our new lunchtime book club on Tuesdays (with Amanda).

Lochend – Comics, Lattes, Black History Month and LGBTQI+ Safe Space

Leave a reply

It’s been a busy few weeks here in Lochend Library.

We had a visit from the wonderful Neil Slorance who inspired our S2 class to create their own comic characters. This was part of our EAL Reading Group Project which was supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund.

We are celebrating Black History Month with our displays of non-fiction and fiction. Come and check them out.

The LGBTQI+ safe space is taking place in the library at lunchtime on Fridays. Pop along if you fancy a chat in a welcoming space 🙂

And finally, a big thanks to our senior barista students, Nadine and Aiden, for the two free iced lattes. Delicious!

Photos below:

The epic Birth of the D&D club @St Mungo’s library

Leave a reply

This year I have decided to open a D&D club in the library even if I have no clue what am I doing! I’m a beginner player, never DM…and still don’t get most of the rules ^^

Well despite this very unreliable experience, I just decided to pick a date and time and promoted it during the library inductions for S1, because why not! Fool of me! A COHORT of excited pupils has answered the call (thank you Stranger things!)

So I found players (too many –“) now I just had to figure out how to DM, in like a week. I was doomed…But my lucky star decided to send me on my path, some help. A member of the staff offered her help to DM!! And another one gave me 20 dice or so for FREE along with some free D&D books!

(Yes I have a pretty amazing lucky star and no I will not exchange her for anything. Lucky stars are individual and meant to be cherished.)

I was finally ready to launch the first D&D club in St Mungo’s!

And because lucky star magic is never too much, she sent me a pupil who wanted to DM!! I have now two D&D groups in the library: one DM by a pupil and another one conducted by a member of the staff and myself for beginners.

Every Friday at lunch, I close the library for epic and fun adventures created by pupils.

In the meantime, I try to learn on my own and take every piece of advice from librarian colleagues and players:

Last Friday, I participated to "Starting D&D in your library" webinar by @lucasjmaxwell just to pretend I know what am I doing 😅#dnd #library #club pic.twitter.com/T0dL31g1j2

— St Mungo's Academy library (@stmungo_library) September 26, 2022

Author Interview

Leave a reply

We are super proud of Eastbank Academy S2-S4 pupils who interviewed Michael Lee Richardson, the school’s Author in Residence, for the Autumn issue of Swatch magazine. You can read the interview below or browse the magazine here.

September 2022 Roundup – Shawlands Academy School Library

The School Library is back and busier than ever! We have a busy itinerary of events planned for this year, so watch this space for more information. Read more to see what we’ve been up to this month:

Inductions: We’ve really enjoyed meeting all the S1s and new pupils as well as reconnecting with the rest of our school community. Over the past few weeks, the School Librarian has been delivering Library and separate Libby inductions to our S1 English classes. Find out more about Libby and the Glasgow Libraries eOffer on the Glasgow Libraries’ website.

Schools of Literature: This year, the School Library is involved with the Schools of programme with a special class on Literature. Our group will read a themed book per month and tie it into crafts and other literacy-based activities. This month we’re reading Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu by the wonderful Glasgow-based author, Maisie Chan. We’ve also been making some top secret treats for our upcoming Pop Up Library stall for International School Library Month in October.

Comics Book Group: We’ve launched a very special book group in collaboration with our wonderful Support for Learning department focusing on comics and video games. Each Friday, our students read Gamish: A Graphic History of Gaming by Edward Ross where we discuss past, present and future of video games and gaming culture. Learn more about the importance of video games literacy in the report from the National Literacy Trust: Video games and literacy | National Literacy Trust

Literature Trails: The School Library is working with our Values Ambassadors to create monthly literature trails around school. We select 10 books on a theme and crate informational posters about each book for teachers to display in their classroom windows. This month we chose to promote East and South East Asian Heritage Month and chose a wonderful selection of titles which include:

Hanna Alkaf – The Girl and the Ghost

Maisie Chan – Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths

Sue Pickford aka Sue Cheung – Chinglish

Candy Gourlay– Tall Story

Jenny Han – To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

Haruki Murakami – Kafka on the Shore

Banana Yoshimoto – Kitchen

Viet Thanh Nguyen – The Sympathiser

Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go

David Yoon – Frankly in Love

Pupil Library Collective: With the overwhelming success of the Pupil Library Committee this year, we’ve expanded our program to continue our journey towards embedding a pupil voice into the Library. Pupils will help select stock, create and deliver events, curate displays and booklists, and help with general light duties in the Library. We’ll be hosting inductions early next month and can be useful for those working towards either their saltire awards, Duke of Edinburgh or simply for work experience.

