Brad Tyrrell is the Dean of Information and Learning Technology at Scotch College in Perth Western Australia. His role encompasses the management of a shared Junior and Middle School Library, a Senior School library, and their physical and electronic resources. In addition to libraries Brad oversees the Integration Specialist team whose role it is to ensure the effective use of technology in the teaching and learning programmes. Finally, in 2016 in a natural progression of innovation the College made him responsible for running the College print room which is also now undergoing its own process of change as all three arms, library, IT and Printing become one department that services the community together.
Brad has working in libraries for the past 5 years and before this he was the Head of IT at Kolbe Catholic College and was responsible for the first full cohort rollout of iPads to students in Western Australia. Brad has a Masters of Educational Leadership which I am sure he needs as he manages are total team of 4 teacher librarians, 4 ILT integration Specialists 6 non-teaching library staff and 9 level 1 IT support university students.
Brad is an avid lover of Audiobooks with 42 books at approximately 660 hours of Science Fiction and Fantasy read listened to in 2016! His favourite Authors include Brandon Sanderson, Michael G Manning and Robyn Hobb.
Keynote: The Library and Information Technology: being ubiquitous together
In 2017 the complementary roles of library and Information Technology are still undergoing fundamental changes in the way they interact with curriculum. This keynote, however, will present three different aspects of the challenge facing us. Firstly, the issue surrounding technological integrations that libraries need to embrace. This is not about the traditional forms of catalogues but more about operational efficiencies and the way we should be working with vendors to achieve the best results for the students. Secondly, the role that library has with technology integration teams. Too often today, the library team and the technology integration team do not work together to create and best support the curriculum and its teachers. Each team often operates independently from the other, putting pressure on budgets and resources and going as far as dilution of the library’s identity. Finally, a discussion of library’s place within schools and my professional circumstances as an example that others might like to use in their school.
Each of the three areas will address answers in the context of a library operating today, and forward planning for the future to predict how it might look in 2020.
Dianne McKenzie has been a school librarian for over 15 years in Hong Kong, and has branched out into full time consultancy and professional development. Her blog of 8 years – Library Grits, has a regular following and she has taken the term ‘life long learner’ personally, always pursuing ways to enhance her own learning. She is passionate about Information literacy, diversity and going beyond comfort levels.
An avid scuba diver, cyclist and photographer, she attempts to connect these passions wherever possible.
Keynote: Diversity in Libraries
Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal is an Assistant Professor at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She is the Programme Leader of the Masters Program in High Ability Studies and Gifted Education.
Aside from doing teaching supervision in Singapore, she also does clinical supervision among educational psychologists and graduate students in counseling psychology. Recipient of an Excellence in Teaching Commendation Award in 2012 and Service Commendation Award in 2013, she is a sought-after speaker and lecturer among varied local and international institutions and has lectured extensively in different countries on a variety of topics. She was also selected by the International Youth Library in Munich as one of their International Fellows in 2016 and 2017.
She serves as Chair of the Programme Committee for the Asian Children’s Writers and Illustrators Conference of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content held annually in Singapore since 2012. She has edited four books on Asian children’s literature which are compilations of notable presentations from the Asian Festival Children’s Content, featuring the Philippines, Malaysia, China, and India. She is now working on her fifth edited book which will feature Japan as country of focus.
Doing research for the National Institute of Education's project on Social-Emotional Learning, she has created a tagged collection of picture books in LibraryThing.
Myra shares her passion for reading and book hunting in her "Gathering Books" blog: http://gatheringbooks.org.
