National Library

What did they do?

National Library School Advisers worked with schools in Hunterville and Wellington to explain the services they offer, discussing and reviewing resources with an adviser in real time, working remotely with the use of the high-speed network and video conferencing technologies.

We enjoyed working with Hunterville School and Wellington College and next year we would also like to work with groups like the NZ history teachers association to promote all the fantastic online resources available through National Library, says Linda Forbes, a National Library school's adviser.

Learning for students and teachers

The National Library is one of the country's richest sources of digital content and services, and teachers in each of the schools were amazed at the high quality of digital resources now available to them and their students, direct into their schools via the high speed network. Teachers are planning to invite the National Library Advisers via VC to future planning and staff meetings.

KARENS contribution

The KAREN bridge provides high quality video conference interactions with teachers and students ebnabling the sharing of print, video and web-based resources during National Library adviser presentations. NEN also provides the ability to record sessions for later review by teachers who were unable to attend live sessions. As the National Library are part of REANNZ’s on-net content partnership digital resources are available to schools 'on-net' i.e. reachable directly over KAREN at super speeds and without the usage and bandwidth limitations (and sometimes cost) of 'off-net' destinations.

Future Focus

The National Library Advisers see huge potential for using this network as a vehicle for delivering professional development to schools throughout New Zealand. They plan to work with groups like the NZ history teachers association to promote all the fantastic online resources available through National Library as well as working with more schools to share our particular areas of expertise in children's literature and promoting reading and inquiry learning.

Being able to interact with teachers in schools via the video conferencing technologies the advisers are able to save many hours of travel, freeing up more time to work with more schools. In addition, the video conferencing technology provides the opportunity for the advisers to work with staff from more than one school at a time, and to extend what they do to include work with students where appropriate.

We have really enjoyed all the video conferencing opportunities as part of the trial with schools. I can see huge potential for National Library Advisers using this network as a vehicle for delivering professional development to schools throughout New Zealand. Linda Forbes - National Library, School Library Adviser

National Library Services to Schools:
http://www.natlib.govt.nz/schools