Kaiapoi High School's approach to loans

About Kaiapoi High School

Librarian Heather McCorquodale took time out of her busy schedule to talk to us.

Heather, tell us a little bit about your school and what makes it unique or special...

Our school is a community school. We have strong connections with our community and contributing schools in our cluster. We do our best to ensure that all our students’ needs are considered, and we strive to support all our students, to do their best. This year is a big year for us. We have introduced a BYOD programme at year 9 level, which will roll out to all students in the next 5 years and we also have the rebuild going on.

What about your library?

Our library is a great space and is very well used by our school community. It is a large, light, double height space, designed as a library. Being a flexible space, we have been able to trial a lot of furniture and layout plans to create an ILE (Innovative Learning Environment). The library is very popular, and we accommodate students in classes as well as a lot of students working independently, on a wide range of tasks. I take the library service out into the school, working with students in classes, providing resources for use in classes, and encouraging the use of the physical space in the library to showcase students work, for workshops, meetings and presentations.

How do you use the National Library service to schools?

I use the service to schools to supplement the resourcing that I am able to provide for my school community. We have a good collection onsite, I assist with research and provide digital curation of resources. But, it is great to be able to have extra, often more specialised resources than I can supply, especially for a large number of students.

How did you manage the inquiry loan?

I decided to take a ‘stress-less’ approach to the loan. I purchased some plastic crates, labelled them, and gave them to the teachers with a paper copy of their loan. I would investigate rapid-entry catalogue records. As I am in a sole-charge position, when things get busy, I have to prioritise the best use of my time.

What about the reading engagement loan?

Our reading engagement loan went on a shelf of its own in our learning support area and was managed by a manual issue system. The general feedback was that the kids really enjoyed the different books. With these kids in particular, because they are in a literacy group they are required to read all year round. Because they are not always the keenest of readers it’s good to be able to provide a range of resources interesting to them.

What is your overall impression of the new National Library service for schools?

The hardest thing is to have everyone on board with being organised, as you have to have all of your loans submitted in a timely fashion. The upside is it is a great way to add some formal structure to resourcing the curriculum, and making the most of the best way we can all do this to meet the individual needs of our own school communities.

Anything else you’d like to add?

The National Library Staff are very helpful in helping set everything up and I would encourage all schools to register, and make the most of this service. Great resourcing for the curriculum, with the support of the National Library, is what makes a school community aware of the value of a library in teaching and learning.