Library News

Library in 2025

As the end of the year approaches, it’s a good time to share some statistics and borrowing information with the Chatswood community. This week, the library staff would like to highlight some of the general borrowing trends from this year.

Firstly, a total of 18,035 books have been loaned out across the school. This figure also includes books borrowed by our teachers, which shows that our school is an incredibly active community of readers.

Fiction versus Non-Fiction

Fiction continues to be popular, but there has been a notable increase in non-fiction borrowing. This year, 66% of the books loaned out to students were fiction, while 34% were non-fiction, up from 28% non-fiction last year. It’s wonderful to see more students engaging in learning new things or continuing to explore interests that may have started in the classroom.

Who's Borrowing What

As mentioned, non-fiction borrowing has seen a significant increase, which is fantastic. Mr. Matthews has worked hard to increase the range of texts in this section, and it seems his efforts are paying off.

There has also been an increase in borrowing of senior fiction books, overtaking our graphic novel collection this year, which is great to see. The junior fiction section remains very popular, and with new resources added each term, we expect this trend to continue.

Mr. Matthews has also embraced a recent trend in libraries known as “crowd theory,” which takes users’ thoughts and recommendations into account when selecting new books to purchase for our collection.

This has been implemented through a suggestion box for students, which Mr. Matthews has worked hard to fulfil throughout the year. This approach may be one reason more students are turning back to traditional literature.

The library teams hopes that you have a great weekend and until next week, keep reading.