Author Archives: Ms O'Neill

About Ms O'Neill

School librarian at Lourdes Secondary and St Margaret Mary's Secondary/St Oswald's Secondary.

Summer in Lourdes Secondary Library

Leave a reply

Well done to all pupils and staff for making it through the year, and through the last difficult few months! You all deserve a great summer holiday! To all the pupils leaving this year, I’m so sorry not to have seen you to say goodbye properly, but I wish you all the best for the future – I’m sure you’ll all do great things and have wonderful lives. The important thing to do is to relax and enjoy this next stage of your life.

Because lockdown is continuing in some form, although it’s being gradually reduced, the library will remain open to you in its current virtual form over the holidays. Opening hours are 9am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday. This may change sometimes, if I’m taking a few days off or have school librarians meetings, but I will post it on your Teams and on the library’s social media if the library will be closed for a day or more.

You can contact Miss O’Neill by email at gw16oneilkathleenmar@glow.ea.glasgow.sch.uk, on your Teams, and through the library social media. The Twitter handle is @liblourdes and the Instagram handle is @lourdeslibrary. You can also follow the library mascot, Boba Felephant, on Instagram at @bobafelephant.

School Clubs

The Role-Playing Games Club will continue throughout the summer, with a new group for the new S1 pupils starting. There will also be a Summer Reading Challenge-themed programme running for the new S1 pupils, starting on Monday 29 June. S1s, and their younger family members, can register to take part in the official Summer Reading Challenge activities as well; the theme this year is the Silly Squad, so we can look forward to a daft summer!

If there is enough interest from pupils, I’m thinking about setting up a Storytelling Club to run once a fortnight over the summer, and to continue it once school opens again in August. It won’t only be creative writing, but also comics, films, coding, and other media that you would like to use. Please get in touch by email if you would like to be part of it.

The Online Library

You can access a range of resources free via Glasgow Libraries: https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/libraries/online-library. All you need is your library card number and PIN – if you don’t know these, please contact me. Note: new S1 pupils, your cards are not yet ready, but I will let you know once you are all registered. If you have a Glasgow community libraries card, you can use that.

  • eBooks: use Overdrive and Borrowbox.
  • Audiobooks: use Overdrive, Borrowbox, and RB Digital
  • eMagazines: use RB Digital
  • eMusic: use Freegal

There is a great range of resources to help you with study, research into your hobbies, business ideas, family history, and more. If you’re learning to drive, you can practice for the theory test. These are available here: https://libcat.csglasgow.org/web/arena/eresources. You can also access user guides to the various resources on this page, but please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions about any of these resources.

I look forward to seeing you all in school in August. I don’t know yet what form the library will take. If we still need to socially distance, you will be able to request library books which will be delivered to you, and there will be books available in your English classroom. I will also be giving you book recommendations. I’ll keep you updated here on the blog, with the links to any blog posts being added to your Teams, and all information shared on library social media.

FInally – again – I, along with Boba Felephant, Albert von Einskull, and library kitten Mad Madame Mim, hope that you enjoy your holidays! Surely nobody can have as bad a holiday as Sweeney Todd being taken to the beach by Mrs Lovett (tee hee).

Creative Writing Competition Winner

Leave a reply

Just a dandy and his octopus, nothing to see here.

Last month, in the Library’s first lockdown competition, I posted the photo to the right on all the library’s social media accounts, and on Lourdes Secondary’s pupils’ Teams, and invited pupils to create a 500 word story, a 10 line poem, a 10 minute maximum short film, or a panel of maximum 10 panels.

There were some wonderfully creative responses, in the form of short stories and poems. Each entry was very original and imaginative, and I was impressed by the quality of the writing submitted.  But one entry stood out, not just because the story was so imaginative, but also because it was an unusual and clearly well-thought out response to the picture. The author herself described her thoughts thus:

I decided to write a story using the image. When I saw the image, I thought of Charlie and the chocolate factory, so I incorporated the theme of sweets. I also took the side theme of poverty and how it restricts people.

Continue reading →

Napoleon Dynamite: a masterclass in comedy

Leave a reply

Librarian’s note: this is a historic blogpost – the first written by one of Lourdes Secondary‘s pupils! S1 Jack decided to write the first of what I hope will be the first of many pupil posts, with a film review.

Napoleon Dynamite film poster (source: Wikimedia Commons)

Napoleon Dynamite, a masterclass in comedy.

