Questions about International school library standards

[Alan Jacques]

Hi all

I’m about to start my first international school library job. I have a few questions about the unique difficulties of working in the international scene, particularly in SE Asia.
- What standards are people following to develop their facilities, collections and services?
- What associations have people found useful to join and what have they done for you?
- Where do international librarians buy their books from?
- How do you go about finding good foreign language books that have appropriate content?
- how have different people responded to the curriculum needs and learner profile of the IB? There seems to be very little official policy available.

That all I can think of for now but I’m sure there’s more. Please muck in and write anything important that comes to mind.

Cheers – Alan Jacques

[Dianne Lane]

Hi Alan,
You're right, there is little official policy available and I assume most International TLs take some of the standards from their home country.
At the last IASL conference in Berkeley CA there was a group doing a study called A Framework for Accreditation of International Baccalaureate School Libraries. It was led by Peter Warning, a lecturer at the University of Hong Kong. An Australian lecturer James Henri was also involved. This might be worth tracking down if you want to follow up on where they are up to.
Cheers
Dianne
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