Library News
News from the Louise Humann Library
The crispy August mornings have brought lots of students into the library, looking for a warm space before the sunshine breaks through each day. Lots of students playing cards, while others are reading some of the new magazines or catching up on their sporting activities in the Warragul or Pakenham Gazettes.
Mrs Donna Davidson has done a mountain of work to catalogue and cover the new books in super quick time to get them out to the avid student readers. She also meticulously searches for images or articles that contain Marist Sion students or staff to keep a detailed record for the archives.
Celebrating Children’s Book Week and Australian School Library Day
What is Children’s book week?
Children’s book week has been celebrated in Australia since 1945, it was created by the Children’s Book Council of Australia to celebrate reading and writing children’s books.
The theme in 1945 was ‘United in Books’ and this year’s theme is ‘Book an Adventure’.
This year is the 80th year anniversary, each year the Children’s Book Council has been dedicated to ‘inspiring young minds to journey through the countless worlds that books offer.’
As well as giving ‘night before’ headaches to parents and families when their children want to dress up as Hermoine, Captain Feather sword or Wally - this week gives the quiet and usually introverted librarians the chance to demonstrate their costume skills.
Children’s book week is also a perfect opportunity to explore new books, authors and genres. Don’t limit yourself to picture story books, expand to some graphic novels or some non-fiction books!
What is the Australian School Library Day?
This event is celebrated on Wednesday 20 August during Book Week.
Australian School Library Day started three years ago with the purpose of celebrating and highlighting the glorious variety of things that your school library staff do - especially those things that may normally be ‘hidden’ from view but are so essential to the far-reaching web of impact that the school library has in your school. By raising awareness of the benefits of a well-resourced and suitably staffed school library we hope to ensure that future generations enjoy them as well.
The theme for 2025 is All the Literacies. A well-resourced school library with supported staff is the most precious and effective resource a school can have when it comes to supporting reading literacy, reading for pleasure and whole school reading initiatives. Yet a library and its staff can offer even more when it comes to curriculum areas such as information literacy, media literacy, digital literacy, health literacy, social and emotional literacy, cultural literacy, science literacy, financial literacy… the list goes on and on! The 2025 Australian School Library Day theme recognises that while school libraries are critical for reading literacy to be meaningful and enduring, they are also essential to EVERY long-term education strategy and every student deserves access to one to be the very best they can be, no matter where they live or what kind of learning challenges they may face. [Source]
Marist Sion Staff as active readers and book lovers
Staff were given the opportunity to complete a questionnaire about their reading habits and memories of favourite books. Erin Gaze created posters for each staff member based on their responses. Below you can see some of the staff posters, with wonderful results.
As always, we remind students and families that we are open from 8.00am every morning and close at 4.30 every afternoon except Friday (4.00pm). Senior students are always welcome to spend time studying in the library as they prepare for the end of the year.
Homework club is staffed by Learning Support Officers who are very knowledgeable and helpful with a wide range of tasks and subjects.
The study skills handbook site (www.studyskillshandbook.com.au) has lots of extra information and activities for you to complete to help you build your skills for school. All students have access to the handbook via the Simon site. There are a range of very useful topics that you can access with quick guides and information. Please ask the friendly library staff if you would like more details or assistance. https://www.studyskillshandbook.com.au/
Jo Keating
Library and Information Services Leader