Love Your Library

A peaceful space to study

The Laurence Library has been very busy over the past week with students making the most of having a peaceful space in which to study for their examinations. And as our lower school students are avid readers, many are enjoying our lovely Library, either reading or studying, outside their timetabled lessons.

Mrs Sykiotis has curated more Wider Reading resources for the English Department. The focus for Year 7 is on writing brief book reviews in Oliver, the Library admin system, to tie in with their upcoming assessment about Wonder. The focus for Year 8 is on books set in WA as students are researching Western Australian tourist attractions for their advertising unit. Recommended novels from our collection are Zac and Mia, by local author A.J. Betts, Strange Objects, by Gary Crew and A Prayer for Blue Delaney, by Kirsty Murray. The focus for Year 9 is on classics. Classics recommended from our collection include Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Animal Farm, by George Orwell, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

LibGuides for the new ATAR Psychology courses of study and a comprehensive guide for Geography skills have been published on the Library Homepage. I am now looking at making LibGuides for Maths courses. After discussion with Ms Hewitt, Head of Mathematics, and Ms Jonas, Coordinator of OLNA, we are looking at also centralising resources for OLNA in LibGuides. The Library can provide a centralised, interactive site for resources. This will enable students to be able to work through resources at their own pace. However, it also gives teachers, who are running teaching programs outside timetabled classes, a site where they can collate their teaching resources and update them as required. Students can access LibGuides from their devices at any time, signing in through the Library homepage on SEQTA and navigating to Libguides. The plan is to develop comprehensive LibGuides for courses where there are no textbooks available as well as complementing ATAR courses with academic resources to challenge and extend our students. 

Having finished The Sympathizer, I read one of our new novels, Picasso and the Greatest Show on Earth by Anna Fienberg. I enjoyed this novel. A gentle read for teenagers, it explores the difficulties teenagers face as they evolve into adulthood. While being a teenager is hard enough, this novel looks at some of the social issues young people face as they navigate life. I have also started a non-fiction read, Murder in Mississippi, by John Safran.  My fiction choice for this week is another new novel, The Quick and the Loud, by Helena Fox. A read for older teens, the plot explores the chaos of contemporary Australian life. It is about young people coming to terms with the decisions made by previous generations affecting climate, their parents’ decisions reshaping their lives, their own decisions made without really understanding consequences and the inevitable chaos caused by the first adult experience of falling in love. Our Library offers a constant source for diverse and wonderful reads. Together, let us read.

Dr Annette Pedersen

Library Coordinator