Ros Harding, SLA School Librarian of the Year Honour List

Ros Harding is Head Librarian and Archivist at The King's School Chester, an independent, co-educational, selective school for ages 4 to 18. This is what made her library and her work stand out.

The library at The Kings School Chester is a very large space within the school, including a class-sized ICT suite, a reading area and plenty of study space. It is situated between the 6th form centre and the main school, which means that although it is very easy to access, it is somewhere that pupils make a conscious decision to come to, rather than just passing by. The library holds approximately 10,000 books (about 3,500 are fiction) and subscribes to about 40 journals and magazines, in addition to an e-book and e-audiobook library and online subscriptions to resources including JSTOR and Britannica Online. There are three different book clubs in the Senior School library (one for Years 7 & 8, one for Year 9s shadowing the Carnegie and Greenaway Awards, and one for 6th formers) in addition to the Junior School Book Club which is run with the Junior School Librarian. The School has a Patron of Reading, who visits the school at least twice a year, but also promotes competitions, such as Book Bingo for Infant and Junior pupils throughout the year. The Kings School Chester has an annual Book Week, which includes various competitions and a couple of Book Quizzes which take place in a very crowded library at lunchtimes. One of the most important library activities each year is the School Book Award which has two shortlists each year in the Senior School and a third shortlist for the award in the Junior School. Pupils are included at every stage, from nominations, to longlisting, and including the promotion of the books, ensuring it is very much their award. In addition to Reading for Pleasure promotion, the library plays a key role in supporting teaching in the school, not only through providing resources, but also by team-teaching for project work, including research and marking with a particular focus on supporting independent learning in the 6th form, e.g. helping students find resources for coursework and their Extended projects, advising on referencing etc. When Ros was informed of her inclusion on the Honour List for School Librarian of the Year 2019, the SLA asked her some questions about her job and here are her responses: Q: What aspect of your job do you enjoy the most? A: This has to be the fact that I get to work with amazing people every day, including my assistant librarians, the teaching and support staff in the school and of course the pupils. I have an incredible team of pupil librarians and I love seeing them develop and flourish as they take on responsibility in the library. I love seeing pupils develop from a shy Year 7 into a successful and confident young adult. Q: Where do you get ideas from for developing what your library offers and how it works? A: I think it is very important to have ideas coming from lots of different places. Twitter is wonderful, but I am also a member of the SLN forum, I read the School Librarian journal and CILIP update and talk to other librarians as much as possible. I am very lucky that I get to attend a conference each year. The most important thing that I have learnt is to not just seize on every idea, but to think about whether it will make a difference in your school, and how it might need adapting to suit your pupils and staff. Q: What are your favourite library CPD resources (websites, twitter feeds, conferences etc)? A: The SLA conference is always fantastic and particularly when they join with YLG as the input from public librarians provides another dimension. In terms of Twitter feeds, I follow as many librarians and authors as possible and find that we are pretty good at sharing other peoples work and ideas so I can get a good range. I particularly enjoy Elizabeth Hutchinsons (@Elizabethhutch) twitter feed and blog. Q: What other tools help you most in your job and why? A: I am very lucky in that Cheshire still has a School Library Service (and an excellent one at that). This allows me to connect with other librarians (especially in the State sector) and to access resources and training that would be very difficult to find elsewhere. The professional support and value for money that School Library Services offer is incredible, and it is heart-breaking that so many have closed around the country. Q: What have you learned on the job which you never learned about at library school? A: Library school (in my case a Masters at UCL) gave me the essential training in cataloguing and classification, but most importantly gave me a confidence that I could do this job and that I could manage a library (including staff and budget) myself. However, the most important part of being a school librarian is working with pupils and being prepared to continually develop and those are very difficult to teach. When I first started as a school librarian, I was absolutely terrified at standing up in front of a class. However, 14 years on (10 at this school), I feel much more confident in my abilities and have been able to learn from my mistakes to deliver (what I hope are) good sessions. Q: Why do you think the Great School Libraries Campaign is important and how would you complete this sentence: "School libraries matter because.... " A: The campaign is so important as not every child has the benefit of a school library and librarian. When budgets are tight, it must seem like an easy option to make the librarian redundant, but the campaign is helping make it clear to school leaders and politicians that libraries are not a nice extra in a school, but a fundamental part of them. School libraries matter because they provide the gateway into other worlds through reading and the tools and support to navigate the information overload that children are exposed to. Q: What's the last book you read which you have since been pressing into people's hands, and what makes it so special? A: This would probably change every few weeks as I always seem to be finding a new book I love! At the moment, for all ages, I am recommending Toffee by Sarah Crossan. This book is perfect for so many different tastes. This story of an unusual friendship between a teenage girl and an older women suffering from dementia provides moments of pure joy and moments of heartbreak. It is also fairly quick to read and this is important at this time of year when exams are a big part of pupils lives. However, I have also been pressing Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez into the hands of 6th formers and staff. It is essential reading for everyone, but especially for students considering careers in design or medicine, as it will make them think about the gender data gap and how they can help fix this. Find out more about The Kings School Chester: Website: www.kingschester.co.uk Twitter: @KingsChester @KSCLibrarian Instagram: @thekingsschoolchester