- School libraries
- Services to Schools
School libraries
Visit page- Understanding school libraries
- Leading and managing
- Services to Schools
- School libraries
Leading and managing
Visit page- Leading your school library
- Managing your school library
- Services to Schools
- School libraries
- Leading and managing
Managing your school library
Visit page- School library budget
- Annual report
- Evidence-based school library practice
- Services to Schools
- School libraries
- Leading and managing
- Managing your school library
Evidence-based school library practice
Visit page- Evidence-based practice and why it matters
- Planning successful user-centred change
- Gathering evidence from existing research and knowledge
- Gathering your own evidence
- Turning evidence into action
- Journey mapping for school library design
- Managing your school library staff
- School Library Development Framework
- Collections and resources
- Library systems and operations
- Services to Schools
- School libraries
Library systems and operations
Visit page- Your library catalogue
- Record Manager: Cataloguing service for schools
- Library operations
- Services to Schools
- School libraries
- Library systems and operations
Library operations
Visit page- Getting started in your school library — an operations checklist
- School library suppliers list
- Stocktaking guide
- Earthquake, fire, or flood: Impact on school libraries
- Radio-frequency identification (RFID)
- Tips for moving your library
- School library mergers
- Place and environment
- Library services for teaching and learning
- Videos
- Stories
- Services to Schools
- School libraries
Stories
Visit page- Whare Ahuru Mowai — a future-focused library space
- Student Library Review Group — giving students a voice
- Positive rewards from creating a school-wide reading culture
- The Poppy Blanket
- Encouraging reading through generous lending policies
- Genrefication — one primary school librarian's experience
- Inquiry into inquiry: The Marlborough Inquiry Project
- Supporting inquiry learning in kura kaupapa Māori
- She'll be OK: Growing confident team members
- From information overload to streamlined searching
- Professional development through online learning
- Services to Schools
- School libraries
- Stories
Professional development through online learning
Visit page- Learning about raising readers at Sylvia Park School
- Learning to develop a responsive secondary school library collection
- Learning about raising readers at Oropi School
- Learning to develop a responsive primary school collection
- Experiencing the benefits of facilitated online learning
- Online PD — an 'anchor' during a pandemic
- Projects to improve student learning
- School loans case studies
- Summer reading stories
- Research
- Reading engagement
- Services to Schools
Reading engagement
Visit page- Understanding reading engagement
- Services to Schools
- Reading engagement
Understanding reading engagement
Visit page- Why reading engagement matters
- Reading for pleasure — a door to success
- Reading for wellbeing (hauora)
- Reading promotion
- A school-wide reading culture
- Organisations, events, and awards celebrating reading
- My reading superhero
- Services to Schools
- Reading engagement
- Understanding reading engagement
My reading superhero
Visit page- Di-Kun — Mrs Dawson, reading superhero
- Eban — my Mum, reading superhero
- Eva — my Mum, reading superhero
- Morgan — my Mum, reading superhero
- Nicole — my Grandpa, reading superhero
- Rochester — Miss Webster, reading superhero
- Sam — my Mum, reading superhero
- Sarah — Miss Pritchard, reading superhero
- Libraries supporting readers
- Children's and youth literature
- Family, whānau, and community connections
- Teachers as readers
- Strategies to engage students as readers
- Summer reading
- Services to Schools
- Reading engagement
Summer reading
Visit page- Take a community approach to summer reading
- Research on the summer slide and summer reading
- Schools — how to support students' summer reading
- Services to Schools
- Reading engagement
- Summer reading
Schools — how to support students' summer reading
Visit page- Plan a summer reading initiative
- Principals — lead summer reading
- Teachers — prepare your students for summer reading
- School libraries — encourage summer reading
- Measuring the impact of summer reading
- Families — keeping your child or teen reading over summer
- Public libraries — encourage summer reading
- Videos
- Research
- Digital literacy
- Lending service
- Services to Schools
Lending service
Visit page- Borrowing from us
- What you can borrow
- Books in our lending collections for schools
- Dates to request or return books
- School loan coordinators — how to use our lending service
- Services to Schools
- Lending service
School loan coordinators — how to use our lending service
Visit page- School loan coordinator role
- Quick guide
