Book Launching : A Social Event for School Librarians

School librarians need not confine themselves in the four corners of the school library. Seize the opportunity to go out, meet different people from different disciplines and socialize because it is a learning experience in itself. Chances are, you'll get to meet people who can help you in your work. Your sphere of network widens as well as your perspective of the world.

Aside from attendance to seminars, workshops and professional fellowships, a book launch is also an event for learning and socialization.

Last night, in the Tahanana Book Launching, I met Isabel Kenny. She is a writer, producer and lecturer at the Ateneo De Manila University. Come February, she will conduct a workshop on script writing. I gave her my contact numbers since we have people in the library who are into production and it is a big help if they attend workshops. Teachers in my school are also doing video productions as instructional materials. They may also be interested to further their skills in script writing. Our high school students produce short videos as requirements for their Media Ed and Computer class. They may want to meet an expert in content development, like a script writer.

Through linkage the school library can help its clients, both primary (students) and secondary (teachers)clients. The school library can inform the community of such events, thus, contributing to the teaching and learning process.

Also, Isabel has several projects on visual literacy. If she is around by September of 2006, we'll invite her as speaker for International Literacy Week.

Put aside the networking possibilities I pointed out, book launchings are places where school librarians can get good discounts and touch base with publishers and writers. By engaging in conversations, the school librarian can feedback reading habits, behaviors and interests of child readers as well as the current state of the school's curricula. And believe me, writers and publishers crave the information we have in our possession.

Writers write the book. Illustrators draw. The publishers put it all together. School librarians promote the book and the reading culture.