Day 1: Morning Presentations
10:30 – 11:00 –“Turning Pages, Building Bridges: The Power of Family Book Clubs” (Staci Fox, American School of London)
In my presentation, I will talk about my new program: The Middle School Family Book Club. I will give a background of why & how I started the program, my book picks, how I set up the evening, how I harnessed parent volunteers, and how I will improve upon the program next year.
11:00 – 11:30 – “Maximizing Expert Resources and Author Visits Across the EC – 12 Community” (Lauren Boop and Eileen Kless, Carlucci International School of Lisbon)
“Engaging students with authentic voices and diverse perspectives transforms library programming and classroom learning. This session explores practical strategies for identifying, booking, and integrating expert resources and author visits into the broader EC-12 community. Participants will discover how to leverage resources and community-based initiatives like the Human Library, student-led thematic programming, and service learning to create meaningful learning experiences that support literacy. We will share real world examples of successful partnerships (including a third visit from 2026 Newberry Medal winner Renée Watson) and how to align visits with instruction to build sustainable programming that supports library engagement. Come learn about how our school:
-Utilizes authors like Renée Watson, Ellen Hagan, and Richard Zimler in our wider school community
-Integrates authors from Portugal like Raquel Briosa to support Portuguese language learning
-Supports interdisciplinary and project-based learning through the library from STEAM visits from experts, including a marimba builder
-Created a Human Library initiative to maximize the experts of our greater community
-Empowers students to lead library initiatives for activities like Martin Luther King Jr. Day
-Supports thematic programming and service learning for celebrations such as Women’s Day and Earth Day”
11:30 – 12:00 – “Turning the Page: Reigniting Student Engagement with Reading” (Johanna Schooley, Oakhouse School)
Why are fewer students choosing to read for enjoyment—and how can librarians work to turn the trend around? Recent research has shown reading for pleasure has been declining, and many young readers are feeling disconnected from books, stories, and sustained reading experiences. This session takes a closer look at reading engagement trends while digging into the personal, social, and motivational reasons behind the decline—such as time pressures, reading identity, relevance, and past experiences with reading.
This interactive session blends research with real-world practice. Participants will explore how librarians can move beyond simply promoting books to actively connecting readers with stories that matter to them. Rather than a one-size-fits-all solution, the focus will be on honoring choice, curiosity, and personal connection.
A key part of this session is collaboration. Attendees will brainstorm together and share what they are already doing in their own spaces of literacy to spark interest, build relationships with readers, and bring the stories living on library shelves to life. From programming and displays to creative student recommendations and community storytelling, participants will leave with fresh ideas inspired by peers facing similar challenges.
Come ready to talk, listen, share, and experiment—this is a working session focused on practical strategies, creative thinking, and renewed enthusiasm for helping students rediscover the joy, relevance, and power of reading for pleasure.
12:00 – 12:30 – “Booklists, Who Needs Them?” (Katie Day, Tanglin Trust School, Nadine Bailey, American School of Dubai) – Upper School Library
[description pending]
Day 1: Afternoon Presentations
13:30 – 14:00 – “Creative Approaches to Wellness Developed and Delivered by Your School Librarian” (Michelle Andis, International School of Florence
[description pending]
14:00 – 14:30 – “Creating a Dynamic Student Librarian Program” (Kate Adams, International Sharing School Taguspark)
This workshop explores how giving students meaningful roles in the library can actively support the library’s mission. Through tasks like advocating for student needs and promoting a reading culture, student librarians become integral to the library’s outreach, creating peer-to-peer engagement that boosts student involvement in the library’s services. Student librarians, empowered through training and leadership, can also act as advocates for library resources within the school. This can inspire faculty to integrate library services more fully into their curricula, as the student librarians become key voices in how library services contribute to learning and research. In integrating students into the library team, we foster a sense of ownership and agency that is foundational for reshaping library services in a way that is more aligned with student needs.
14:30 – 15:00 – “Creating a Human Library that Works for an International School” (Farin Mendis, International School of Prague)
Inspired by the beautiful idea of The Human Library started in Copenhagen, The Library Hub of the International School of Prague set out to create a Human Library for an international school setting. How could busy teachers serve as “books” to be checked out when they barely have time to go to the bathroom? How could we harness the diversity of our staff and further community to support inquiry – especially for the PYPx, PP & EE? The ISP Library Hub found a solution that worked for them and they are happy to share the idea and resources that they used with other international schools who are interested in launching a similar project.
