Day 2

Today was our second day in Anatolia. We spent the day at ACT College.

We started the day with a tour of the ACT (American College of Thessaloniki) facilities. Liza showed us three buildings, one of which just opened this year. In this building there are classrooms, science and technology laboratories, among others.

Then in the ACT library (Bissel library), we made the presentation of our school on-line, which was attended by several teachers and librarians of the campus.

I was surprised by the kind of questions I was asked after the presentation: if we had a curriculum in which we programmed and recorded everything we did in the library. They were questions in which you could see their concern for everything formally correct, following standards. I guess they are more than used to making formal records of everything they do.

Evi has told us that she is impressed with how we work at our school even though our school facilities and space are limited.

When I finished the presentation about our school context and how our school libraries are, Tania showed a video explaining how her school and her school library works.

Then Russel met us in his office and briefly explained the collections they have. They have science and biology/psychology books.

They have ebooks for all subjects. First the ebooks come out before the paper books. They are very expensive and some are worth 500€. It is a selection of very expensive books, they spend 5000€ a year. They buy 4 or 5 times a year.

Then we had a chat with Evi in her office who, as I mentioned yesterday, is the director of the libraries for the entire school campus (children's library, primary library, secondary library and university library

She explained to us that they do exhibitions of artists in the Bissel library. And that next week they will start an exhibition of a painter. This painter has come after a while and has presented him to us.

She told us that in order to offer books in Greek they have subscribed to several magazines that recommend books. They find it difficult to find good books in Greek, but in English, being an American university, it is much easier.

Evi explained to us a series of activities that they develop with primary and infant school students. For example, in kindergarten the pupils are supposed to borrow books every week and they pay a lot of attention to the education of the users (respecting them, taking care of them...).

She talks about how important it is for her to give positive reinforcement to the students in terms of reading habits. The students have notebooks in which they write down how many pages they read each day, this way they can be motivated to read a little more each day.

They also have reading competitions, in which they see which of the classes have read the most books during the school year, thus motivating all the students to read more.

From a very young age they ask the children to read for at least ten minutes every night before going to bed. They recommend them to have a comfortable place to read at home: a chair, a cozy cushion, in order to create a pleasant atmosphere and make this moment of reading at home special.

In addition, she explained a card game that is used by years 5 and 6 students; in which there are written a series of reasons why reading is important. For example: reading helps me to focus, reading opens my mind... Each child has a card and reads it in turn, then they generate a dialogue around this phrase and ask the students to tell the reason why they think reading is important.

They do other activities such as a day when they sleep in the library and they can read in the dark with the help of a torch, it is a special and magical moment for the children.

After the talk with Evi we had a break for lunch and went back to the library where we met Stella. She explained to us everything they do around information Literacy Components.

Stella participates in one of the subjects that all university students take the first year no matter what degree they are studying. This subject is English 1. She explained to us how she organizes her classes and what are the most important things about learning Information Literacy.

It has five components: identify, find, evaluate, apply and acknowledge sources of information. Information literacy is a lifelong learning process, something beginning before you arrive at college and developing as you grow.

I see that for the moment, we are in a library context only. That is to say, the professionals who have been accompanying us these two days try to explain how their libraries work but without the existence of a school context. I thought we were going to see and be able to witness classes or lessons in which elementary school students would use the library and for the moment we are only being given master classes on cataloging and library organization. I mean, I feel like I've gone to college, like I'm studying to be a librarian. I don't feel that it is really a practical experience where I can get ideas to apply in my day to day life in the classroom.

When we finished the job shadowing day we went to the city center where we found a couple of bookstores.