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Newsletter to schools — Term 2 2025

Here's what's in our Term 2 newsletter:

New resources to help create readers
Kate De Goldi is the next Te Awhi Rito Reading Ambassador
Introduce your ākonga to AnyQuestions
Professional learning in Term 2
Lending services news
Online resources for Term 2.

New resources to help create readers

Screenshot of the 'Create a school reading community' presentation — first slide.

A new PowerPoint presentation to show your school community

We all know that a reading community and the culture that develops from this can't be left to individuals. It requires staff to collaborate and adopt a whole-school approach. This means embedding the joy of reading in classrooms, at home and in other aspects of school life, supported by the school library and the leadership team.

We have a new presentation on creating a school reading community for you to share at your school or Kāhui Ako.

Have a look at and share the presentation

Try book talk and book chat

Engaging students in discussions about books is a great way to foster a love of reading. Book talk and book chat are 2 effective methods to achieve this.

Find strategies, a short example video and more on our new web page: Book talk and book chat.

And check out other strategies to engage students as readers.

Kate De Goldi is the next Reading Ambassador

Kate De Goldi has been named the third Te Awhi Rito Reading Ambassador for Aotearoa New Zealand. Te Awhi Rito supports and champions the importance of reading in the lives of young New Zealanders, their whānau and communities.

Kate is a highly regarded and award-winning author, a respected and engaging broadcaster, teacher and public speaker.

Kate said:

I'm so grateful for the opportunity this appointment offers to contribute to the National Library's farsighted aspiration of building a nation of readers alongside Te Awhi Rito partners and the broader sector. It seems more vital than ever before that a multitude of voices advocate for our young people, and their communities why reading matters and the crucial benefits of reading for pleasure on education, life-long joy and learning.

She succeeds current Te Awhi Rito Alan Dingley and starts her two-year term as Ambassador in June 2025.

Read our media release

Introduce your ākonga to AnyQuestions

Screenshot of the ‘Classroom sessions’ web page on the AnyQuestions website.

AnyQuestions is a free service supported by the Ministry of Education, managed by the National Library and staffed by librarians around Aotearoa New Zealand.

Class sessions are a great way of introducing learners to AnyQuestions and showing them how to use it. All you need is one student or teacher to log in and type responses on behalf of the class. By using a projector (or similar) to display the chat, a whole class or learning group can participate and watch it unfold.

After the class session, ākonga can visit AnyQuestions to find help when they need it.

We offer 2 types of class sessions: information literacy and custom class sessions.

Information literacy workshops

These are shorter chats that focus on important media and information literacy concepts:

Fact-checking — is information online always true?
Algorithms, different sources — how do you find information on the internet?
Website evaluation — how do you check if a website is trustworthy?
Bias and perspective, lateral reading — is there only one side to every story?

Custom class sessions

Our librarians work with your class on their current research topic or question. They teach ākonga how to:

unpack the topic or question and choose keywords
decide if a website is trustworthy.

Book a classroom session now

If you'd like help with supporting information literacy in your classroom, get in touch now.

If you'd like us to deliver a custom class session, let us know:

the research topic
year level of your class
amount of time you'd like us to spend with your class
any special requests (e.g. introducing a particular resource).

Professional learning in Term 2

Participants at a National Library Services to Schools' learning event.

Most of our professional learning options are free and online. Here's some of what's on offer in Term 2:

7 May: Kia aroha ngā tamariki ki te pānui
8 May: Reading for hauora
12 May to 27 June: Online course — Growing and shaping your school library collection
14 May: EPIC resources for schools — advanced
21 May and 25 June: Library essentials meetings
10 June or 18 June: Introduction to media and information literacy — primary or secondary
12 June: What to read next

Find out more and register now for some great learning

Lending service news

Calendar with pencil to enter dates to order or return your school loan.

Submit your Term 2 topics selection and extra reading requests by 23 May. Term 2 books are due back to us by 27 June. Request books for Term 3 from 24 May.

Term 2 books may arrive a little later than normal

We expect some delays in processing your requests this term due to capacity issues in our Auckland and Christchurch centres.

This will be most noticeable in the first weeks of the term when we usually get a lot of requests. It might take longer to handle your requests than in previous terms. We complete requests in the order we get them, so please plan ahead and submit requests as soon as they are ready.

Check out our 2025 request and return dates

Find out what schools can borrow from us