The Creative School Library: Building Hubs of Collaboration and Innovation

Description

School libraries are no longer just places for books: they have become a dynamic space for learning, creativity, and relationships.

For this reason, school librarians play a vital role.

This course is designed to help them develop skills for effective interdisciplinary collaboration and to equip them with practical management skills and strategies.

It will guide them in learning how to build a positive learning environment connecting teachers, students, and local communities through projects that foster curiosity, literacy, and inclusion.

During the course, participants will discover how to make their libraries active learning hubs that support teaching, student engagement, and school innovation.

They will explore how to use tools to support teachers, as well as strategies that encourage the development of initiatives and strengthen the internal culture of the school and its connections with the community.

They will learn how to develop reading literacy in students and how to properly connect creative activities with students’ linguistic expression.

The pedagogical approach combines theory, practice, and reflection, and will be based on collaboration, inclusiveness, and the belief that the library is not just a place in the school, but a driver of innovation.

In addition, the course will systematically teach participants how to become a center of media and information literacy.

After completing the course, school librarians will have explored strategies that can be directly applied in their own schools.

They will be able to organize and manage their school library more effectively, develop and use practical tools to build a positive library environment, and promote the library as a center of learning, creativity, and collaboration.

Throughout history, the library has always been an indispensable part of human history, and today, since technology has entered the classroom, as the ICT center of the school, it continues to occupy an important aspect of students’ educational life.

Concept by Ana Bučević Romić

Learning outcomes

The course will help participants to:

• Organize and manage effectively the library environment and workflow, creating spaces that support learning, creativity, and collaboration;
• Design and lead creative and educational activities that encourage reading habits and connect students’ reading experiences with creative expression;
• Apply strategies and tools to develop information and media literacy, transforming the library into a vibrant school media center;
• Adopt strategies to plan and coordinate interdisciplinary projects with colleagues and teachers, using practical tools that foster teamwork, motivation, and encourage positive and engaged learning;
• Build partnerships with local partners and organizations to design and implement cooperative initiatives that reinforce the school’s cultural and social impact;
• Return to their school libraries equipped with concrete methods, tools, and strategies to improve collaboration, creativity, and learning.

Tentative schedule

Day 1 – Introduction to the course

• Introduction to the course, the school, and the external week activities;
• Icebreaker activities;
• Presentations of the participants’ schools.

Theoretical foundations of school library work

• Introduction to the basic work of a school library: What is the role of the library in the school ecosystem? (“Where is your library on the school map?”);
• Core documents that define library management;
• What is a modern media center, and how can a library evolve into one?;
• Workshop: How to combine creativity and reading habits? (theory and activities);
• Discussion: identifying your library/work on the map of your school.

Day 2 – How does the school library work?

• How the library operates as part of the school learning process;
• How to make your library visible — on the web and in the local community (digital tools and strategies);
• Workshop: Becoming an information-literate educator (theory + practice);
• How to promote reading literacy through age-appropriate activities;
• Reading literacy and the reading abilities of students.
• Example of good practice with students in lower grades of Primary School.

Day 3 – School librarian: librarian, teachers, and manager of their library

• Who can be a school librarian and how to be successful? Roles, competences, and success factors;
• Using dramatic methods in the expression of language;
• Workshop: creative arts and reading (practice and activities);
• Example of good practice with students in upper grades of Primary School.

Day 4 – How does a library successfully implement education?

• What is interdisciplinary collaboration, and what does it look like?;
• How to collaborate effectively with local community stakeholders?;
• Project work: from idea to implementation (library, teacher–community projects);
• Activities connecting communication, writing, and creativity;
• Developing reading skills through creativity and collaboration;
• Outdoor Activity: Visit to the Public Library.

Day 5 – School librarian and collaboration with cultural institutions

• How cultural institutions operate and collaborate with schools;
• Activities for developing and understanding the importance of nurturing culture and cultural identity;
• Activities to develop students’ cultural awareness and identity through language;
• Outdoor Activities: Visit to cultural institutions (museums, galleries);
• Workshop: Each participant creates a plan for a project of cooperation between their library and a cultural institution;
• Presentation and exchange of ideas.

Day 6 – Course closure and cultural activities

• Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competences, feedback, and discussion;
• Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance;
• Excursion and other external cultural activities.

Download or share

Get weekly recaps on confirmed sessions!