October was a very eventful month here at Shawlands Academy Library. Catch up with our highlights or keep scrolling to find out more info!
National Poetry Day: National Poetry Day – an annual UK-wide celebration of poetry now on its 25th year. This year’s theme is ‘Truth’. We’ve handed out FREE official National Poetry Day postcards. As it’s the UNESCO Year of Indigenous Languages, the featured ‘truth’ poems are written in Manx, Cornish, Welsh, Scots, and Gaelic alongside their English translations.
Black History Month: Black History Month is observed in the UK during October to celebrate the achievements of African and Caribbean people at home and abroad. It is an opportunity to honour those who fought for equality and civil rights against racism, discrimination, and colonialism as well as to highlight the societal contributions of black individuals and communities. Black History Month works to ensure that Black History is included in History and recognised in mainstream education throughout the year.
For Libraries, BHM is another opportunity to spotlight and promote some fantastic literary talent and books. Shawlands Academy helped support BHM by facilitating pupil-led information sessions and activities throughout October including BHM presentations by S4 pupils, a bake sale, and a pupil curated display in the library. The students involved created beautiful posters to be used for the display and throughout the school. Books were selected by the students. Click here for a full list of BHM + Beyond books available in the Library. Black History Month and Beyond 2019 Reading Lists
Shelf Help in the Library: October is Mental Health Month and World Mental Health Day is celebrated on the 10th to raise awareness, education, and advocacy against the social stigmas attached to mental health matters. To coincide with these observances, the Library has launched a new non-fiction collection relating to mental health and welling as well as books about physical health topics. With a reported 1 in 8 children having a diagnosable mental disorder (NHS, 2017) as well as a significant increase in the number of specialist referrals (22% between 2013/2014 to 2017/2018) (Audit Scotland, 2018), it is vital that Young People have access to relevant information.
The School Library can play a role by providing reliable literature to pupils. This year, we are promoting the Reading Agency’s Shelf Help and Reading Well Books on Prescription programme who supply a list of reliable, well-researched mental health literature endorsed and/or written by experts. We have invested part of our budget to purchase the remainder of the titles from the list that will be arriving later on in the year.
The Shelf Help and Books on Prescription Fiction titles are found in the Fiction section.
For a more detailed list of mental health-related literature available in the section as well as a wider range of fiction dealing with mental health topics and/or containing characters experiencing mental health issues, click here: Mental Health Book List. For more information about the Reading Well with Books on Prescription titles, click here. Many of these titles are also available from the Community Libraries and can be reserved on the catalogue
Find more mental health information for Young People on the following websites:
Glasgow Association for Mental Health, Mentalhealth.org.uk, Mental Health Network Greater Glasgow, SAMH , See Me Scotland, Scottish Children’s Services Coalition, Support in Mind, Young Minds
Sources:
Audit Scotland (2018) Children and young people’s mental health
NHS Digital (2017) Mental health of children and young people in England, 2017
Scottish Government (2018) Children and young people’s mental health taskforce: delivery plan
Author Visit: Shawlands Academy Library has invited author, poet, and Bafta-winning scriptwriter Michael Lee Richardson to deliver a series of poetry workshops to the school’s LGBT+ group as part of a project between Hillhead and Smithycroft secondary schools as part of the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) school library improvement funding. Michael introduced himself and his work to the group and very generously donated copies of Proud, compiled by Juno Dawson, which features one of his short stories.
Our first exercise involved Michael displaying a lemon, three stones, a pair of plastic hands, and a Pride flag along a table. Unbeknownst to the group, each item represented an emotion. Pupils were instructed to write descriptive words about the objects relating to senses. The result…..
JOY (Lemon)
Joy is softish and round with no smell. Joy looks like a lemon, yellow, tastes sour, feels lumpy, and smells questionable. Joy tastes of acid and citrus, and joy smells fresh. Joy is round with a bumpy texture, smells very potent. Joy is a luminous yellow baseball-like plant with a soft nip surrounding the Satanic, squishy, radioactive emblem stood there with a grace like 1,000 red angels.
ENVY (Stones)
Envy feels cold, it has nice colours and interesting shapes. It smells like absolutely nothing. Envy is hard, round, flat and shiny. Envy is disformed shapes smooth but gritty. Envy is vinegary, cold and smells like salt. Envy makes the sound, ‘thunk!’ Envy is calming seabed quartz it lights up the room with a relaxing aura.
FEAR (Plastic hands)
Fear smells like rubber feels like rubber it has a cool shape and details. Fear is squishy, rubbery, and creepy. Fear wouldn’t really make a noise. Fear is a smooth plastic baby hand.
LOVE (Pride flag)
Love is a flag. Love is colourful it feels like fabric and smells like Skittles. Love is plastic and smooth. and smells like air.
Instagram: Some of the School Librarians are using the Glasgow Life School Libraries Instagram account to highlight some of the work they do. Over the course of the week, I’ve been asked to show what we get up to over my two schools: Shawlands Academy and St. Margaret Mary’s Secondary School.
Hurricane Book Club: The Library is one of three participating Glasgow secondary schools piloting a Young Adult version of Hurricane Book Group. Hurricane Book Group was originally started as an adult book group in Orkney Libraries that gave an opportunity for readers to connect with each other remotely and chat with the author online. This term we’re reading the 2019 Branford Boase award-winning book I am Thunder by Muhammad Khan which questions how far you will go to stand up for what you believe in.
“Fifteen-year-old Muzna Saleem is used to being invisible. So no one is more surprised than her when Arif Malik, the hottest boy in school, takes a sudden interest. But Arif is hiding a terrible secret and, as they begin to follow a dark path, Muzna faces an impossible choice: keep quiet and betray her beliefs, or speak out and betray her heart”.
Our first meeting was a chance to discuss our thoughts on the book so far and come up with questions to submit to the author for when we meet again in November and chat with Muhanmmad on Twitter. Pupils engaged in lively conversation and debate about the themes and the book and how they apply to our everyday lives.
October marks Black History Month in the UK, which gives us many opportunities to celebrate the rich contributions and achievements of Black individuals throughout history.
September was a 
