Resource Centre

Research Guides

As the year progresses, improving upon research skills and study habits is an important part of the learning process. There is a specific section on the Resource Centre website to assist in these areas called Research Guides. Available from the Quick Links page, these guides include information on how to locate appropriate research for your assignments - with an explanation of the various types of resources the College provides and what they are most suited to; information on planning your research and various strategies to help in writing different types of assignments; and an overview on evaluation of resources and how to think critically about information. There is also a section including links and information on how to improve research skills in general.

Overdrive for ebooks

With the school holidays upon us, access to holiday reading has never been easier! There are over 200 ebooks available (both print and audio books) including the entire Harry Potter collection - excellent for long car trips.

Ebooks are available directly from the Resource Centre library catalogue Oliver (students must login using their College account - the same details they use to login to their computer), or by connecting directly to the Overdrive platform, either through the Overdrive Borrower Interface, or by downloading the Overdrive app directly to your device. Students simply need to login using their College username (the same username they use to log into their computer).

Review: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff - The Illuminae Files_01

Future dystopian, science fiction, computer nerds rule the world, girl hero, love story, artificial intelligence, biological warfare and mutant humans infected with a deadly virus; this book is genre busting at its best.

Illuminae is innovative and compelling, as such it is the quintessential page turner. It will appeal to a wide range of readers and age ranges

The mixed-media layout means this book doesn’t read like a ‘regular’ novel and, while hefty at 599 pages, it feels like you’re snooping through the private security files of a top-secret agency, rather than wading through a War and Peace-esque tome (no offence Tolstoy). Illuminae is the full immersion experience into this futuristic world - transcripts, emails, diagrams of spacecraft, count downs, death tolls, instant messaging and memory logs.

The Gold Inky Award winner in 2016 (Australian teen voted awards), Illuminae is the first book of a trilogy, Gemina was released at the end of 2016 and the final installment is set for release at the end of this year. If you’ve been captivated by series like The Hunger Games, Divergent and Maze Runner, you might like this series. It is not written in the same style as any of these books, but they have the same fast-paced, teen hero, suck-you-in-spit-you-out plotlines.

Written for the mature teen with a strong stomach (graphic descriptions). Keep your eye out for Illuminae on the shelves - hard to miss with the bright orange cover!

Mrs Caitlin Enever

Librarian Curriculum Resources