15:00 – 15:30 – “Underused to Unmissable: Repositioning the Library as a Dynamic Learning Space for the Whole Community” (Ali Kennedy, TASIS The American School in England) – Upper School Library
I aim to present a case study based on my experience of redeveloping my current library. I will talk about the challenge of redeveloping a library that was so underused that most people in the school did not even know we had one. It had a massively dated collection, was unwelcoming and dreary and did not serve the needs of the community. I used the School’s Mission and Values to underpin everything in the strategic development of the space and the results have been clear – increased borrowing, demand for co-teaching, increased access to digital resources and a massive increase in footfall. With this there are new emerging challenges too. Additionally, I worked with the Head of School to develop a standard for school librarians – a rubric that covers all aspects of the job and helps to focus my own professional development. This was non-existent before, and it was difficult to find anything of this kind within the sector in general. Establishing this has confirmed the professional educator status of a school librarian – an essential component in raising the status of the Library in the eyes of the community.
Day 2: All Presentations
Early Childhood and Lower School Library Presentations
8:30 – 8:45 – “How to Run a Parent Book Club” (Astrid Krediet, St. Catherine’s British School)
This presentation will follow my learning curve on how to run a successful Parent Book Club, including how to overcome certain challenges (reading levels, language barriers, etc.)
8:45 – 9:15 – “Loose Parts in the Library” (Alicia Baine, British School of Brussels)
Our school library has become a dynamic play‑rich environment through the intentional use of loose parts, inviting children to explore stories, language, and ideas with their hands as well as their imaginations. This session will share how loose parts have been embedded in our early years and primary library practice to deepen engagement with texts, support oral language and narrative play and open up inclusive, low‑threshold entry points for reluctant readers, highlighting key routines, examples of practice, and the ways we have worked with staff to shift perceptions of what a library can be.
9:15 – 9:45 – “Book Connections and Collaborations” (Rebecca Battistoni, Istanbul International Community School)
As the new Librarian at IICS this year, I was looking for ways to integrate within the PYP other than just during a weekly “Library Lesson” storytelling or media literacy session. Working with the Grade 1 teachers, I realized that I could harness the students’ inquiries into bookmaking, using actual books in our collection as their jumping off point. This idea began with Grade 1 Research (using nonfiction insect books) and has grown into the Who We Are UoI’s in Grades 2, 3 and 4. Grade 5 will focus on their PYPx journey. At the end of the year, each of the elementary classes will have a published, circulating hardbound book placed in the Library collection showing their collaborative work. Student reading engagement has been high within each grade level, as we are using books to learn vocabulary, using books for their design aspect, and using books as models for the books we then create as a class. It has been a very successful collaborative project with teachers, students, the Digital Learning coach, and Library staff all involved. This presentation will go through the whole process, showing the steps I’ve taken to implement “Book Connections and Collaborations” at IICS. While not necessarily new, or groundbreaking, seeing what is possible might just inspire others to write and publish books with their students!
9:45 – 10:15 – “Ignite the Page: Building a Reading Culture from Elementary to Middle School” (Annie Harris, International Community School Addis Ababa)
This presentation will outline a dynamic strategy for building a robust and sustainable culture of reading that spans the critical developmental years from Elementary to Middle School. This initiative centers the school library as the central hub of learning at any school. Key strategies will be explored, including:
Instructional Relevance: Forging strong partnerships with all classroom teachers—across every subject—to seamlessly integrate the library and literacy resources into both curriculum and extracurricular activities, making reading relevant inside and outside the classroom.
Cultural Infrastructure: Establishing high-impact, school-wide reading initiatives, events, and a warm, flexible library environment to foster intrinsic motivation and joy in reading for every student.
Global Connection: Engaging the school community in widely recognized reading competitions and challenges, such as Book Bowl and the Iris Award, to elevate literacy as a celebrated, competitive, and communal event.
By focusing on environment, integration, and celebration, this framework provides the blueprint for transforming students from compliance-based readers into lifelong, passionate learners.
