College Libraries/RICRAC

De La Salle Libraries

At the beginning of the year, we warmly welcomed Mrs Glenda Morris and Mrs Libby Lam, who jobshare the position of Literature Librarian in the Tiverton Library. Mrs Morris and Mrs Lam, both teachers, are undertaking further studies at CSU to qualify as Teacher-Librarians. Our tireless Library Technician, Miss Leanne Ickeringill, was unwell for much of the year, but is getting better and returned to part-time work after Cup Day. Thank you to Mrs Carmel Eyre for taking over many of her duties. We also welcomed Mrs Gab Windley and Miss Pauline Mulholland in Term 2, to help us with our many dayto-day tasks. A range of new initiatives has been introduced this year, including the establishment of the newsletter, Library News, and our thanks go to Mrs Eyre for her outstanding publishing skills. A Staff Book Club has also been established, with a number of regular staff attendees at the Peppercorn Café. The original Library Program has been renamed Library Reading Program, and reworked to include a systematic course of information skills, as well as the wider reading component, for all Year 7’s and 8’s. The student book club, RIC RAC has, for the first time, had an excursion to our local book supplier, Books in Print, to select titles for the Library. This was much enjoyed by all, and will be on again next year. And, finally, a range of tutorials for both staff and students has been offered after school each Monday in the Kinnoull Library. This is to help raise the profile of our excellent electronic resources, and encourage everyone to make use of them. Our print and electronic resources remain of excellent quality. Loans, particularly in our fiction collections, are outstanding, rising significantly each year. The number of PCs in the Tiverton Library has increased from 12 to 20, and in the Kinnoull Library from 12 to 16. We continue to strive to provide the best quality and most relevant print and electronic resources for our students and staff, in order to maintain a solid, rigorous collection of depth and breadth. Our online resources, World Book Online, Electric Library, Echo and ANZRC continue to be available from all networked PCs in the Library and the College. Our electronic resources make good quality, relevant, in-depth information available to all staff and students during the College day, without having to visit the Library. New acquisitions this year included over 200 fiction and 500 non-fiction titles for the Kinnoull Library. Subject areas for particular focus in 2009 included climate change, true crime, drawing, textiles, and genocide. Tiverton gained over 700 fiction titles and 500 non-fiction titles, with particular focus on information skills, recycling, energy, whales, transport and Asia. Our established programs continue, including the Primary Library classes run by Mrs Clare Kennedy, RIC RAC student book club run by Mrs Lam, Victoria Premier’s Reading Challenge run by Mrs Morris, and the Staff Holiday Reading Event. The Tiverton Library was open for the second week of the Term 3 holidays, and was well-patronised with a regular clientele each day. The Book Week quiz drew much interest, with daily winners of a book prize. The Staff Book Week Raffle raised over $200, which was put towards our current fund-raising target, new reading chairs for the Fiction area.

Susan Jost College Librarian