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Ongoing Activities and Features Ongoing activities and features a. Monthly Book Club – The Book Club, introduced in 2012, returned this year with the same format: two groups, Junior and Senior, meet once a month, at lunch time, to talk about books; every month a theme is chosen by popular vote by the members of the club; students are invited to read any title that suits the theme and then share their thoughts on such title with the group. It has proven to be a great way to exchange recommendations, to get to know new books and share opinions, in a relaxed and friendly environment. The group discussions were facilitated by Ms Valentina Benivegna, School Librarian (Junior) and by Ms Vanessa Moran, English Teacher (Senior). Some of the most popular themes this year were Comics & Graphic Novels, Sci-Fi and Adventure. Thanks to the input and enthusiasm of new and old members, this year the Book Club has really taken off. We hope to continue this encouraging trend next year. b. ‘Reading for Pleasure’ Classes For All 1st Year Students – The purpose of these weekly classes is to encourage and nurture the activity of pleasure reading, as well as to let new students familiarise themselves with the HCK Library environment. As iPads have been introduced for all 1st Year students, the role of the ‘Reading for Pleasure’ classes was especially important this year, as they provided an opportunity for the girls to read on printed text and not on LCD screens, which, with prolonged use, can cause eye strain and headaches. c. ‘Student Recommendations’ Shelf – This is a space for students to recommend their favourite reads to their peers. The shelf has a prominent location in the library and it has proven to be very effective in helping the students choosing their next read. Other students’ reviews are spread around the library on the various bookshelves, making these titles stand out, while creating a personal and friendly atmosphere in the library. d. Reading Lists & Theme Lists – General Reading Lists tailored to each Year group and Theme Lists are available at the Librarian desk. This year the Reading Lists have been printed on a brochure format which has attracted many new readers; Theme Lists have also been produced, to guide the students towards a specific favourite genre, theme or style of writing1. All Reading and Theme Lists will be reviewed and updated every year. e. Book Swap Box – The Book Swap Box was introduced this year during Book Week. This new feature was the brainchild of Library Prefect Emily Daly, who wished to provide HCK students with a place where they could bring and take books freely. Together with the Class Librarians, we decorated the box to make it appealing and visible to everyone, and then invited all students to contribute to its content. Hopefully the appeal of the Book Swap Box will continue to grow with time. Special Events a. Roald Dahl Day – On the 11th of October, we celebrated Roald Dahl Day. Launched for the first time in 2012, it has since become one of the flagship events of the HCK Library. Roald Dahl Day is an event aimed at all 1st Year students, who are thus introduced to the library early in the year, in a fun and engaging way. This year, the day included a dressing-up party, a table quiz – with prizes for the winners and for the best-dressed team – and a movie, shown in the Cornelia Connelly Hall (‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ by Wes Anderson). This event is organised in collaboration with Ms Vanessa Moran and a group of enthusiastic and extremely helpful Transition Year students, who provided decorations, cakes and sweets, and help with running the table quiz. We also held an Art competition; the winner was chosen by the class librarians and was announced on the day. 1 See Appendix 1. 2 b. Book Week: To celebrate ‘World Book Day’ (Thursday 6th March), a variety of book-related activities were organised in the library throughout the week. Many classes participated, from 1st to 4th Year. The activities on offer were: 1. Literary Pictionary – The class was split into teams and each team had a set time to guess as many titles of books as possible. This was one of the most popular activities of the week; it is a very fast-paced game which rewards quick thinking, imagination and literary knowledge. Prizes were given to the winning teams. 2. Reading Chairs – An activity that can be described as ‘speed dating’ for books, it is designed to broaden the students’ reading horizons. Each student was issued with a score-sheet containing a list of the titles they were about to sample; at the end of the activity, they were invited to grade each title and decide whether they would like to continue reading them or not. In a very short time, the students were introduced to a wide and diverse range of books, and that often resulted in some of those books being borrowed later2. 