- Work with teachers to plan your requests for books
- Request books
- Receive and manage your books
- Return your books to us
- Renew books, overdue books, lost or damaged books
- Help with registering, changing coordinator, signing in
- Home educators — how to borrow our books
- Lending news
- Teaching and learning resources
- Services to Schools
Teaching and learning resources
Visit page- Resources for learning
- Services to Schools
- Teaching and learning resources
Resources for learning
Visit page- Resources for teaching NZ history topics
- Services to Schools
- Teaching and learning resources
- Resources for learning
Resources for teaching NZ history topics
Visit page- Arrival and settlement of Māori in Aotearoa NZ
- First encounters and early colonial history of Aotearoa NZ
- Te Tiriti o Waitangi / Treaty of Waitangi and its history
- Colonisation/immigration to Aotearoa and the NZ Wars
- Aotearoa NZ's national identity in late 19th/early 20th centuries
- Aotearoa NZ and our national identity in late 20th century
- Aotearoa New Zealand's role in the Pacific
- Storybook app: Turikatuku — Te wahine taki wairua
- Te Kupenga: Stories of Aotearoa New Zealand
- Services to Schools
- Teaching and learning resources
Te Kupenga: Stories of Aotearoa New Zealand
Visit page- About Te Kupenga online
- Waka sail
- Drawn to te ao Māori
- Letter from Eruera
- Meeting Hongi Hika
- Another view of Waitangi
- Whaling in the bay
- Moko of Kawepō
- Hākari
- Eight-hour-day champion
- Signing the Treaty
- He wahine toa
- He hononga tāngaengae
- Selling a farming dream
- ‘I shall not die’
- Actions at Parihaka
- A taxing imposition
- Digging for livelihoods
- Champion of women in medicine
- ‘It’s just hell here’
- Safe sex pioneer
- Sāmoa mō Sāmoa!
- A Japanese songbook
- Custom meets colonisation
- ‘Educate to Liberate’
- The dawn raids
- ‘Not one more acre’
- Toitū te whenua
- Cambodian journeys
- Halt the racist tour
- For generations to come
- The New Zealand Wars
- Audiobooks and eBooks for students with dyslexia or other print disability
- Teaching tools and resource guides
- Services to Schools
- Teaching and learning resources
Teaching tools and resource guides
Visit page- Curiosity cards for inquiry
- Services to Schools
- Teaching and learning resources
- Teaching tools and resource guides
Curiosity cards for inquiry
Visit page- Set 1: He Tohu and Tuia — Encounters 250
- Services to Schools
- Teaching and learning resources
- Teaching tools and resource guides
- Curiosity cards for inquiry
Set 1: He Tohu and Tuia — Encounters 250
Visit page- Māori bartering with Joseph Banks (CC0001)
- Te Horeta's nail (CC0002)
- The 'Crook Cook' statue (CC0003)
- Burning the forest (CC0004)
- A New Zealand 1951 fifty pound note (CC0005)
- Tuki te Terenui Whare Pirau's map (CC0006)
- 2017 Women’s March (CC0007)
- Te Rangitopeora (CC0008)
- The bicycle and women's suffrage (CC0009)
- Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia (CC0010)
- Mere Ruiha Hakaraia/Mary Bevan’s signature on the 1893 Suffrage Petition (CC0011)
- Girls can do anything (CC0012)
- 1893 anti-suffrage cartoon (CC0013)
- Frances Parker’s Women’s Social and Political Union Medal for Valour (CC0014)
- Mt Cook School in Wellington (CC0015)
- Set 2: Tuia Mātauranga
- Services to Schools
- Teaching and learning resources
- Teaching tools and resource guides
- Curiosity cards for inquiry
Set 2: Tuia Mātauranga
Visit page- Navigation (TMCC1)
- Waka hourua (TMCC2)
- Māori bartering with Joseph Banks (TMCC3)
- Te Horeta's nail (TMCC4)
- Matau rino (TMCC5)
- Whakapapa (TMCC6)
- 'Crook Cook' statue (TMCC7)
- Silver fern (TMCC8)
- Huia (TMCC9)
- Hāngi (TMCC10)
- Mt Cook School in Wellington (TMCC11)
- Kahu kiwi (TMCC12)
- Hikoi (TMCC13)
- Whales (TMCC14)
- Dawn raids (TMCC15)
- Cross-cultural identity (TMCC16)
- Multiculturalism (TMCC17)
- Kauri dieback disease (TMCC18)
- Blank curiosity card template
- Fertile questions
- Primary sources — how to use them
- Inquiry exemplars and templates
- Guides for exploring children's and YA literature
- Explore He Tohu with your students
- World War 1 (WW1) resources
- Topic Explorer guide
- EPIC guide
- AnyQuestions guide
- DigitalNZ guide
- Papers Past guide
- Index New Zealand (INNZ) guide
- Videos
- Topic Explorer
- Our work
- Services to Schools
Our work
Visit page- Our vision
- Contact Services to Schools
- Latest news and updates
- Newsletters
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- Our work
Videos
Visit page- Leading a learning community
- Modern library learning environments in Christchurch schools
- School libraries: Excellence in practice — Amesbury School
- Riccarton book club
- Developing digitally literate learners
- Creating a school-wide reading culture
- Te whakahiratanga a nga whare pukapuka
- The importance of libraries
- Te wahi
- Te wahi — Place
- Ngā rauemi
- Ngā rauemi — Resources
- Ngā whakaritenga
- Ngā whakaritenga — Access
- Ngā kamahi
- Creating a reading culture — Windley School
