Rothesay Academy librarian in final shortlist for UK award

Shiona Lawson, who works for Argyll and Bute Council at Rothesay Academy on Bute, has been named on a shortlist of six school librarians from across the country. With her five peers, Shiona has reached the final of the prestigious UK School Librarian of the Year 2010 competition.

Only one of the other five finalists is from Scotland – from the private Stewart’s Melville College in Edinburgh. Four of the six finalists work in independent schools.

The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on 4th  October.

Shiona, who was nominated by a former Rothesay Academy pupil, said she was amazed to have been shortlisted: ‘I used to play at libraries as a child because I was so interested in books, and I’ve never lost that fascination.

‘I’m very lucky in that I just love what I do – if I had my way I’d work until I was at least 70. (Hang on Shiona. You may have to.) But I would never have dreamed that one day my job would put me centre stage in this way. It’s a huge honour.

‘Working at Rothesay Academy is extremely rewarding, and I will be a very proud representative of the school when I go to London in October’.

Reading around the world – and other services

Shiona is a qualified chartered librarian and has been at Rothesay Academy – part of the Rothesay Joint Campus – for two years, during which time the library stock has been revitalised. It now boasts some 10,000 titles.

She is determined to demolish the librarian stereotype of ‘dowdy, old and silent’, and is constantly thinking of new ways to lure pupils into the school library. One example is her ‘Reading around the World’ programme, which uses a mixture of fiction and non-fiction to improve literacy across the curriculum and teach library skills. Pupils ‘travel’ around the world through reading, evaluating what they are learning as they go.

She:

• runs a student librarian scheme with eight Rothesay Academy pupils, using the School Library Association’s (SLA) Pupil Librarian Toolkit
• manages the Rothesay Primary School library
• teaches P7 transition classes
• visits – regularly – the three primary schools on Bute
• has become a mentor for the ‘Glow’ project – the national schools’ intranet
• throws herself into the wider life of the school, not least as creative director of the school show and co-ordinator for Spirit Aid, the school’s adopted charity. A comedy night she organised in aid of Spirit Aid’s children’s projects in Malawi raised £3,500.

Recognition

Isle of Bute councillor Isobel Strong, who is also Argyll and Bute’s spokesperson for Education and Lifelong Learning, says: ‘I am delighted that Shiona has been recognised in this way.

‘It is a measure of the quality of her work that she has made it into the final six of a nationwide competition, and I know the entire Rothesay Joint Campus and wider Bute community will be wishing her well on her trip to London.

‘Shiona will be a fantastic ambassador not just of her school but of Argyll and Bute as a whole, and thoroughly deserves being in the spotlight in this way. I congratulate her for her outstanding work, and look forward to her continuing to educate and entertain young people in Rothesay and beyond for many years to come’.

The School Librarian of the Year award was set up by the SLA in 2004 in an attempt to highlight the excellent work carried out in school libraries; and highlight best practice through celebrating and rewarding outstanding work.

It’s great to be able to record the wider recognition of one of Argyll’s many unusally able people – and of what can today be seen as the Cinderella service of libraries.

The internet is a resource that has, in our short experience, universally transformed the worlds of information handling and communications. It is unbeatable for speed of publication, immediate news, fast access and low-impact environmental and financial production costs. That’s why we’re here/

But a book is a book is a book – like the newspaper, one of the rewarding analogue experiences which simply cannot be electronically replicated in full. eReaders may well be the books of the future but the hard copy book in your hand will die hard.