3. Creative Storytelling with Rory’s Story Cubes – Rory’s Story Cubes are 9 dices with 54 images and symbols, which can be interpreted freely and used to brainstorm ideas for stories and characters. We have used these cubes to tell and write a collective story with a class, stimulating and encouraging the students’ imagination and creativity. 4. Table Quiz – Questions related to the literary world were tailored to different age groups. They included rounds on general knowledge, quotes, opening lines, famous authors’ pictures and fan-art of popular books and characters. Prizes were given to the winning teams. 5. Library Hunt – A set of questions was issued to 1st and 2nd Year classes, split into small teams. The answers to the questions were to be found within the various section of the library. It was aimed at broadening the students’ knowledge of the library, both in terms of layout and content, as well as introducing them to the concept of research3. Prizes were given to the winning teams. 6. Cupcake Party – on Wednesday, some Class Librarians from 2nd and 3rd Year baked delicious cupcakes bearing names of their favourite books and brought them to school, for a lunch-time cupcake party. 7. Blind Date with a Book – Around Valentine’s Day, the Library Team invited the school to go on a ‘Blind Date with a Book’. We chose some of our favourite titles, wrapped them in plain brown paper and then wrote a few keywords on the parcels to attract the readers “blindly” to the books. It was an innovative 2 See Appendix 2. 3 See Appendix 3. 3 and enjoyable way to discourage judging books by their covers and to create a buzz of curiosity and mystery around the books. c. ‘Fighting Words’ Workshop – On May 12th, a group of Transition Year students, accompanied by Ms Aisling O’Connor and I, had the opportunity to take part in a creative writing workshop held by Fighting Words in Behan Square, Dublin 1. Fighting Words was founded in 2004 by Roddy Doyle and Sean Love to provide a space to encourage and nurture creative writing for students of all ages. It is run completely by volunteers and workshops must be booked a year in advance, such is the demand. The workshop proved to be a great success; the students showed eagerness and enthusiasm towards the programme and they all produced very impressive pieces of creating writing. As a result, some of the students expressed an interest in joining the Fighting Words “Write Club”, an afternoon writing group aimed specifically at teenagers. Opening Times: 9.30 am – 5 pm Borrowing Times: Morning Break and Lunch Break; 3.30 pm – 5 pm Acquisitions a. Fiction – Over 220 fiction titles have been added to the Senior, Young Adult and Junior sections. One of the main goals this year was to increase the range of Hi-Lo books (High Interest/Low Reading Level) to appeal to students with learning disabilities, to reluctant readers and to exchange students. A wide range of Penguin Active Readers has also been purchased for the same purpose. b. Comics & Graphic Novels, Audio Books and DVDs – 27 comics & graphic novels, 44 DVDs and 11 audio books have been added to the collection. These purchases are part of an ongoing plan to expand the types of literary and visual resources on offer in HCK Library to meet the demands and needs of each student, and to assist with the school curriculum. c. Non Fiction – 62 titles have been added. d. Magazine Subscriptions – The monthly magazine publications available for this year were: 1. The Internationalist 2. Time 3. National Geographic 4. Scientific American 4 5. Discover 6. Finance Dublin 7. Saudi Aramco World Weekly Subscription: Hola Magazine (Spanish) e. Irish Times Newspaper – The Irish Times was available on a daily basis throughout the academic year. Collection Statistics Books and other printed materials: 4006 (Copies: 4167) Audio Books: 19 (Copies: 19) DVDs: 67 (Copies: 68) CD-ROMs: 7 (Copies: 9) Total: 4099 (Copies: 4263) Circulation Statistics Borrowed Titles: 357 Overall Borrowings: 614 Library team Librarian: Valentina Benivegna Library Prefect: Emily Daly Class Librarians: 1st Year: Ellen O’Byrne Jenny McKeever Josephine Sanne 2nd Year: Elisha De-Alker Naomi Tilles 3rd Year: Sara Dawson Alice Eaton Rebecca Rafferty 5th Year: Rosie Culhane 6th Year: Jennifer Hughes Kirsten Kean 5 Irish School Library Association (SLARI) Conference – ‘Libraries and the New Junior Cycle’ (November 22nd, Pearse Street Library). Speakers: 1. Annette Honan (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment ) provided an overview of the changes that are taking place and also highlighted some aspects of these changes that will directly relate to the work of school librarians such as the focus on key skills (e.g.
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