The school librarians involved in this project had a particular interest in school library leadership, management and innovative school library support for teaching and learning. Specific areas of interest included educational disadvantage, resilience, wellbeing, inclusion, ICT integration, family literacy and promoting arts in education. Through participation in this project, we aimed to achieve an expansion of the knowledge and experience of our librarian team and to expose them to a wide range of school library initiatives and practices in schools across Europe.
The JCSP Demonstration Library Project was established in 2002 under the Department of Education and Skills. Its brief is to improve literacy levels, develop a whole-school reading culture and enhance the learning experience of students. To date, the Project has expanded into 30 schools across Ireland, all in designated areas of disadvantage. Each library is staffed by a full-time professional librarian. Through its experienced team of librarians, the Project continuously develops and implements an ever-expanding range of programmes and initiatives to support student learning. The Project not only supports student literacy and learning within the school environment but also reaches into the home and the wider community. The focus is on developing an evidence-based practice approach in the libraries through the development and implementation of a range of programmes and initiatives which have been proven to have a positive impact on student learning and their experience of education. Involvement in this Erasmus+ project was seen as a way to expand the training and learning experiences of our school librarians, facilitating them to expand and develop the range and standard of supports to their schools.