This week the National Library began exploring video conferencing as a way to extend the reach of its services to schools.

School Services staff from the National Library met virtually with Wellington College teachers and CORE Education on Monday to explore video conferencing as a tool to share their understanding of books for boys and show them examples of books to help nurture boys’ reading.

“Parents are sometimes anxious about boys’ lack of interest in reading. Often it is not that they don’t like reading but rather they like different kinds of books. These include joke or gruesome books, graphic novels and stories from the action, adventure and fantasy genres,” said Linda Forbes, Wellington Schools Services, National Library.

Video conferencing as an enabler

This was an experimental session for Linda and her colleagues Debbie Roxburgh and Katrina Young-Drew, who had not used video conferencing before to reach schools.

“For us video conferencing is a new and exciting tool we can use to respond to the needs of remote schools and share our collections and resources”, said Linda.

“One of the most helpful tips we learned during today’s session was the importance of video conference ‘production management’. This includes identifying a director or chairperson to ensure the conference runs smoothly, and organising technical details such as camera presets and appropriate lighting. These are easy and practical things we can work on that will really improve the quality of future meetings”, said Linda.

For Gregor Fountain, head of history at Wellington College, the experience demonstrated the potential video conferencing offered for teaching and collaboration. “This experience really stimulated our thinking about how we can use this technology throughout our school and to make connections with other schools and educators.”

What’s next?

Planning is underway to hold a video conference in late November to share resources and technologies for history education. Participants will likely include Wellington College, Nelson College from Girls, National Library, and a curator from the Turnbull Library.