Presenters are listed in the order they appear in the Schedule. Please note, Links will be added as we receive them:
- Lindsay Zielinski (The KAUST School): Tiny Desk Concert (Library’s Version)
- NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series: if you know it, you love it. And if you don’t . . . get ready! In late spring of this past school year, we transformed our Elementary Library into a live concert venue during lunch recess. Grade 5 student bands performed from behind the circulation desk for an audience of classmates, teachers, parents, and administration from across all grade levels. This session shares how the event came to be, from inspiration, organization, invitations, and decorations, with practical takeaways for hosting your own library concert, whatever spaces or grades you have to work with.
- Carolyn Ann Jeziorski (UNIS Hanoi): Building a World Language Collection Collaboratively
- This interactive workshop explores how to collaborate with your parent community to curate your world language collections in your library. (might be called home languages)
- Leah Ittner (Formerly AISM Mozambique): Lean-in Librarians
- Librarians often work in silos at their schools, although they meet with lots of teams across the school, there is no one else in the school with their job. It can feel mighty isolating. This is a five minute slam to remind librarians that they are not alone and that they can lean-in and lean-on other librarians around the globe. It’s a call to action to keep showing-up to support one another, celebrate each other’s accomplishments, and be thinking partners when times are challenging. Viewers will leave feeling proud to be a librarian and with a tool kit to stay connected with one another after the conference.
- Fiona Shea (Duwlich College – Singapore): Share a Story, Build Your Community
- What if the most powerful stories weren’t on shelves, but in the room? This Human Library Experience centres on dialogue, where diverse voices are heard and honoured- creating space for empathy, connection, and shared learning that strengthens our school community through understanding.
- Erika L. Wigren (BASIS International School Bangkok): Beyond the Bookshelves: Designing Library Experiences that Create Connection
- This presentation will discuss practical and engaging events and ideas for helping to foster a love of reading culture your school and school library. As librarians, we should ask: How easy is it for every member of our community to see themselves as a reader and to participate in the library? This presentation will explore how librarians can intentionally design programs and experiences that move students and families from simply accessing books to connecting with reading. Through examples of student and parent book clubs, creative story times and literacy programs, and accessible library lessons and experiences, participants will consider the “why” behind programming. I will discuss how we can transform our library’s into a hub for readers of all ages and into a space that students/parents want to go to every day.
- Jennifer Hedrick (Jakarta International School): Dewey is Dead
- What happens when you ditch Dewey? For us, nonfiction circulation increased by 130%! I’ll share our journey from Dewey to a more student-friendly nonfiction system, including how we organized the collection, what we learned along the way, and ideas for adapting the approach across different grade levels.
- Tanya Else Maria Galetti (Chatsworth International School): Shelfies – Making Our Reading Community (and Collection) Visible
- One of the most popular learning engagements at the Chatsworth Primary library is the creation of shelfies. Shelfies are pictures of readers holding up 3 books that show what kind of reader they are, their preferences of what and how they read: specific formats, genres, authors, topics and themes.To make a shelfie, readers begin by thinking about their reading preferences. Next, they select three books that clearly show who they are as readers. Lastly, they have their picture taken. All shelfies get displayed at the library and at times also play on the library screen, making our reader community visible. Further, the shelfies become the centerpiece of the reader identity web of students in Y3-6. Throughout the year, we support students in uncovering their identity as readers. The shelfie is the starting point.
- Charity Cantlie (Yokohama International School): The Human Library
- The Human Library Pilot Project: how it was launched, what went well and this years plan!The Human Library invites students to learn through conversations with people rather than books. Inspired by the idea of “checking out” a human book, students meet with volunteers who share their experiences, perspectives, knowledge, and stories.
Through these conversations, students develop meaningful connections while exploring their interests.
- The Human Library Pilot Project: how it was launched, what went well and this years plan!The Human Library invites students to learn through conversations with people rather than books. Inspired by the idea of “checking out” a human book, students meet with volunteers who share their experiences, perspectives, knowledge, and stories.
- Raquel Ruiz-Cecconello & Hugo Radyn (CIA FIRST International School, Phnom Penh, Cambodia) – Censorship in School Libraries
- As a Librarian, how do you address censorship while building inclusive, diverse collections?We aim to start a meaningful conversation on how school librarians handle censorship and foster diversity within their collections. Participants will engage with targeted discussion prompts in small groups before sharing their findings and strategies with the whole room.