- School libraries: Excellence in practice — Ormiston Senior College
- School libraries: The heart of a reading culture at Hurupaki School
- Creating a school reading community
- Creating a reading culture — Matarau School
- Reading Together at Ohaeawai School
- School libraries: Excellence in practice Raroa Intermediate
- School libraries: Excellence in practice — Viscount Primary School
- Fertile questions explained
- The power of visual material
- Ideas for exploring Te Horeta's nail
- Using the '2017 Women's March' curiosity card
- Localising the curiosity cards templates
- Using the 'Crook Cook' curiosity card
- 'How is it activism to ride a bicycle?' Exploring the 'women cyclists' curiosity card
- Ideas for research activities to explore fertile questions
- Primary sources: The National Library of New Zealand collects, preserves and makes them available
- Primary sources that the National Library of New Zealand collects
- The National Library of New Zealand collects the real stuff of history
- Researchers use primary sources to create new works
- Research
- Professional learning and support
- Tuia Mātauranga
- Services to Schools
Tuia Mātauranga
Visit page- Voyaging through Aotearoa New Zealand histories
- Services to Schools
- Tuia Mātauranga
Voyaging through Aotearoa New Zealand histories
Visit page- Pacific Ocean
- Pacific navigation
- Pacific voyagers
- Waka hourua
- Early Polynesian arrivals
- Māori settlement and society
- Non-Māori explorers
- First encounters
- European settlement
- Treaty of Waitangi
- Post-Treaty of Waitangi
- Explore more: Resources, activities, AR app
- Resources and activities
- He Meka! He Meka!
- About Tuia Mātauranga
Using the full functionality of your Integrated Library System (ILS)

Find out how to get the most out of your Integrated Library System (ILS). See how your ILS supports teaching and learning in your school, as well as managing the circulation of your resources.
-
How your ILS supports teaching and learning
Using your Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
Your library's OPAC gives online access to physical and digital resources, such as:
- books and journals
- the library website, blog and wiki
- databases, electronic resources and eBooks
- book lists, competitions and library news.
Integrating your OPAC with other online access
Your school's ILS should connect to online systems. For example, if you have a library website there should be a link from the website to your OPAC and vice versa. The OPAC should also link to your school's Learning Management System (LMS), such as Moodle. It's ideal if students can search the OPAC directly from the LMS using an embedded search box.
Training for your OPAC
Offer training for staff and students so they know how to search the OPAC effectively. Initial training could include how to:
- do a basic search
- reserve resources
- check their loans and overdues.
Using reports and statistics
Your ILS provides statistics that can support teaching and learning.
Use statistics from the ILS to let teaching staff know about their students’ reading profiles. Borrower history reports could help teachers support students who aren't using the library.
You can use OPAC search reports to provide evidence of the types of searches students are doing. These can help you identify gaps in your collection and your learners' understanding of searching.
-
How your ILS supports collection development
Your ILS can generate reports including collection usage, subject reports, and missing items. These reports can inform your purchasing decisions by identifying:
- the most popular authors and titles
- any gaps in subjects in the collection
- the status of resources — lost, current or under repair
- type of resources that are being used frequently, such as reference, sophisticated picture books or non-fiction.
The ILS also generates reports for your stocktake.
-
Advocating for your library
Use system reports to support your advocacy for your library. You can use evidence such as:
- a comparison of borrowing patterns for different year levels
- the number of student book reviews added to the catalogue
- how student suggestions are reflected in new titles added to the collection.
-
Setting up your ILS
Set up your system to meet your requirements — this is often called ‘configuration’.
For example, you could:
- include circulation requirements such as defining user groups, borrowing limits and holiday issuing dates
- configure your search so that vital information is appearing on the first page of results — test this by searching as if you're a student, checking that you can see clearly where an item is located in the collection
- make sure it does an automatic backup every day — check with your system vendor for instructions and advice about setting up your ILS backups.
-
Getting support and training
There are several ways you can get support and training in using your ILS.
