Papatoetoe Intermediate School

Papatoetoe Intermediate School Curriculum Report

Curriculum Area: Library

Date: October 2009

Timeframe of this report: Terms 1-3 2009

Curriculum Leader: Chris Coomes Teacher Librarian (TL)

Library assistant (LA): Kerry Bax

Focus / Units covered

• Library/ICT orientation. (Introduction to collections and procedures, ICT procedures & cybersafety).
• Library collections. (Eg Novels, non-fiction, picture books, poetry).
• Promoting reading (Eg Author visits, NZ Post Book Award, Library Week, displays).
• Accessing and communicating information on the Internet. (Eg email, Schoolzone, Epic, key New Zealand web resources, wikis).
• Presentation (Eg Marvin, Flash).
• Research skills (Eg use of OneNote for collecting and organising notes; research units on places in NZ, parental discipline, where families came from, what is in our food and planning a day trip).

 

Did all Learning Centres/Classes undertake the same units of study? If no please specify.

• Mostly yes. Most research units were conducted with selected Y7 and Y8 classes. Marvin and Flash were taught in electives.
• Mount Richmond students followed their own programme.

 

1. Programme Delivery

a) Learning Styles and Teaching Styles [Nag 1.i]

Evidence that a range of delivery methods are being used in all classrooms to provide for a wide range of learning styles.

 

Teaching programme

 

In the first semester classes were taught in the library and in the ICT room for a double period every three weeks. In the second half of the year classes were taught in the ICT Room for 2 periods every 3. Some classes (Year 7s & 8s) had extra sessions in the ICT Room each week undertaking more in-depth research projects for a term at a time.

TL and LA were on duty before school and during all break times. Instruction took place on a one to one basis as the need arose during these times.

Teaching and learning showed diversity in:

• Location: Fiction room, Non-fiction room, ICT Room at desks, on comfortable chairs, on the mat and up using the library collection. The ICT room was open during all library hours and lessons were based here during Terms 2 and will be in Term 4.

• Teaching and learning methods: including writing, reading, interacting with computers, discussing, card matching, searching/browsing/selecting/using the collections and digital resources, watching presentations, oral presentation and art work.
• Grouping: whole class, small group, pair and individual. One-to-one teaching.

• Students worked as individuals, pairs and on whole class collaborations.
• Students interacted with computers in different ways. Eg reading, writing, interactive games, creating/using graphics, multimedia, collaborative software.
• There were opportunities for discussion before or after work on the computer.

 

 

Promoting reading

The library supported student achievement by promoting a love of reading both within and outside of class time. Promotions this year included:

1. Special displays

Kerry took responsibility for changing books on the New Books stand and Issue Desk each week to promote new titles or reflect particular themes or events. These continued to be very popular with the students with most getting multiple reserves placed on each title before the end of the week. She has also created a display which can be set up temporarily in the Y8 corridor to show the range of books available.

 

2.Author visits

These were a brilliant way to enthuse students about reading. Jack Gabolinscy visited again. He humorously presented his struggles with reading and writing as a boy and how he emerged as someone who loved them both. Dr Paula Green was the first poet to visit our school. She has a wide range of experience in teaching and studying poetry from working with primary schools to university work. It was great that the large groups of Year 8s that she spoke to listened so intently. Group of students (particularly boys) wanted to speak to her afterwards. She has offered to review poetry that the school sends her and hopefully some teachers will take this offer up in Term 4.

 

3. NZ Post Book Awards

Students were introduced to this year’s nominated titles and participated in the national Children’s Choice poll.

 

4. Library week

This was again a popular event which involved all students. Students across the school voted for their favourite authors on Survivor island and the library was packed for author visits, the pop book quiz and a concert organized by Bashnee. Year 7s were enthusiastic about the Book Stand challenge in which they had to design and build a book stand from newspaper.  A display of some of the completed designs can be viewed in the library.

Spending on Library Week

Paper and photocopying                                                            $15

Consumables                                                                             $198

Author visits                                                                             $400

___________________________________________________

Total                                                                                        $613

 

5. Scholastic Book Fair and Club

All students were given the opportunity to browse the books on offer and they bought $1821 of books. This raised $364 for the library which was used to purchase new display shelving. Several boxes of books were also donated to the school as part of the fair. The library also took over responsibility for the Scholastic Book Club which offers students the chance to order books from a brochure twice a term. There has been a good uptake of this and the library has been able to buy a couple of hundred dollars worth of books from Scholastic using the commission.

