May 2012 Newsletter
Welcome to the May edition of the JCS newsletter...
In this month's edition:
- JCS Publisher Workshops for the summer term...
- ‘Lighting the Future’, JCS at the SLA Conference...
- ‘The Day’ - a new resource for JCS...
- New content for Scran...
- Dorling Kindersley titles for Credo Reference...
- The Olympics uncovered with the help of Gale NewsVault™...
- How should teachers tackle reduced contact time with their students?
- Sector news from around the world...
JCS Publisher Workshops for the summer term...
Following the success of the recent workshops in Bristol and Devon, JCS has three more publisher workshops planned for the summer term:
- 30th May, Leeds
- 12th June, Worcester
- 13th June, Stafford
The workshops are extremely popular with both librarians and Heads of Curriculum/6th Form as they provide an opportunity to find out about a wide choice of resources and to ask the publishers questions. JCS will also be launching two new resources at these events so they are not to be missed!
To find out more and to download the programmes, click here. To book your free place, please email Sarah Rushworth.
Other events...
e-books and more in the school library...
Thursday 12th July at St Helen and St Katharine's School, Abingdon, OX14 1BEA
This all day workshop organised by Donna Pocock-Bell, the School Librarian, in association with JCS and Oxfordshire School Library Association will focus on e-books and other online resources with presentations from practitioners and publishers including EBSCO, Bilbary, Credo Reference, Gale Cengage and Hodder Education. The event is free and includes lunch. You can view the programme here.
Booking arrangements: Please email full contact details and any special dietary or access requirements to Donna Pocock-Bell.
Back to top‘Lighting the Future’, JCS at the SLA Conference...
JCS is exhibiting at ‘Lighting the Future’, the joint SLA, YLG & SLG Weekend Course being held at Old Windsor between 8 - 10 June 2012. We will be in the Exhibition Marquee so please be sure to visit our stand. A quiz will be included in each delegate pack so test your general knowledge and win one of the great prizes.
Back to top‘The Day’ - a new resource for JCS...
JCS is delighted to announce the arrival of The Day to its portfolio - the innovative online news service for schools. The Day provides subscribers with three news stories every school day plus access to its constantly expanding archive of stories and a wealth of additional material to link the wider world to learning and teaching across the curriculum at all levels.
JCS is making available annual subscriptions to The Day at regional consortia discounts only so share the news to help build the interest and benefit from the discounted rates.
Request a free trial of The Day here or get a quote.
Back to topNew content for Scran...
Scran continues to expand with the addition of these two collections of photographs.
India in the early 20th century
These photographs come from a collection of glass plate negatives of British India taken in the early part of the 20th century. The photographs are thought to be largely of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and other areas of Bengal and north-east India. They show Indian men, women and children at work and leisure.
40up, from birth to 40 years
Pictures of a boy every year from birth through childhood, adolescence and finally adulthood. A fascinating document of changes in lifestyles, fashions and hairstyles.
Request a free trial of Scran here or get a quote.
Back to topDorling Kindersley titles for Credo Reference...
If you subscribe to the full Credo Reference package, you will already know that they constantly update add new titles. A recent addition to the collection is Animals: A Visual Encyclopedia from Dorling Kindersley. With over 4,000 illustrations in this fabulous title, the book provides information on animals from aardvarks to zebras with special focus on the superlatives that appeal to children: biggest, fastest, strongest, and strangest. The stunning action photography puts our animal neighbours in context and shows them in their natural habitats, interacting with other animals and taking part in, for example, amazing migrations and feeding frenzies. More books from Dorling Kindersley are coming soon!
Request a free trial of Credo Referencehere or get a quote.
Back to topThe Olympics uncovered with the help of Gale NewsVault™...
With the Olympic Games in London just around the corner, why not use one of our newest resources to trace the history of the Olympics? Gale NewsVault™ offers an unparalleled view into the past with access to hundreds of thousands of primary sources.
Jackson’s Oxford Journal documents the ‘Olympian Games’ which took place in Much Wenlock, Shropshire in 1866. The games were organised by William Penny Brookes, president of the Olympian Society, in order to illustrate the importance of physical education. One of the two mascots for the London 2012 Summer Olympics has been named Wenlock in honour of the Wenlock Olympian Games.
Read about the 1953 ‘Stoke Mandeville Games’ in The Times Digital Archive. These games were originally held for World War II veterans at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and later became the Paralympics.
Compare the London 2012 Olympic Stadium with venues from the past with pictures from Illustrated London News like this one on the left which shows the Palazzo Dello Sport, the venue for the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.
Request a free trial of Gale NewsVault™here or get a quote.
Back to topHow should teachers tackle reduced contact time with their students?Use online resources...
With teacher/student contact time due to be reduced, Rosalind Buckland, Librarian at Ripley St Thomas Church of England Academy, firmly believes that online resources from trusted sources have an essential role to play in supporting the increasing amount of time that students will have to spend studying independently. She writes, “...it is crucial that the mechanisms are in place to support and develop independent learning.” She adds, “Although a growing amount of qualitative digital information is freely available and is open source, the majority of qualitative research databases are still at a premium... If we are to service students’ research needs, to develop and extend the reach of the discovery solution, there is an obligation to provide access to appropriate, qualitative online resources. In this context, it would be prudent to consider the wealth of online resources that JCS present.”
Read Rosalind’s full article here.
Back to topSector news from around the world...
“Media Literacy and Learning Commons in the Digital Age”
A recent paper published in the research journal of the Young Adult Library Services Association develops an argument for media literacy education as the pedagogical foundation for the learning commons model for school libraries positioning the school library as a dynamic media literacy learning hub, anchoring entire schools around knowledge, expression, collaboration, and creation in both virtual and physical spaces. Read the paper here..
“Want better reading scores? Hire a full-time librarian.”
According to new research from Library Research Services which reviewed standardized test scores from Colorado schools in 2005 and 2011, reading scores statistically increased when schools retained or gained a school librarian.
Education Scotland looks to expand use of tablet computers in schools
The use of mobile devices and tablet computers in Scottish classrooms could be expanded in a bid to modernise teaching and learning.
Read the full article here.
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