Library News

by Emily Nancarrow, Teacher Librarian

While exploring the importance of vocabulary with a Year 9 Language and Literature class, we stumbled upon the word ‘abibliophobia’. Abibliophobia is the fear of running out of reading material, a fear I hope no Preshil student or teacher ever has to experience; and with the constant updating of both our digital and physical collections, I doubt they ever will.

The Preshil Library is an ever-evolving space of wonder, excitement and literature. One of the most exciting updates is the implementation of Accessit, our brand-new Library Management System (LMS). Accessit offers an attractive and user-friendly interface for students to navigate their expansive library collection and some other very specific and quite esoteric library functions that I will not bore you with today. With intelligent searching, easy integration with our multiple digital platforms and visually appealing web-architecture, it is the ideal program to support research and learning. Albeit a slow integration period, Accesit is finally ready and open for use.

Speaking of which, I still find many students both shocked and enthused to discover they have access to an extensive digital library collection through the Wheelers e-platform. With a handy app that can be downloaded to mobile devices, students and teachers have constant access to their favourite titles. If the desired title doesn’t appear available, a quick request to me will promptly fix that problem. For a librarian, nothing is more satisfying than helping someone solve an information conundrum!

I recently used the Wheelers e-platform to listen to the audiobook Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. A thought-provoking text, the story explores the importance of independent thinking and critically observing our surrounding world. I would recommend this read to anyone. While listening to the story of Guy Montage, a fireman who begins to question his life choices under an oppressive governmental regime, I was reminded of how nourishing it is to have someone read you a story. Similarly, I was reminded of how important it is to expose ourselves to a wide range of authors and titles that force us to think, question and make sense of our world.

In her eloquent Ted Talk The Danger of a Single Story, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie encourages us to broaden our global mindedness though listening to and reading a diversity of stories, told by a variety of people. She acknowledges that “a single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” What is literature for if it is not to help us experience the world through the eyes of another? In addition to providing us with direct access to a range of emotions, events and perspectives that would take us years to experience directly, literature can simultaneously be for leisure.

If you are interested and have some time up your sleeve, I am always looking for an extra pair of hands to assist with the slightly less exciting but oh so important tasks of shelving, covering books, shelf reading and displays (although creating displays is actually quite fun). CAS students are also welcome! Please send me an e-mail if you are interested. At Preshil, students are fortunate to have access to a thriving and current library, staffed with a passionate librarian. At Preshil we can do-away with abibliophobia, we have literature aplenty!

emily.nancarrow@preshil.vic.edu.au