 

6. Improving staff knowledge of children’s literature

Staff were invited to join the National Library reading at the beach summer reading scheme in which staff were supplied with a selection of children’s and young adult books to read over the holidays. There was a lot of interest in this and although many staff found it difficult to read all the books they were offered several commented on new books that they had found.

Presenting a book of the week to staff ended in Term 1 as it was felt the format become a bit stale. Ways to replace it (eg by email or providing readings and author information that teachers could use directly with their class as part of a lesson) have not taken off in the same way at a school wide level. However there has been plenty of advice and support given to teacher’s on an individual level on selecting books for use in class.

 

7. Reading promotions that were not funded this year

For the last few years all Year 7 students have been taken to the local public library for an introduction by the children’s librarian. However this was cancelled this year as it was felt it would be unfair to place more demands for money on parents and the school was not able to subsidize the visit. We have stayed in touch with Ani and Sati the Young Adult and Children’s/Young Adult’s librarians at Papatoetoe Library and they have promoted various reading schemes during the year. This is no substitute for getting the students physically over the threshold of the local library but in the current economic situation some things have to go.

We were also not able to attend the Kid’s Lit quiz this year as it now has $100 charge attached. FOTs funding was applied for but by the time this was granted all places had been filled. We will apply again in 2010.

 

Whole school approach to information literacy

 

Action learning

Action Learning has now become a firmly embedded part of our school curriculum. However with so many other things happening across the school further development of a whole school approach to information literacy did not progress as far as the library plan had envisioned. Brian arranged a staff meeting led by a teacher from Takapuna Normal who has been coordinating their information literacy programme and is a little further along the journey than our school. Gillian and John ensured that inquiry learning became a central part of reporting. A further 2 staff members took the Infolink course.

However since the end of the Focus programme there has not been a leadership/management team who have information literacy as one of their primary foci. This has meant that while a lot of work has been done “behind the scenes” by the TL and others it has not been implemented across the school. Key areas that still need to be addressed by a team, include a review of the process model itself (to customize it to our school needs), the introduction of a “mini-unit” to teach the basics of the process model and the assessment of inquiry learning.

 

Creating an “integrated information landscape.”

Kerry completed cataloguing the main collections that were identified as needing to be on Access-it and is continuing to maintain these records as necessary. Staff received training on the use of the catalogue.

 

Print collection development

Weeding the collection using the new collection development guidelines was completed. The most obvious result of the process has been less clutter on the shelves and students have been able to find their way to attractive, useful books more easily.

 

Homework Centre

Diane Schutt managed the Study Centre in library after school between 3 and 5pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. This has continued to provide excellent supervision and support for those who attended in order to complete homework using the library/ICT resources.

	Monday	Wednesday	Thursday
Total attendance	659	563	375
Average attendance	26	22	15
2008 Average attendance	17	17	14

 

Attendance was lower in Term 3 because students were involved in the school production.

 

b) Barriers to Learning: [Equal Educational Opportunities issues] [Nag 1.iii ]

Specify barriers to learning that have been identified in this curriculum area, for both groups and individuals. Is there any group of students who are not participating fully in the curriculum or who are achieving less well? Also outline the strategies that have been used to adapt this curriculum area for diverse learners.

1. Time constraints

Supporting students in their use of the library and information resources for pleasure, research and inquiry learning will always be a challenge in that there is so much that they could learn and so many students in our school.

Strategies

This has been addressed by being selective about what is taught and trying to include a mix of reading promotion, skills needed for research, research projects and basic knowledge about using the Library/ICT Room. The timetabling was also adjusted so that in the first semester students were taught about the library and expectations for its use. It also meant that lessons which were taught to all classes took place in the mornings leaving the afternoons for more in depth work with selected groups and classes.

2. Problems with computers

a) Not enough access points for webpac

The library computers which run webpac are old, unreliable and do not display the catalogue screen properly. Three access points would be an acceptable number but we have often had one or none.

 

b) Access-it

The system continues to be unstable but the webpac element is much more reliable so classes of students are now able to be taught using it without problems. One problem was lack of RAM on the client machines and extra RAM has made an improvement. New Era continue to liaise with Access-it about the problems.

