Volume 33 Nº 3 - August 1997

From the editor

David Berry

Ten years ago while I was attending a school libraries conference in Hobart, Paul Bisnette, Orana's reviews co-ordinator, handed me a copy of the WA School Libraries Section's recently published Online Information Services for Schools. In those days I was even worse at meeting publication deadlines than I am now but, eventually, in the February 1998 issue of Orana I wrote that OLISS "introduces teacher-librarians to a world of information that few school students have yet experienced. It is informative and persuasive, providing both a clear definition of the teacher-librarian's role in an age of computerised information and guidance in the implementation of learning strategies... Hopefully, this generally good report will be continually updated". A decade later, OLISS's latest revision - now titled Information Technology in Schools - has been published. Margaret Butterworth and the ITIS team who have produced this outstanding publication are School Libraries Sections 'Quite Achievers' for August (pages 158-9). Congratulations.

It is interesting to note that Heather Fisher - winner of the inaugural Margaret Cotton Award and Orana's February Quiet Achiever - is prominently featured in Judy Drayton's 'News' section. This year the other major ALIA award for children's libraries, the Bess Thomas Award, was bestowed on Julie-Ann Vellios of Sydney's Ashfield Library for her series on performance workshops (pages 160-3).

Quiet Achievers, too, are the staff of Firbank Anglican School who - under the guidance of teacher-librarian Laraine Stephens and at the prompting of reviews co-ordinator Gary Gorman - have reviewed all of the resources received from publishers for the August issue of Orana. If your school or public library would like to assist in reviewing professional resources, please contact Gary.

Since putting together the previous issue of Orana, I have been fortunate enough to have taken an extended break travelling overseas. Space and time considerations have prevented my writing about the professional aspects of those travels in this issue. One of the many school library people whom I met was Janet McKinlay of Vancouver who describes how her work has changed during the 1990s. It is interesting to note the extent to which Canadian concerns mirror whose of her Australian colleagues.