Library
Welcome to the beginning of Autumn. The library has been quite busy this year providing staff and students with the resources they need to teach and study efficiently. Since the beginning of this year close to 200 new items have been added to the collection, fiction books, teachers reference books, VCE collection items, ebooks, USBs, calculators and more.
New Books
Students have already made five pages of requests for fiction books and we have also ordered new Art books to keep the art collection relevant and fresh. Many other titles have been ordered from publishers’ and librarians’ journals, including of course a full set of the books nominated by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. These are good reads in themselves but will also play a role in Book Week when the winners of the CBCA book of the year are announced.
Marketing and STEM
This term the library is celebrating the “International Year of the Periodic Table” – with displays, posters, bookmarks and activities. Later in the year we will see how we can tie in with Science for Science Week.
We are also hoping to be able to use our display cabinets to provide the VCAL students with a space to display information and examples of the products and services they plan to sell to raise money for charity. This was one of the original reasons for buying the cabinets – to provide a space for teachers to display students’ work and also for students to advertise ‘good causes’.
A number of library book guides have been updated to reflect the purchases of the past year; Holocaust, Indigenous, Verse novels, Asian and LBGTQi. The library services brochure for new and prospective students has received similar treatment.
Other ‘marketing’ tasks have included making bookmarks to celebrate Easter, fantasy reading, Year 8 Good Reads and The International Year of the Periodic Table.
Collections
The picture book collection has been moved from the Reading Room to the popular lounge area of the library. This was a simple move which was done out of consideration for it:
- having grown out of its containers and
- needing a more prominent place to bring it to life.
We have also begun to place “Senior Students” stickers on fiction books. This will make it easier for senior students and teachers to find reading materials and it also provides a sign for staff at the circulation desk to talk about the book’s appropriateness for the younger students. This does not mean that the younger students will not be allowed to borrow those books, but rather that they will understand that there may be themes or prolix (big words!) language which may either not interest them or be very hard to understand.
We have also made a rare loan of one of our kindles which have hundreds of classic novels loaded on them. I have been surprised that so few students or staff have borrowed them – they are excellent for taking on trips as you have a library to read on one device!
Parent Book Group
A reminder that our first Parent Book Group gathering for this year will be on Wednesday 20 March at 7:00pm in the Library. Please email Bernadette.Kean@kilbreda.vic.edu.au to express interest or if you have any queries.
Reference Services
The library has provided research into the debating topics for the College’s three debating teams, newspaper articles for issues to teachers and students and has updated the Libguides for Food Studies, Social Justice, Creative Commons and English.
Angus Pearson
Library Coordinator