Library News
This year has been another exciting and rewarding one in the Preston High School Library. Students and staff borrowed more than 3,000 books throughout 2025, a wonderful reflection of our school’s ongoing love of reading and learning.
From epic adventures and heart-thumping stories to thought-provoking nonfiction, our student readers tackled it all. Unsurprisingly, manga and graphic novels continue to be incredibly popular with students, while fantasy, mystery and romance fiction were the most borrowed fiction genres in 2025.
We added another 400-plus new books to the collection this year. The new additions include award-winning titles from Australian authors, diverse voices, and student-requested series, keeping the library fresh and full of great reads for everyone. The library also introduced magazines to the collection for the first time, inviting students to vote for their favourite periodicals. After a popular vote, we now have subscriptions to Frankie Magazine, National Geographic, Philosopy Now and How it Works for students to peruse.
Bookish events in our library hub
This year the library hosted a range of literacy and creative events, from book club meetings, colouring competitions and poetry workshops to our always lively lunchtime board games. Our regular Year 7 and Year 8 reading sessions continued to build strong reading habits, and it’s been a joy to see students discovering new authors and genres.
This year we also expanded digital access through Compass Library Links, allowing students to browse the collection, reserve items, and access research tools more easily than ever before, including from home. And we introduced Lib Guides, directly supporting student classroom learning through librarian-curated resource pages. These curriculum-aligned pages also help guide students through Preston's respective DaVinci, Bandler Parks and Ada Years programs. Students have access to all these guides when logged into the library Infiniti catalogue through Compass. You can explore some of them here:
Donate your old textbooks
Don't know what to do with your child's 2025 textbooks? You're very welcome to donate textbooks in good condition to the library to join our growing class sets of text books and prescribed English novels. These books are loaned out long-term to students whose families need help with schooling costs. Students who forget to bring in their textbooks from home can also borrow a class set copy to use for the day, where available (an option especially popular with our Year 7 and Year 10 students!).
Textbooks in good condition can be dropped off at the main school office or students can bring them directly to the library. Thanks for your support.
Lost books call-out
While 2025 was full of reading highlights, our annual stocktake revealed a number of books that haven’t made their way home yet. We’d love families to check bookshelves, bedrooms and bags over the holidays for any titles with a Preston High School stamp inside or a barcode on the back cover. Returning these helps us keep the collection strong and available for everyone.
A big thank all our enthusiastic readers, supportive teachers, and generous families who donated to the Library Fund. Your support keeps our library a vibrant hub of curiosity, creativity and connection. We look forward to doing it all again in 2026!
Lost property in the library
Finally, from lost books to lost property ... did you know the library has a small lost property collection? Right now it's bursting with calculators, charging cords, pencil cases, earrings and even a pair of spectacles. All these items were left in or around the library.
If your child recognises any of these items, please urge them to collect their property before the end of term. Items not collected will be donated or disposed of.
Nikki Protyniak
Library Manager