Welcome to Librarian Talk, the place where librarians get to talk about their roles, their unique situations and how Accessit Library has helped them. This week, we speak with Claire Bavister, school librarian from Woodland Middle School Academy about how she makes the most of Accessit Library.

What character in a book has influenced you the most?

Hermione Granger.

Tell us about your library! What makes it unique?

Our library is the heart of our school. It is a very welcoming, cosy place to be. The children can relax on beanbags and settees surrounded by colourful posters and there are display boards highlighting their reading achievements. We use the Accelerated Reader program to ensure that all children in the school read regularly. We also have weekly library lessons to monitor reading and recommend new titles. We celebrate Harry Potter and Roald Dahl day by transforming the library into the respective themes. This is a huge event and the children love coming in on those days to take part in all the activities ranging from magic spells to treasure hunts.

What is a challenge that you faced in your library recently?

The recent challenge I have faced is: How to get books to children during lockdown and before that, how to work with classroom bubbles.

How did Accessit Library help you solve this challenge?

Accessit Library solved this for us. During the first lockdown, I got the Web App up and running which enabled the children to browse and order books. I was then able to place their order and deliver their books to their classroom. With our old system, we could not do this.

I also love that pupils can access the Web App at any time, from anywhere. This is a great way for me to communicate reading achievements, promote books and just include any relevant information I think they should know.

How has your attitude changed towards the challenge you solved with Accessit Library, now that you’ve worked through it?

The click and delivery service is running very smoothly. It’s lovely to see how excited the children get when they hear the trolley rumbling towards their classrooms with the latest delivery of books. The children know they can order books whenever they like and know they will be delivered every day. When the books are returned, we use quarantine mode before putting them back into circulation.

What do you like the most about Accessit Library?

I like that it is simple to use. I also like the immediate help and tutorials that are available in the customer portal.

The Web App is my favourite feature. It’s such a valuable tool to communicate with all the children and to keep up to date with new and exciting information.

How does Accessit Library support the academic outcomes of your school?

Accessit Library ensures that our ethos of whole school reading is maintained to a high standard by allowing us to regularly communicate reading achievements to teaching staff.

A lockdown success story

Claire is one of the many librarians across the UK that has used Accessit Library to overcome the challenges of lockdown. She has achieved this by continuing to offer reading materials and homework support for students and parents using our innovative Web App. Accessit Library also enables her to highlight the many online supports the school library brings to classrooms in the cloud.

Read other stories from schools that are using Accessit Library to assist with cloud learning.

Fulham Prep School
Barker College

Here are more stories from other school librarians in the United Kingdom making the most of their library management software that may be of interest to you: 

Poonampal Kaur – Sarah Bonnell School 

Donna Harris – Great Baddow High School 

Gemma Sosnowsky – Queen Elizabeth School 

Sasha Roth – Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School 

Sally Baker – Durrington High School

What character in a book has influenced you the most?

I cannot pinpoint one character but the book that has influenced me and my role as librarian is ‘The Giggler Treatment’ by Roddy Doyle. It never fails to make even the most reluctant of readers laugh and reminds me that nothing is more important than reading for pleasure.

Tell us about your library! What makes it unique?

The library is in a large room in the middle of the school and it really does feel like the heart of the school. Last year, our library was transformed from a more traditional library will aisles of shelves to a tree-themed haven. We have a huge free-standing tree, a treehouse mezzanine area where the children enjoy cosying up on a bean bag with a good book and lots of snug-like areas. Aside from its appearance, I strive to make the library a welcoming environment, both for those who have already found the joy in reading and those who haven’t quite discovered it yet.

What is a challenge that you faced in your library recently?

It has to be shutting the library to visitors in March due to the first lockdown and navigating a click and delivery service since term began in September.

How did Accessit Library help you solve this challenge?

We moved our library management system over to Accessit Library during the summer which couldn’t have been more perfectly timed! It’s difficult to know how our library functioned properly before without the online presence it has now. It crucially has allowed the children to browse the library shelves online and continue to borrow books and get excited about reading.

How has your attitude changed towards the challenge you solved with Accessit Library, now that you’ve worked through it?

Considering this current environment and its impact on the school, if we were still with our previous library management system it would’ve been impossible to allow the students to borrow books from the library. What we have now is a fully functioning click and delivery system – whilst it’s not the same as having the children browse the physical bookshelves, it has solved the issue and I can’t see how Accessit Library can make it any easier! One child even commented that the click and delivery service is better than Amazon.

What do you like the most about Accessit Library?

I absolutely love the Web App – how you can curate it to suit your students, the events going on within the school and most importantly to publicise anything and everything book related. Gone are the days of putting up posters around school and the blu tack promptly being nabbed by small hands!

How does Accessit Library support the academic outcomes of your school?

It helps to set the children up with a love for reading, something they can talk passionately about when at interviews for their next school.

A lockdown success story

Mary is one of many librarians around the world that has used Accessit Library to facilitate learning and supplementing online lessons during lockdown. She is what we call a ‘lockdown success story’ and is one of hundreds of schools operating the library as close to business as usual as possible thanks to technology.

Barker College is another lockdown success story. Read their story by clicking this link.

Here are more stories from other school librarians in the United Kingdom making the most of their library management software that may be of interest to you:

Poonampal Kaur – Sarah Bonnell School

Donna Harris – Great Baddow High School

Gemma Sosnowsky – Queen Elizabeth School

Sasha Roth – Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School

Sally Baker – Durrington High School

What character in a book has influenced you the most?

Oh, that is a difficult one. I think I will have to say Christopher Boone from ‘The curious incident of the dog in the night-time.’

Tell us about your library! What makes it unique?

Apart from the very modern layout and the amount of space it houses the latest PCs and iPads. I complement the physical books with periodicals, eBooks and audio books. I am passionate about providing material for all our learners of all abilities. I stock a range of material to help our girls make progress in their reading, be it A-level standard (we do not have a sixth form), picture or dual language books. I keep the students engaged with the LH and use the Web App to help me achieve this. I keep it updated so students enjoy the experience it provides. I also have Google Classrooms set up as LH support rooms where the students contact me with any queries of issues they may have about the LH. Our LH is also known to host WBD like a show at the London Palladium!

What is a challenge that you faced in your library recently?

Without a doubt it has to be the operation of the LH since coming back after the school closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the students are not allowed to come to the LH, going to them and collecting and delivering books has been hard. Also, our students do not have school email accounts so contacting them about their LH queries has been difficult. Keeping students engaged with the LH is challenging as I do not see them as often as I used to so ensuring messages of any new LH developments reaches everyone, has presented further difficulties.

How did Accessit Library help you solve this challenge?

The latest reservation and quarantine mode update worked well and has definitely helped set up my click and deliver service. Also integrating Wheelers into the Accessit program has helped to channel all borrowing in one area. Using the landing page as a point of getting notifications out to students has been useful.

How has your attitude changed towards the challenge you solved with Accessit Library, now that you’ve worked through it?

Having means to tackle the issues through Accessit is always welcomed and implemented.

What do you like the most about Accessit Library?

The ever-growing list of functions that allow me to get things done quickly!

How does Accessit Library support the academic outcomes of your school?

By helping us to provide interesting and innovating provisions for our learners.