IASL 2013: Day 3 South East Asian School Librarians, GID and School Tour

Wednesday, August 28 2013 was day 3 of the IASL Conference and Bali.

Three things happened to me: 1) I volunteered to create an online forum for South East Asian School Librarians; 2) I attended Carol Kuhlthau and Yumiko Kasai's session on Guided Inquiry Design (GID); and 3) I joined the free conference tour at Sekolah Dyatmika, Museum Bali and Krisna Souvenir Shop.

I didn't know what got into me volunteering to do number one, but, I suppose my hunger to continue the conversations with librarians in the region is a big one. I did not meet Carol Kuhlthau but listening to Dr. Kasai is like meeting the fantastic Carol K.

My take away from the session: GID can be used as a pedagogical guide to facilitate reference and research services. While teachers guide students in the first three steps of the GID process, librarians are in it for the ride because by the time students reach the GATHER and CREATE processes, librarians should have a working knowledge on students' progress to continue the scaffolding initiated by teacher and student. Often times, a librarian is surprised to have students in the library researching for this and that without his/her knowledge before hand. The librarian has no context of students' research nor knowledge of students' progress. Again, this calls for team effort between teacher and librarian. I am counting my fingers the teachers whom to seek partnership with in terms of research assistance by the library. There are many ways to assist students in the preparation of PPs and EEs. This is now my "assignment to self", something to echo to school leadership.

After that bewilderment and mental stoking, I joined the rest of the IASL participants in a tour right after lunch. I met online friends and mentors, the great Blanche Woolls, and made new friends with librarians in other countries. Let the photos speak for themselves:

Blanche Woolls was surprised to meet the coauthor of Dianne de Las Casas. She said of my dear friend Dianne: that woman is something else!

Dr. Zulfikar Zen, friend of Dir. Atty Santos of the National Library of the Philippines

With Judy O'Connell. We had a fantastic conversation in the bus on love, life and LIBRARIANSHIP!

Stacey Taylor (L) my workshop leader in an IB Online workshop (2011) and Dr. Kasai, holding up a poster of the GID process. Librarians are rock stars!

Some photos from Sekolah Dyatmika and Museum Bali.

Buddha under a tree.

I don't know who is the statue, but it looked beautiful alongside the dried bougainvillea.

What handsome shelves!

Sekolah Dyatmika uses the Internal Exams of the University of Cambridge.