Napoleon Dynamite is a 2004 comedy film starring John Heder, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell, Elren Ramirez, Tina Majorino [Librarian’s note: Tina also plays Mac in the excellent series Veronica Mars, and I recommend that everyone should watch it. Right now.]. The film follows a boy named Napoleon Dynamite and his friend Pedro Sanchez, as Pedro tries to win class president for his school. Directed by Jared Hess, the film is a love it or hate scenario; some might see it as too juvenile or plain unfunny, but it is a hidden gem sadly lost to the void of time. John Heder’s comedical timing is impecable as well as the look of his character, Napoleon, who is frequently bullied at his school and lives an utterly miserable life until he meets Deb, a girl with all kinds of strange jobs as she tries to raise money for college, who turns his life around. It is one of the most quoteable films to date and is generally underappreciated by the masses, receiving a 6.9/10 on IMDB, it is a must watch and can generally be found in most charity shops.

Librarian’s note: I knew of the film, but for some reason had never actually sat and watched it until I got this review. It was funny, odd in a very good way, and had a fantastically 1980s prom scene with some great music. The other dance scene, near the end, is also just a bit good.

Do you want to write for the library blog?

Leave a reply

The planned School Library Blog Machine (or possibly a Dr Who episode)

If you’re interested in writing for the school library blog, then this is the post for you! You can write about anything you want – book reviews are always welcome, so you could talk about what you’re reading during lockdown. Similarly, reviews of tv shows, films, video games, comics, and boardgames are very welcome. What have I missed that you would like to review? You can help each other find ways to pass the time by sharing your recommendations through the blog. Have a look at the blog posts already published, including those from other Glasgow School Libraries, to get some ideas, but don’t be put off if you think your idea has been done before, or if you can’t see your idea. Get in touch with me before you start writing your post, so that we can talk about your idea and plan the publication date (you’ll find my email address in your year group/class Team on Glow if you don’t already have it). Continue reading →

Working from home: day … 9? 40? 3 zillion?

Leave a reply

Lady Georgiana Octavia von Cthulhu of the Atlantic Cthulhus, here guarding the washing machine.

Time has ceased to have any meaning, in these strange times of social distancing and staying indoors. An octopus moved into my flat (her name is Lady Georgia Octavia von Cthulhu, of the Atlantic Cthulhus), so that’s been interesting. She’s excellent company, a fellow , and a great storyteller (I wish I’d been able to capture on film her performance of Tennyson’s sonnet The Kraken, but she’s still a bit shy; you can read the poem below). She does maintain that this poem is about one of her ancestors, but who’s likely to be able to contradict her?  There are strange little purple flowers springing up all over the garden for the first time ever, and a ridiculously large bumblebee is fighting with a butterfly for control of the sunny windowsill (no victor yet). Having spent so much uninterrupted time in current Library HQ, I’m now debating doing some Green Knowe-style interior decorating; this means gargoyles, hawthorn blossom growing inside the house, spooky doll houses, old swords hanging on the walls, and mysterious mirrors in which you think you might see a ghost. So, yes, in short, “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”.

The Kraken

Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides: above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages and will lie
Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1830)

As you may already know, if you follow the library on Twitter and/or Instagram, today is National Unicorn Day. The unicorn being Scotland’s official national animal, attention must be paid. So here are some book recommendations! Elizabeth Goudge’s The Little White Horse is a fairytale about Maria Merryweather, an orphan who moves to live with a distant cousin in Moonacre valley, where she discovers that it is her destiny to right several ancient wrongs, reunite brokenhearted couples,  and restore happiness to the valley. Thinking about it, I might need to add some Moonacre Manor style to my Green Knowe interior decoration plans (above). You should also read Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn, Lari Don’s Legend of the First Unicorn (a new book this year) the comic Phoebe and her Unicorn by Dana Simpson, and the science fiction short story ‘Mythological Creature’ by Stephen Donaldson, in his short story collection Daughter of Regals. Do you have any recommendations? Add them in the comments. I would also recommend the 1985 film Legend, though you would do well to ignore Tom Cruise if you can, and watch it for Tim Curry’s role as the Lord of Darkness.

Competition

Take a good look at the picture to the left. Does it set your imagination alight? What does it make you think of? Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create something inspired by the picture. If you’re a wordsmith, you can write a story of no more than 500 words or a poem of no more than 10 lines. If you are more of a visual artist, you can create a comic with no more than 10 panels, or a short film maximum 10 minutes long.

You have until 10pm on Wednesday 22nd April to email me your competition entries. Please put your name and year group in the email. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions, in the comments or by email. Good luck!

 

Lourdes Library in the time of Coronavirus

Leave a reply

Miss O’Neill, checking in! It’s Day 2 of working from home. The library is now a lot smaller than it used to be, physically, based as it is at my kitchen table (close to the food and coffee). But that doesn’t mean that you won’t have access to lots of resources and support while the main school library and your local community libraries are closed. Continue reading →