Languages

Greta Centre

MS LIBBY HOBSON, CO-ORDINATOR GRETA SENIOR LIBRARY

At the end of 2020 I described the Greta Senior Library as ‘the personification of the educational lessons learnt in 2020 – while the Digital Age provides us with endless possibilities in experiences and information, the reality of quality education is about meaningful relationships and connecting with others which the Greta Senior Library provides.’

In 2021 the Library in the Greta Statham building continued to be a place that not only provides vital educational resources to assist our Fairholme girls achieve their best learning outcomes; the Greta Library also continues to be an important part of the Fairholme community where girls gather not only for study, but also for recreation as can be clearly seen in the photos above. We are truly thankful for the generous donations from our P & F that enabled the purchase of furniture to facilitate the girls’ relaxation and enjoyment while congregating with their friends in the library.

POPULAR READS

Our most popular Fiction novel in 2021 was The Case of The Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer, which is the first in a six-book series, and the same book which provided the basis for the Netflix movie. This year the second most borrowed book was One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus, followed by Divergent by Virginia Roth which thus pushed last year’s third place book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, back to fourth position. The most borrowed author was Jackie French, followed by Rich Riordan and then Anh Do. The most popular author from the Senior Fiction shelves was Jennifer Niven, with two of her novels making the top ten and occupying the top position with Holding Up The Universe. In 2021 the most popular Biography was Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin, and the second most popular was Cathy Freeman’s Born to Run. The Greta Library loaned 4,330 physical books in 2021.

There has been a 500 hundred percent increase in borrowings for eBooks from Wheelers over the last two years, with the number of loans in 2021 more than doubling the loans for the previous year. The number of patrons using ebooks has grown from 12 in 2019 to 80 in 2021. The most popular book borrowed was the Karen McManus murder mystery, One of Us is Lying. More than 18 patrons averaged a minimum of 10 ebooks over the year, with the top ebook borrower in Year 8 recording 216 loans.

VORACIOUS READING

In 2021, 7-2 was the class who borrowed the most novels followed closely by 7-1 and then 7-5. The Year 12 cohort borrowed the most Non-Fiction books which probably reflects their assignment requirements.

PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE

The Middle School participated in the 2021 Queensland Premier’s Reading Challenge, which requires students to read 15 books over a period of three months. This year we had more girls than the previous year who managed to complete the challenge by reading a minimum of 15 books; however, special mention must be made of Year 9 students Bella Ryrie and Kadence Wilson who managed to read over 100 books in this time frame. Girls who completed the challenge were awarded a certificate signed by the Premier, at an Assembly in Term 4.

RESEARCH DATABASES

Our students can directly access quality academic research articles via database subscriptions such as EBSCO and JSTOR; or they may also indirectly search through these databases using a the Onesearch function within our Library Catalogue AccessIT. There were 2,905 requests for full-text documents through the EBSCO database which were downloaded, and the most searched subject area was Science. In JSOTR there were 9,737 requests for fulltext documents.

CLICKVIEW

In 2020 over 7,000 videos were viewed and in 2021 this number rose to a staggering 18,000 plus – showing that Clickview is both an important learning tool and a recreational option. The most watched videos were Bride and Prejudice (Year 12 English, Unit 3 task comparison of the film with Pride and Prejudice) Gone & Blood Ties Episode 1 of Mystery Road (Year 11 English written online article task) and Hercules (Year 7 English Myth Unit).

I must conclude by thanking Mrs Antoinette Porter, who sadly left us due to ill health at the end of Term 2 after her many years of work in the Senior Greta Library. The smooth running of the library in the Greta Senior Library can be attributed to the experience of our continuing staff, Mrs Ann Peacock and Mrs Janelle Powers, who joined us in Term 3. These two ladies go above and beyond to help make the Greta Library a vibrant and inviting learning space for our girls.

God | Respect | Enjoyment | Teamwork | Aspiration Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.

Kofi Annan