- Gabrielle Wong (Saigon South International School): The Art of Starting Over
- Moving to a new job? New country? Sharing ways to finding your footing, building relationships and maybe not change everything at once. We will also talk about the other side of the coin: what we leave behind.
- Susan Grigsby (Stamford American International School): LIT! Building a Library Intern Team
- Sometimes it seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done in a busy library. This session will discuss how a Library Intern Team was established, the kinds of things they do to help out in a busy library, and some tips and tricks for starting your own crew of future librarians
- Kerry Jane Kiely (Prem): The Impact of the Prem Reading Dog
- We have just introduced Attie, our reading dog, to Prem. It is very early stages but I would like to share the impact and benefits for our students in the library and why we decided to bring a dog into our school library.
- Blaire Hart (Saigon International School): Library Ambassadors Club: Fostering Belonging Through Student-Led Initiatives
- Cultivating true student agency in the school library can feel daunting, but it is the most effective way to build a welcoming, student-centered space. Drawing from the real-world experience of a first-year librarian, this session explores the practical journey of building a Library Ambassador Program that empowers students to lead events, design displays, and promote reading. Along with sharing lessons learned and practical tools that help students step into leadership, we will talk through the bigger questions about keeping a program like this thriving long-term.
- April Pleasants (Ayeyarwaddy International School- Mandalay, Myanmar): Libraries in Times of Uncertainty: Lessons from Crisis, Earthquake, and Recovery
- This presentation is a reflection on my journey as a school librarian in Mandalay during years of unprecedented uncertainty. Amid political upheaval, economic challenges, and the devastating 2025 earthquake, the library became more than a place for books. It became a space of refuge, learning, connection, stability, and hope. By sharing lessons learned, challenges faced, and actions taken, I hope to explore how librarians can adapt, lead, and support their communities through crisis and recovery while continuing to nurture a culture of learning and resilience.
- John McRobbie (Brighton College Vietnam): Tiny Changes, Big Impact
- We have all been there when starting a new position, facing a heavy teaching load, limited time, and scarce resources, wondering: Where do I start? I will share small, but impactful changes I have implemented across the two libraries I manage which have had a positive impact on pupil engagement. These include adjustments to the physical space, collection development priorities and extracurricular programming that have boosted student engagement, library usage and student independence.
- Angela Hildebrand (Bangkok Prep): Teaching Curriculum in the Library
- This is a reprise of a presentation I shared at the Thai School Leaders Exchange in March 2026 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center.
- Alison Lyford (The Alice Smith School): Tiny Explorers – Setting up a community playgroup in the library
- An overview of how I set up a community playgroup in the library, including securing funding, developing a collection appropriate for the audience and the impact that the project has had.
- Stojana Popovska (Canadian International School, Singapore): Beyond the Bookshelf: Building School-Wide Partnerships Around the Library Collection
- How we develop and move our SEL, DEIB, and PYP, Lang and Lit collections beyond the shelf? This session shares practical strategies for building purposeful collections and using them to spark classroom conversations, engage parents, partner with teachers and counselors, and build cross-divisional connections.
- Sarah Wakefield (Tashkent International School): Stepping In Without Stepping On Toes: Navigating Culture, Needs, and Change as a New Hire
- Describing my process and actions over last year and the steps I followed to make positive impactful changes
- Julie Muir (Highgate International School, Thailand): From Blueprint to Bookshelves: The Joys and Woes of Being a Foundation Teacher Librarian
- A Lighthearted Journey Through the Conception, Pregnancy, and Birth of a foundation International School Library (with a shoutout to Laine for the brilliant initial concept)
- Bec Taylor (International School of Beijing): Speed Lists
- We will harness the power of our group knowledge to drag and drop book titles into pre-prepated templates to create a massive bank of ready to print book recommendation posters based on SEL themes.
- Jane Hayes (Dulwich College, Singapore): Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Using National Reading Campaigns to Build School Reading Communities
- School libraries are often encouraged to build a culture of reading, but creating meaningful engagement can be challenging in busy school communities.This session will explore how DCSG Libraries have drawn inspiration from national reading campaigns in the United Kingdom, Singapore and Australia and adapted their ideas to suit the needs of our international school community. Rather than simply replicating large-scale initiatives, we have used them as springboards for local engagement, creating low-barrier opportunities that connect students, staff and families through reading