- Use your ILS vendor's helpdesk to support what you want to do with your system. Ask questions and keep a note of responses so you can document them in your school library manual.
- Check your system vendor’s website for training videos and help forums.
- Read the user manual — make sure you know how to access it. Report any new instructions that you need to your system vendor so they can include them in the next version of the manual.
- Set up training sessions. If you're in the process of purchasing a new system or changing from one system to another, include training costs in your budget.
- Attend all regional training sessions run by your provider. These are essential for keeping up with new versions.
- Sign up for user groups, user lists, blogs and any other relevant communication to ensure you are up-to-date with the system.
- Find other people who use the same system in your area. Collaborate and take turns to share your best tips and tricks. If there's not a local user group in your area, start one.
How your ILS supports teaching and learning
Using your Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
Your library's OPAC gives online access to physical and digital resources, such as:
- books and journals
- the library website, blog and wiki
- databases, electronic resources and eBooks
- book lists, competitions and library news.
Integrating your OPAC with other online access
Your school's ILS should connect to online systems. For example, if you have a library website there should be a link from the website to your OPAC and vice versa. The OPAC should also link to your school's Learning Management System (LMS), such as Moodle. It's ideal if students can search the OPAC directly from the LMS using an embedded search box.
Training for your OPAC
Offer training for staff and students so they know how to search the OPAC effectively. Initial training could include how to:
- do a basic search
- reserve resources
- check their loans and overdues.
Using reports and statistics
Your ILS provides statistics that can support teaching and learning.
Use statistics from the ILS to let teaching staff know about their students’ reading profiles. Borrower history reports could help teachers support students who aren't using the library.
You can use OPAC search reports to provide evidence of the types of searches students are doing. These can help you identify gaps in your collection and your learners' understanding of searching.
How your ILS supports collection development
Your ILS can generate reports including collection usage, subject reports, and missing items. These reports can inform your purchasing decisions by identifying:
- the most popular authors and titles
- any gaps in subjects in the collection
- the status of resources — lost, current or under repair
- type of resources that are being used frequently, such as reference, sophisticated picture books or non-fiction.
The ILS also generates reports for your stocktake.
Advocating for your library
Use system reports to support your advocacy for your library. You can use evidence such as:
- a comparison of borrowing patterns for different year levels
- the number of student book reviews added to the catalogue
- how student suggestions are reflected in new titles added to the collection.
Setting up your ILS
Set up your system to meet your requirements — this is often called ‘configuration’.
For example, you could:
- include circulation requirements such as defining user groups, borrowing limits and holiday issuing dates
- configure your search so that vital information is appearing on the first page of results — test this by searching as if you're a student, checking that you can see clearly where an item is located in the collection
- make sure it does an automatic backup every day — check with your system vendor for instructions and advice about setting up your ILS backups.
Getting support and training
There are several ways you can get support and training in using your ILS.
- Use your ILS vendor's helpdesk to support what you want to do with your system. Ask questions and keep a note of responses so you can document them in your school library manual.
- Check your system vendor’s website for training videos and help forums.
- Read the user manual — make sure you know how to access it. Report any new instructions that you need to your system vendor so they can include them in the next version of the manual.
- Set up training sessions. If you're in the process of purchasing a new system or changing from one system to another, include training costs in your budget.
- Attend all regional training sessions run by your provider. These are essential for keeping up with new versions.
- Sign up for user groups, user lists, blogs and any other relevant communication to ensure you are up-to-date with the system.
- Find other people who use the same system in your area. Collaborate and take turns to share your best tips and tricks. If there's not a local user group in your area, start one.
Related content
School libraries

- Understanding school libraries
- Leading and managing
- Collections and resources
- Library systems and operations
- Place and environment
- Library services for teaching and learning
- Videos
- Stories
- Whare Ahuru Mowai — a future-focused library space
- Student Library Review Group — giving students a voice
- Positive rewards from creating a school-wide reading culture
- The Poppy Blanket
- Encouraging reading through generous lending policies
- Genrefication — one primary school librarian's experience
- Inquiry into inquiry: The Marlborough Inquiry Project
- Supporting inquiry learning in kura kaupapa Māori
- She'll be OK: Growing confident team members
- From information overload to streamlined searching
- Professional development through online learning
- Learning about raising readers at Sylvia Park School
- Learning to develop a responsive secondary school library collection
- Learning about raising readers at Oropi School
- Learning to develop a responsive primary school collection
- Experiencing the benefits of facilitated online learning
- Online PD — an 'anchor' during a pandemic
- Projects to improve student learning
- School loans case studies
- Summer reading stories
- Research