Resource Centre

It has been such a busy but exciting term in the Resource Centre.

The Year 7 students all participated in a fun library orientation session exploring the Resource Centre, meeting the staff and finding their favourite books as well as a few treats along the way.

The Year 7 and Year 8 Reading Programs are well on their way. It was wonderful to hear all about the students’ reading experiences. The program instils a love of reading, improves literacy skills and teaches students some useful reading strategies that will make them better readers.

Our favourite day of the year is February 14th which is Library Lovers’ Day so the library staff wore pink or red, as did many staff members, to celebrate the day. The junior English classes all participated in Speed Book Dating sessions getting to know books in various genres and deciding which ones they would take out. The Year 7s all placed love hearts with messages on our Love our Library display. The lovely messages included  “the library is out of this world”, “I love how upbeat and colourful the library is” and ‘I love the kind staff and the wide range of books”.

We celebrated International Women’s Day with many students making Bead Designs and colouring in posters on this theme with the help of library technicians, Ms Csilla Schild and Ms Kylie James. Our eye- catching displays highlighted the stories of many inspiring women both in history and today. 

The first Book Club of the year, which runs every Wednesday Week A at lunchtime, attracted over twenty book lovers from across all year levels. Mr Milana, Ms Whitlock and I are so looking forward to hearing about the students’ favourite authors and books. We have planned lots of fun activities for this club. Ms Whitlock launched our first Marian Magazine Club (every Wednesday Week B).These enthusiastic students shared some wonderful ideas on the content and presentation of this magazine. 

A huge thank you to the many students from Years 9 -12 who volunteered to be Library Leaders. These students assist the library staff at recess and lunchtime by lending and returning books, shelving and helping students with their enquiries. They learn great social skills as well as practical library skills that will benefit them in their future work lives.

Circulation statistics this term have been impressive with over 1100 books borrowed just in February. Students’ favourites included the romance novel, The summer I turned pretty by Jenny Han and Smile by Raina Telgemeier. Dystopian books were as popular as ever with many students borrowing the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi as well as the mystery bestseller, One of us is lying by Karen McManus. We encourage students to add to the suggestion box so we can add their recommendations to the library collection. The Marian ebook collection also includes some great reads. This is easily accessible at the Resource Centre webpage or by directly visiting Marian ebook library and logging with student Google details.

We look forward to an even more exciting Term 2!    

Ms Sofie Norello

Teacher Librarian