Library
Are people still reading books?
February has flown by and our students and teachers have already loaned out 2025 books, in addition to a 136 computers, 22 calculators and 32 ‘other’ library resources. The reading culture at the College is very good, and the students’ enthusiasm makes Kilbreda a wonderful place in which to work.
Reading expands the mind, creates empathy in our students and promotes resilience and a safe place in which students can explore places and thoughts. Our ability to help out students who have forgotten or broken their laptops or calculators is an added bonus service the Library provides!
Our collections try to cater to the very diverse needs and reading preferences of our students, and you can see a breakdown of what has been loaned out over this short period below. We have also been updating our guides to the books – our large Holocaust, LGBTQI, Asian and First Nations guides – plus the smaller “if you like X you may like these” two-page guides.
Library resources loaned from beginning of Term 1 to Thursday 2 March | |
| Fiction Books | 1038 |
| Graphic Novels | 322 (including 10 non fiction graphic novels) |
| True Reads | 61 |
| Bold Collection (large print and dyslexic fonts) | 46 (out of a collection of 140 books) |
| Picture Books | 45 (several classes had a project using these!) |
| VCE Collection | 58 |
| Non Fiction | 71 |
| Teacher Reference | 146 |
| Class Sets Non Fiction | 102 |
| Class Sets Fiction | 126 |
| Japanese Language | 9 |
| French Language | 1 |
| Italian Language | 0 |
eBook and eAudio books
Over the month of February there have been 84 loans to 41 active patrons. This is an increase 58% in loans and 41% in active borrowers from the same time last year. We expect this to increase even further as this service is advertised and explained in the Reading Classes taught by Yvonne Langford, our new Teacher Librarian.
Your daughter can connect to this service and download while at school, or when using your home wifi. Best not to try and download away from these areas as the audio files are huge and will eat up your data allowance! Great as an alternative to music on bus trips and family outings. See the link to this from our Libguide at https://kilbreda.wheelers.co/
Oh yes – we also loaned out one Kindle which has about 100 ‘classics’ stored on it. We have six Kindles and they can be great for holidays. Lots of books on one easy-to-read device.
Cataloguing old and new books
Also during February, the Library has brought back ‘into the fold’ 499 Religious Education books which have been housed in various offices for many years. This makes these important resources available for students and staff who are pursuing deeper study into our faith. Sometimes the images used in these older books look dated, but the messages remain true.
Library staff have also added 30 new fiction books, 20 graphic novels, 15 VCE books, 14 non-fiction books, seven teacher references, four picture books, two true reads and 29 ‘other’ items. Quite a busy month!
Ordering books for students
We would like to remind students that we gladly accept recommendations for books to purchase, and that at least 95% of books recommended are bought. It is a truism that if you buy a book which someone has indicated an interest in then you are almost certainly guaranteed at least one loan of that book… and you may well get a flow on effect from the original requester recommending it to their peers.
Ordering graphic novels on social justice themes
Keep an eye out for a number of books we have just ordered from this rather interesting project which can be found at https://sjgn.uofsccreate.org/
We are always looking for books which ‘stretch’ people, as well as just entertain and these Social Justice Graphic Novels promise to do just that.
Indeed, most of these books have arrived, been processed and are already out on loan!
Angus Pearson
Library Coordinator