I am teacher librarian at Istanbul International Community School in Turkey. I have been working here since August 2009 so almost five years now. It is my first experience working in an international school. I came to Turkey having worked all my career in New Zealand secondary schools, most recently as teacher librarian at Takapuna Grammar School.

In Turkey we have very strict customs controls and it is very hard to import classroom materials and books in English language. As a result our school has one ordering period each year – November and one bulk order delivery each year – August. So in my first months in Turkey, while adjusting to  a new school, an expanded library area, running libraries over two campuses, new curriculum, teaching primary and pre-school, living in the largest city in the country – I was asked to order ALL the library books, e-resources and library materials we would need for the following year. It was a daunting task. I started the task by consulting with my colleagues and completing a quick survey of the collection in both libraries.

Since that experience of being thrown in the deep end I developed some methods of wish listing throughout the year so I can at least be responsive to staff and student suggestions. I have convinced the administration to allow me some budget for ‘local purchasing’ so I can purchase throughout the year. We have a better way to consult with staff and students about their needs but it needs to improve and deepen. We have a wonderful librarians’ network here in Istanbul with 30 colleagues from international and Turkish private schools sharing ideas – we all face this situation with ordering and collection development. I have learned so much from our network meetings held three times a year.

I am looking forward to participating in this course as I know it will help me to: evaluate the resources we have in the library right now, develop ways to ensure we have student and staff voice in our purchasing decisions, think carefully about how develop our mother tongue collection so the indigenous writers of each culture are represented, expand our electronic resources. There is so much to learn.