Durham Schools Big Book Bash Finale

The finale to the Durham Schools Big Book Bash was held on Tuesday 2nd July at Durham High School for Girls.

The day was a huge success and was enjoyed by students and staff.  It was great to welcome and work with popular children's author, Tom Palmer, who worked with students throughout the day.

Tom Palmer

Schools who participated in this years Big Book Bash were: Barnard Castle School, Belmont Community School, Darlington Education Village, Durham High School for Girls, Framwellgate School Durham, The Hermitage Academy, Park View and Wolsingham School & Community College.

Winning School - Barnard Castle

A team of students from Barnard Castle school were winners of this inauguaral event where students where given a reading list of ten books.  On the day students completed a carousel of activities from creating 3d image from a book extract, creating posters with no words, selecting props to illustrate each book from the reading list.  For each activity students gaine points.  In the afternoon students performed a range of presentions on an aspect of ther Big Book Bash.  We were entertained with some lively videos, drama and mime presentations.

3d image activity

One of the highlights of the day was having well-known author Tom Palmer with us.  Tom's book The Squad: Black Ops had been included on the reading list and it was great for all the students to have an opportunity of working with him.

Props activity

Thanks go to Seven Stories for providing family passes for each member of the winning team.  All students who took part all received goody bags.  Thanks go to Puffin, HarperCollins, Bloomsbury, Penguin, Gresswell, who provided us with stationery, posters, bookmarks and books.  All contributions helped to make the Big Book Bash a huge success.

Recommended Reads

Current favourite reads by LIDS group:

The Carnegie Shortlist is being enjoyed by everyone involved in the shadowing scheme, especially:

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle

The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan

Other reading recommendations away from the Carnegie Medal are:

Blame My Brain by Nicola Morgan

Far Rockaway by Charlie Fletcher

April LIDS Meeting

The latest LIDS meeting was hosted by Karen Fantarrow at Darlington Education Village. A smaller meeting than normal due to many librarians being busy with Year 11 students and meeting coursework deadlines.

Browns Books for Students eBooks
Donna Griffiths from Browns Books for Students (BBfS) gave a presentation about their ebook platform for schools.  Donna outlined how the system works, the costs and the on-going development of the service.  There are currently 175,000 ebooks available with the majority being non-fiction.  The platform is currently compatible with Moodle, Frog and some LMS.  Unfortunately books can not be downloaded onto Kindles.

Books can be purchased as a download (read only) or credits can be bought which allows multiple access and permits students to add notes and provide online access.  Once purchased, credits are renewed at no extra charge on a yearly basis.

For interested schools, BBfS are offering free 30 day trials and Donna is happy to provide extra information and visit schools to talk to other staff as necessary.

Big Book Bash
The final meeting for the Big Book bash will be Wednesday 26th June at Durham High School for Girls, starting at 2pm.  Could all schools participating in the Big Book Bash ensure to be at this meeting as all practical organisation matters for the final day will be finalised.

Durham Schools' Big Book Bash

Logo designed by Daniel at The Hermitage

Librarians in Durham Schools are working together on a new reading event - Durham Schools' Big Book Bash.

Aimed at Year 7 students, students read books from the Reading List, ready for a final reading event on 2nd July at Durham High School for Girls.

Full details of the Big Book Bash can be found on the website and also follow us on Twitter @DurhamBBB

Reading Buddies - book covers

A couple of afternoon registrations a week our library plays host to the 'Reading Buddies' - a scheme in which Y9/10 students are paired up with Y7/8 students who find reading a bit challenging.

We always have biscuits (of course!) and have a go at different activities every week - they've been looking at what makes a good book cover this week. Over previous sessions they've taken an online Christmas quiz, read out (and drawn) descriptions of pictures, interviewed each other and answered a questionnaire about their reading habits, among other things.

The aim of the 'Reading Buddies' is to develop the students' confidence and to hopefully improve their reading skills in a fun way.

Library Day in the Life Project: Round 8

The Library Day in the Life Project is coordinated by Bobbie Newman of Librarian by Day. The project is a great way for librarians around the world and across all sectors to talk about and share what they do all day. The project runs from 30th January to 5th February and librarians can blog, tweet, take photos and video of their jobs. To take part sign up on the wiki where there is further instructions on how to participate.

It would be great to see Durham schools represented.

School Librarian of the Year 2012

Nominations for the School Librarian of the Year 2012 will close on 13th January 2012.  Nomination forms were included with the Autumn issue of the School Librarian and are also available to be downloaded from the School Library Association website.

Please nominate a librarian who has outstanding qualities.  All school librarians in Durham do an outstanding job.