Effective School Librarianship ― Successful Professional Practices from Librarians Around the World

This new book, Effective School Librarianship: Successful Professional Practices from Librarians around the World (2-volume set), provides a series of informative interviews with school/teacher librarians practicing in different parts of the world. It showcases the resilience, creativity and best practices from successful school librarians from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and North and South America. The librarians interviewed come from all different schools and schools systems, from a tiny recently built school library in rural villages in Africa to the modern cities in Sweden, showing learning environment in different geographical, national, and cultural contexts, etc.

Featuring 37 interviews with successful school librarians from across the globe, the volume lets us hear the stories from Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Nepal, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Nigeria, the Philippines, Serbia, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United States, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe, and many more. They tell about their creative and innovative school library projects, their unconventional reading programs, and their best practices and experiences in addressing the challenges of supporting basic literacy. A wide selection of methodologies and approaches are discussed, offering a global "voyage" through topics important in school librarianship. The 2-volume set also addresses recent advancements in information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the shift toward inquiry-based learning that impacts school libraries worldwide.

The school librarians’ best practices cover innovative ways to encourage students to (1) read voluntarily for pleasure and for information; (2) to gain basic information literacy skills for the navigation, evaluation and use of information; (3) and to develop competence as independent learners—a key factor for successful enquiry-based learning.

The books are jam-packed with information that can be used by school librarians, teachers, school administrators and others in a variety of ways. Readers can borrow best practices from the experiences presented in the book, and the volumes can also serve as a strong voice for the practicing school librarians and the profession, through expanding the opportunities for professional sharing in the international school librarian community.

Dr. Patrick Lo is currently serving as Associate Professor at the Faculty of Library, Information & Media Science at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. He has presented about 100 research papers and project reports focusing on librarianship, humanities, and education at different local and international workgroup meetings, seminars, conferences, etc., including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Turkey, United States, and Sweden, and at institutions including the Library of Congress (US), Austrian National Library (Vienna), University of Vienna, National Library of France (Paris), National Institute of Informatics (Japan), Konrad-Zuse-Centre for Information Technology (Berlin), etc. His research interests and areas of specialty include comparative studies in library and information science (LIS), art and design librarianship, and information literacy.

Dr. Lo’s recent publications on LIS include the books Conversations with the World’s Leading Opera and Orchestra Librarians and Preserving Local Documentary Heritage: Conversations with Special Library Managers and Archivists in Hong Kong. He is currently working on another interview book project titled Inside the World’s Major East Asian Collections: One Belt, One Road, and Beyond. This book will include interviews with East Asian librarian form the Vatican Library, State Library Berlin, Bavarian State Library, National Library of France, East Asian

Dr. Lo earned his Doctor of Education (EdD) from the University of Bristol (UK), and has a Master of Arts (MA) in Design Management from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a Master of Library & Information Science (MLIS) from McGill University (Canada), and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from Mount Allison University (Canada). He also took part in a one-year academic exchange at the University of Tubingen in Germany from 1990-91. He is proficient in Chinese (both Cantonese and Putonghua), English, and German.

Heather Rogers is currently a Master of Information Studies (MISt) candidate at McGill University focusing on librarianship and information literacy. Previously, she was an Assistant English Language Teacher for the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Programme in Fukushima, Japan, from 2013 to 2016. She graduated from The American University in Washington, DC with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in International Studies and Japanese.

Dickson K. W. Chiu, PhD, is now teaching at the University of Hong Kong and has also taught at several universities in Hong Kong. His research interest is in library and information management with a cross-disciplinary approach, involving workflows, software engineering, information technologies, management, security, and databases. The results have been widely published in over 200 papers in international journals and conference proceedings (most of them have been indexed by SCI, SCI-E, EI, and SSCI), including many practical master and undergraduate project results. He received a best paper award in the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences in 2004. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal on Systems and Service-Oriented Engineering. He also serves on the editorial boards of several international journals. He co-founded several international workshops and co-edited several journal special issues. He also served as a programme committee member for over 100 international conferences and workshops. He is a Senior Member of both the ACM and the IEEE, and a life member of the Hong Kong Computer Society.

Dr. Chiu received a BSc (Hons.) degree in computer studies from the University of Hong Kong and his MSc and PhD degrees in computer science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He started his own computer company while studying part-time.