After our inaugural edition of the FLASH 2020-2021 where we introduced our monthly theme of how empathy helps us build a better world, our High School Librarian/Head Librarian and IBDP Extended Essay Coordinator, Dr. Tilke put together a great collection focusing on this core value. We thought it was a great chance to talk to him about how empathy plays a role in the libraries here at ASH and also to highlight the incredible work our libraries do on a daily basis, both on campus and online!

Firstly, we asked Dr. Tilke about what goes into creating and curating the various collections of incredible reads and resources. He explained that a number of different factors are involved including, “the ASH mission and core values, wider school initiatives and interests (e.g. wellness, service, gardening project), curriculum and activities. We’re not a national library, there is limited shelf space, and books have to earn their keep! After a while – and I’ve been doing this sort of work for 40 years now – all this becomes part of a school librarian’s DNA!” ASH certainly is lucky to have Dr. Tilke and all our other amazing librarians with the skills, passion and experience they bring to their work.

Dr. Tilke goes on to explain more about how these collections come together, “one thing I’ve learnt over the years is that there is often not just one place where I’ll come across physical and digital resources. I use professional skills of searching with various subject terms and reflect on different aspects (a bit like an internal brain-storm) and follow up on various thoughts or leads. Then I use various tech tools to record the curation. For the empathy collection, I used a facility on our Destiny library catalogue, but for other collections, I may use libguides which, as the term suggests, enable libraries world-wide to host their own unique content on the cloud.” It’s great to see how our librarians react to what is happening around the school and support this, so please check out this empathy collection. 

On the subject of empathy, we wanted to hear about Dr. Tilke’s experience with our students, after all he interacts with many students throughout their time here at ASH. Small acts of kindness on a daily basis was a theme that stuck out to him, going on to share a story about one such example in action. “A grade 12 student towards the end of her Extended Essay (EE), finished with one print resource, so that another student, undertaking an EE inquiry in a related area, could use the same resource. The first student well knew the pressures and needs of another student in a similar situation.” It is these small acts that indicate how our students think of others and demonstrates just how much this core value of empathy does help build a better world as we become better human beings. 

Don’t forget to check out the online empathy collection here!

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