Parent and Visitor Guide

The Dixie Grammar School Michael Parker & Junior School Libraries

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Guide to our Library Services: Parents and Visitors

Think...Ask...Read...Imagine...Create...

Guide to our Library Services for Parents and Visitors We have two libraries at The Dixie Grammar School: the Michael Parker Library at the Senior School and our Junior School Library. This leaflet outlines of some of the main resources and services our libraries have to offer. The guide is also available from our Library Online website.

Staffing Professional Librarian: Mrs Anne Robinson School Library Association School Librarian of the Year 2005 for the UK. Mrs Robinson manages the resources, services and facilities across the libraries at the Junior and Senior Schools. She works alongside the Library Co-ordinator, Mrs Enston, at the Junior School. Her role is to plan and deliver research and study skills lessons, inductions for students and staff, INSET, reading development, ICT skills development and extra-curricular activities in collaboration with teaching staff. We hope to be able to extend this kind of work to the Junior School in the future.

Library Co-ordinator (Junior School): Mrs Debra Enston Mrs Enston organises an exciting range of events and activities throughout the year in the Junior School Library to encourage reading and literacy. She also manages the Student Helper Team, alongside her very busy teaching commitments.

The Michael Parker Library We are very proud of our Senior School Library. It was officially opened in March 2010 after extensive refurbishment to create a 21st century library in our historic main building. It is very popular with our staff and students.

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Resources

Physical resources:  Developing range of up-to-date books to support and extend the curriculum and encourage reading for pleasure.  Other multi-media resources include newspapers, magazines and DVDs.  Helpsheets and presentations covering a range of topics including Internet searching, creating bibliographies, evaluating sources.

E-resources and future developments The Librarian has developed an extensive range of online services including Research Guides with evaluated weblinks, videos and downloadable materials. We also have a series of superb online subscription

databases available for use by staff and students. These databases are suitable for a range of subjects. We are also considering adding e-books and e-readers to our services in the future. We have access to Listening Books, an online audio streaming service providing children’s books in audio format.

2) Facilities There is flexible space for class or small group use, plus soft seating and a range of well-used ICT facilities. The Library may be booked by staff for classes or small groups. Mrs Robinson encourages staff to plan activities collaboratively with her to ensure that the library is used effectively.

3) Reading Development Encouraging our students to read: A main focus of our work is to guide and support students in developing and widening their reading. The following activities are offered: 

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Reading Development Programme: Mrs Robinson works with the English Department to design and deliver a Reading Challenge for students in Years 6 to 8 to encourage reading for pleasure.

Individual guidance is offered throughout the day to students to help them with selecting reading materials from a wide range of genres.

We utilise technology to encourage reading. Through Library Online, students are supported with the use of wikis, blogs and a range of other web-based services. We are also looking at purchasing e-books and e-readers for the Library in the future!

Extra-Curricular Activities: reading is a constant theme throughout the year with author visits, reading groups, World Book Day, quizzes and competitions taking place.

4) Information Literacy Skills Developing skills for the future: We feel that all students need to improve these skills to be prepared for adult life: 

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Research and Study Skills: Mrs Robinson offers support with teaching research and study skills such as planning research, locating and evaluating information, citing sources, avoiding plagiarism and creating bibliographies. She works with teachers to plan a lesson or series of lessons to be delivered in the Library using our resources and facilities. All teaching resources that she creates are downloadable from the Library Online website.

Library Inductions usually take place in the Autumn Term. These can be tailored for Year 6 classes, students new to the school, and Sixth Form students.

The Junior School Library Our Junior School Library is situated on the top floor of our main building in Wellsborough. We are now entering an exciting phase in its development. Since the Summer of 2011, our Librarian, Mrs Robinson, has worked together with the Library Co-ordinator, Mrs Enston, to upgrade and improve the library. Many thanks are owed to the Parent Volunteers and others for their help and to the PTA for their support in purchasing Junior Librarian.

1) Resources   

The existing books have now been assessed and sorted before being catalogued onto our computerised system, Junior Librarian.

Hundreds of new books have been carefully chosen to support the curricular and leisure needs of the school and are now being added to stock.

Over the next few years, we will be making further purchases in a range of media to improve our library.

2) Facilities and Services     

The Library can house one class at a time and each class has a weekly booking to choose books and read.

Students will be taught how to find books in the Library for themselves, facilitated by clear guiding and signage.

We plan to deliver research skills lessons in the future, using the combined facilities of the Library and the ICT room next door.

Mrs Enston organises a range of activities and events to enthuse the children about books and reading , including the Puffin Book Club.

We also have an keen Student Helper Team with students from Year 5.

Joint Services 1) Library Online Services The libraries have an extensive range of websites designed to support and extend our services—Library Online Services. This Virtual Library is available any time anywhere with library news, evaluated weblinks gathered to support staff and students, rolling news feeds, downloadable resources and much more! Use our QR Code on the front cover to link to the site.

Our main Library Online site is: http://library-online.org.uk Our Research Guides can be found at: http://library-online.libguides.com

2) Leicestershire Services for Education We now subscribe to LSE, our local Schools Library Service. This enables us to borrow collections of books support the curriculum and also to tap into further expertise. LSE also has extensive additional services which enhance our work as a school, such as access to online databases, audio books, artefact collections and so on.

We hope this quick tour has been useful to you!

DGS Libraries 2013