10:15 – 10:30 – “Beat the Screen: Combined Print and Audio Solutions for Young Readers” (Nathalie Morrissey, International School of Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Yaroslava Chernusenko, VOX Books) – hands-on session
Middle and High School Presentations
8:30 – 9:00 – “Supporting Academic Integrity and Research Skills in the Age of AI” (Mary Lawson, International School of Amsterdam)
This presentation acknowledges the complexity of this moment and focuses on actionable, library-centered approaches for supporting academic integrity and the ethical use of AI. While a growing body of research highlights the urgent need for AI-related upskilling for both students and educators, particularly around ethical use, there is still limited evidence-based guidance on best practices. This session positions librarians as collaborators and co-learners, working together to share emerging strategies and approaches that are proving effective in practice.
A key component of the session will be structured opportunities for discussion and peer sharing. The goal is to foster connection and a collective effort to support students and faculty through ongoing collaboration rather than isolated solutions.
9:00 – 9:30 – “The Quandary of Navigating AI Ethics, Cognitive Debt, and the Future of Independent Thinking” (Heather Caveney, American Collegiate Institute)
As Generative AI becomes an inescapable fixture in the educational landscape, school librarians face a variety of challenges: the “personalities” of AI tools, the ethical and cognitive risks they pose to our students, knowing when and how to support teachers and students around the use of GAI, and knowing and maintaining the alignment between our own “personal ethics” and the use of such tools.
In this session I will share my personal journey, and struggle, in coming to accept and use GAI tools. I will share how I have been approaching the use of GAI tools with my colleagues, what I have been sharing with students in my lessons, and the real concern I have that the “Field of Education” is not waiting to see what research can support, or not, in regards to the effective use of GAI for learning.
During the second half of the session I want to facilitate a conversation to learn what other librarians are doing and why. How have you navigated the murky ethical waters around GAI? Has your institution invested time and effort into being clear about their ethical stance on GAI, and do they have clear guidance in place for the use of GAI for both teachers and students? Is that guidance supported by research?
To truly “meet the challenge” of this era, librarians must help colleagues not to lose the forest for the trees; we must see past instant content creation to see the ethical and neurological costs of a technology that can lead to metacognitive laziness and a loss of perceived ownership over one’s own work. Please join me for a candid and authentic discussion.
9:30 – 9:45 – “Genrefy on the Fly” (Astrid Krediet, St. Catherine’s British School)
How to reorganise your fiction collection quickly and effectively using minimal preparation whilst still managing library classes. This presentation will give practical strategies.
9:45 – 10:00 – “Case Study Syria: DP Global Studies Source Evaluation Activity” (Kim Tyo-Dickerson, International School of Amsterdam)
10:15 – 10:30 – “Crowdsourcing and a Call to Action: Multilingual Collection Development for International Schools” (Helle Kirstein, International School of Amsterdam)
Hands on workshops
“Librarians Are Magic” (Aaron Tyo-Dickerson, International School of The Hague & MagicSchool AI Pioneer) – CDLT 1
Ready to transform how you promote your library and engage students? In this interactive session, you’ll discover practical ways to use MagicSchool AI to save time and spark creativity.
What You’ll Learn:
- Getting started with MagicSchool and claiming your free three-month Plus account
- Creating eye-catching promotions, personalized reading recommendations, and automated workflows
- Building custom tools tailored to your library’s needs
- Setting up MagicSchool classrooms for student learning
The Hands-On Part: Work in small groups to build real, ready-to-use outputs — program flyers, book lists, or email campaigns — that you can use immediately at your school.
Perfect For: Librarians ready to work smarter and bring innovative tools into their library spaces.
“Designing a Research Process Students Can’t Skip” followed by “PowerNotes Demo” (Brenda Brusegard, PowerNotes Director of K-12 Engagement) – Upper School Library
In an AI-enabled world, generating text is easy, but meaningful research is not. As tools increasingly shortcut writing, the real challenge for schools is ensuring students still engage in inquiry, source evaluation, and synthesis.
This session explores how librarians and educators can intentionally design and manage the research process so that thinking remains visible, scaffolded, and assessable, even when AI tools are part of the landscape. Rather than focusing on detection or prohibition, the session centers on process design, how students move from questions to sources to sense-making, and where that process often disappears.
Participants will examine practical strategies for:
-Structuring inquiry so it cannot be bypassed
-Making research thinking visible across age levels
-Supporting ethical and transparent AI use within research
-Using digital tools to document and support the research journey
Attendees will leave with a clear framework for strengthening research instruction, redefining the librarian’s role in an AI world, and designing research experiences that value process over product.