The 98th All-Japan Library Conference (2012)

【2012-E004】

The 98th annual All-Japan Library Conference, sponsored by the Japan Library Association (JLA), was held in Matsue, Shimane, on October 25th and 26th, 2012; the keynote speech and 12 section meetings in three venues in the city and the panel exhibition of “Freedom in Libraries,” “Great East Japan Earthquake,” “Reconstruction Support” and “School Libraries in Shimane” in the Shimane Civic Center. The conference theme this year was “Libraries for our culture, libraries for our future.” A staff member of the International Library of Children’s Literature (ILCL) participated in section meeting 3 (school libraries).

Section meeting 3 (school libraries): Explore the potential of school libraries

Two speeches were delivered on the morning of 26th; Ryo Makigawa, Supervisor of School Education of Shimane, gave a speech on the present situation of school-library-use education in Shimane, and Teruyo Horikawa, Professor of Aoyama Gakuin Women’s Junior College, spoke about the role of school libraries as reading centers.

There were two parallel sub-section meetings in the afternoon. One of the meetings, “School-library-use education for children’s development” introduced three case studies, showing the fundamental function of school libraries in education and their indispensable roles for students’ reading and learning.

A librarian teacher and a school librarian of the Matsue City Iya Elementary School said that their 6-year teaching plan for using school libraries contributed to improving students’ ability and maintaining a sufficient level. The School Library Support Team of the Arakawa City Board of Education (Tokyo) spoke about support activities for school libraries. The Shimane Prefectural Matsue Minami High School reported support programs for self-sustained learning.

Participants - school librarians, teachers, staff members of the Board of Education, librarians of public libraries and publishers – revealed high interest in school libraries and their activities.

Ref:

(2012.12.14 update)