Popular Sections: Pupils are loving our new sections and layout too. So far, our most popular sections include:

#Trending on BookTok: A one stop shop for trending titles on TikTok. If you’re not familiar with the subcommunity on TikTok, we recommend learning more by reading these articles: Wikipedia, The Rise of BookTok by Alison Flood, Guardian

Thrills & Chills: As ever, our Thrills & Chills section remains one of the most popular sections with our pupils. Here, there can find the best Thrillers, Crime, Espionage & Detective, and Horror books including: Friday Nights and Freddy’s, Murder Most Unladylike, Alex Rider, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

Graphic Novels & Comics: Our growing collection of new and modern classic comics and graphic novels, including: DC and Marvel universes, Lumberjanes, Adventure Time, Tillie Walden, Raina Telgemeier, Dog Man

Equality & Empowerment: This section blends fiction and nonfiction books together with the theme of human rights and empowering ourselves and others to promote positive, inclusive change. Highlighted titles include: Dear Martin by Nic Stone, Melissa by Alex Gino, I Will Not Be Erased edited by gal-dem, Amazing Muslims Who Changed the World by Burhana Islam, illustrated by Nabi H. Ali, Reya Ahmed, Saffa Khan, Aaliya Jaleel, Deema Alawa, Aghnia Mardiyah, I Am Not A Label: 34 Disabled Artists, Thinkers, Athletes and Activists from Past and Present by Cerrie Burnell, illustrated by Lauren Mark Baldo.

Slice of Life: Is this real life, or is it fantasy? (FIY, it’s real life). Fans of romance and realistic fiction love this bigger and better than ever section filled with books by top authors such as Holly Bourne, SK Ali, Alice Oseman, Simon James Green, Jenny Han, and Camryn Garrett.

Trending: September Booklists

Best New Children’s Books – Topptsa

Bookbug’s Book of the Month – Scottish Book Trust

Books of the Month – Love Reading For Kids

Books of the Month – Scholastic

Books of the Month – Waterstones

Children’s Books Roundup – Guardian

Trending Books – Epic Reads

Literary and Cultural Events – October

1^st – 2^nd: The Words of war Book Festival (Perth, Scotland)

3-9^th: Libraries Week (Scotland)

6^th-8^th: Ness Book Fest (Inverness, Scotland)

7^th-16^th: Cheltenham Literature Festival (Cheltenham, England)

8^th-9^th: Bookmark Book Festival (Blairgowrie, Scotland)

13^th– 16^th: Berwick Literary Festival (Northumberland)

14^th-31^st: Scottish International Storytelling Festival (Edinburgh, Scotland)

20^th-30^th: London Literature Festival (London, England)

27^th-30^th: Orkney Storytelling Festival (Orkney, Scotland)

29^th– Nov 6^th: Petworth Festival (West Sussex, England)

Literary Awards & Prizes

Winners: YA Book Prize, Klaus Flugge Prize

Shortlist: Booker Prize

Book Buzz

Summer reading competition

Leave a reply

Over the summer pupils were encouraged to read for pleasure by completing a reading bingo challenge!

Summer Reading Bingo.png

They had to click pictures as evidence and submit them to the library to have a chance to win.

And this year’s winners are…

Congratulations to both of them!

Picture evidence as a bonus+, taken for “Read to a pet” challenge:

Back to school, welcoming our new Ukrainian friends!

Leave a reply

Welcome to our school!

St Mungo’s Academy, like many schools in Glasgow, has welcomed new pupils from Ukraine this year.

To help our newcomers to settle in our school the library was part of a “welcome committee”. On the first day, we welcomed the pupils and their families for a morning coffee chat in the library so they can begin to be familiar with the school and meet key staff. We talked about the education system here in the UK and at St Mungo’s, gave them their uniform, and offered them a wee tour of the school along with their new timetable.

For the occasion, the library helpers and S6 pupils got ready a beautiful welcome banner:

Later on, the whole school displayed visible symbols of welcome around the school site.

The induction period

The first week their timetable was specially designed to know them, their interest, strength, and talent as well as their English level but most of all it was about nurturing, budding, and befriending.

So we had a lot of ice breaker activities in the library along with music, dance, math, and literacy (classroom language essentials, keywords…) fun classes.

After this week, they were confident enough to join the mainstream classes.

A few days after something happened in the library during lunch break: pupils were downloading apps to better communicate with their new Ukrainian classmates.

I wish our newcomers success, to make new friends, and to enjoy their journey in St Mungo’s Academy.