Stromness Academy Library

In the run up to National Poetry day, all S1 and S2 classes took part in a Snakes & Ladders game during their library period. The idea came from the official National Poetry Day website.

In groups of 4-5, pupils spent around 25 minutes playing the traditional game but with a difference. Each time they got to the top of a ladder, they looked at the number of the square, then used that number to find a page in one of the poetry books on the table. The player then read the poem out and gave it a star rating. At the end of the session the groups then decided which was their favourite poem.

This fun session appeared to be enjoyed by pupils and it introduced them to, and gave them a chance to read some poetry, when otherwise they might not.

Over the summer holidays a number of new books were processed and catalogued. These are now on display in various parts of the library.

If you have a look at the tabs across the top of the Blog page, you will see there are a couple of new sections. There is now a plan of the library under the  ‘Map‘ tab.

More significantly, the ‘Resources‘ tab will link you to various library guides, presentations and links relevant to using the school library.

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The long summer holidays have come to an end and we are ready for the start of the new term, but what happens to the library in the holidays? Contrary to popular belief, not all school staff get the long holiday and admin and support staff, including the Librarian will continue to work for part of the holiday often managing to get jobs done that often can’t be got to during the hectic term times.

So, what does the Librarian do during the time she works in the holidays? There is a lot of administrative stuff to do, as well as tidying up after a busy year. Here is a list of some of things that were done during the summer hols:

• A really BIG tidy of all the book shelves and other resources, including removing old books off the shelves
• Emptying the library office so that it can be repainted
• Disposing of LOADS of out-of date resources from the office and tidying of filing cabinets
• Refilling and reorganising the office
• Processing, cataloguing and displaying new fiction
• Preparing for S1 Library Induction course
• Checking pupil lists against library management system
• Writing up library cards for, and inputting new S1 pupils onto the LMS
• Replacing library notices
• Checking PCs all working correctly
• Doing the backlog of filing
• Checking and replacing library posters / guiding where necessary
• etc, …

You may or may not notice changes, but this shows you that a lot does go on behind the scenes.