It's been a tough few years for schools in the local authority but lots of excitement this term about Carnegie shadowing and the recent announcement of the longlists. Clare Ackroyd, librarian at host school Royds Hall, has dedicated a huge space to featuring a display of previous Carnegie medal winners from the past illustrious 80 years, and is enthusing students about shadowing in 2018. BBG Academy has been engaging students with both Greenaway and Carnegie Medal shadowing for the past nine years, supported by Karen McKirgan, their LRC Manager (and a YLG committee member). Four Year 10 students have already signed up for Carnegie shadowing, determined to plough through GCSEs while enjoying reading, reviewing and discussing the shortlisted titles. There's a lot of guessing and speculation going on about which of the 20 books will make the final cut - all to be revealed on 15 March at the Amnesty UK shortlisting event in London. On another positive note, Jac Naylor, Librarian at North Huddersfield Trust School, announced that her school lbrary had just been awarded £8K from the Foyle Foundation school library scheme. Jac's successful bid will allow her to overhaul the library's very outdated non-fiction collection, support reader development initiatives like Carnegie shadowing and purchase tablets for use in the library. Jac said preparing the bid was speculative and a lot of hard work - her Bursar provided all the financial details - but obviously paid off in the end. I've supported several local schools in the past who needed help putting bids together; it is about having clear, sustainable objectives and being able to prove this to the funding body. Other librarians and LRC managers should be encouraged by Jac's success. Our summer network meeting will be hosted by Kirklees College - we self-facilitate and try to move locations around the local authority, which is huge and nominally has Huddersfield as its geographical centre. It's important to have guest speakers too, and highlight examples of good practice, otherwise there might be the tendency to do nothing but moan about shared issues. We've had recently had speakers from Wakefield Mental Health Museum, 2cqr Self Issue and Huddersfield Lit Fest; CPD and training are regularly discussed, as are news and views from the public library world. So, watch this space, especially when shadowing begins in earnest!