 

c) ICT Room computers are getting old

Computers in the ICT Room are becoming unreliable and unpredictable. A good deal of lesson time can be spent restarting programmes and trying to get them working.

 

c) Ethnic diversity and cultural heritage

[Nag 1. v] Special nature of our community.  How have these elements been incorporated into the delivery of this curriculum area?

 

The bilingual books were moved to their own dedicated display area, close to the library entrance, to improve their profile. Maori myths and legends and Te Reo books were also given a dedicated display area. Appropriate non-fiction and fiction books about Maori were collected as far as possible as well as books dealing with other cultures represented in the school. TL received some training in Te Reo which was integrated into teaching. The fiction and picture books purchased represent a range of settings, themes and cultures.

 

2. Evaluation

a) Monitoring of Student Achievement [Nag 1. ii]

 

Students were not individually assessed to show how the library has raised their achievement. However a sample of students was surveyed about their experience of lessons in the ICT Room and Library. Also results of the NEMP 2008 Reading and Speaking survey suggested that nationally, interest in reading among Year 8s has declined recently. A sample of Year 8s at our school were surveyed using some of the questions from the NEMP survey to compare our students’ attitudes to the NEMP findings.

A range of quantitive data was also collected about circulation, use of resources and so on.

 

b) Analysis of Student Achievement [Nag 1. ii .b]

1. Student response to library lessons

Student survey results

Students worked in pairs to answer the questions. 378 pairs responded, 53% Year 7, 47% Year 8.

Library lessons

Favourite activities: Choosing books (36%); Silent reading (25%); Sharing books with friends (17%);Writing reviews (10%); Hearing books read aloud (7%). The same activities were most popular in the same order when students were allowed up to three choices of things they enjoyed (with different percentages).

Disliked activities: Writing book reviews (27%); Silent reading (30%); Hearing books read (15%). When students were allowed up to three choices of things they disliked the top three were still book reviews (24%), hearing books (18%) and silent reading (16%).

Comment: While choosing books and sharing them with friends are clearly popular or at least not disliked, silent reading really appeals to a significant number and is really disliked by another big group. A smaller number really enjoy hearing books and writing reviews and a bigger group really dislike them.

 

ICT lessons

Favourite activities: Using the Internet (31%); Marvin (22%); Artrage (13%); Google Earth (12%); Email (7%); OneNote (5%); Powerpoint (4%). The same activities were most popular in the same order when students were allowed up to three choices of things they enjoyed (with different percentages).

Disliked activities: OneNote (19%); Britannica (18%); Powerpoint (11%) were the ones that clearly stood out as most disliked. The same activities appeared in the same order when students were allowed up to three choices of things disliked (with different percentages), but Excel also appeared in third place.

Comment: While some the Internet, Marvin, Artrage and Google Earth were much loved, Powerpoint and One Note, while strongly appealing to some was strongly disliked by others. Perhaps this was because they (and Excel) are strongly text based, functional, information collection and presentation tools. They lack the obvious “fun” element of the favourites. Britannica is hard to log into and slow so it is not surprising that many students disliked it.

 

The library catalogue (webpac)

Confidence with Access-it: Very good 55%; Quite good 34%; Not too good 6%; Bad 5%. This is good news!

Favourite features: Students were given a choice of up to three things they liked about the catalogue. When these were averaged out the most popular features/activities were Fast find (24%); Videos(16%); Checking your record (12%); Book weblinks (10%); Reserving books (10%); New Items (8%); Visual search (5%); Show me where (4%); Writing reviews (4%); Suggesting books (4%); Book club brochures (4%).

Comment: This was unsurprising. Students use Access-it most to search for books; then there is a group of activities which are encouraged in lesson time that are similar in popularity (videos, checking records, using book weblinks, reserving and seeing what it new); among the less popular items “visual search” has never been officially taught, “show me where” should be used more and needs encouragement, “writing reviews”,” suggesting books” and the “book club” will probably continue to be a minority interest.

 

Library week

Most popular activity: By far the most popular activities were the author visits by Jack Gabolinscy (48%) and Paula Green (25%). When students were allowed to pick up to three things they enjoyed most about the week the responses were more evenly spread with Jack still as the clear favourite (24%), Survivor on 19%, Pop Book Quiz 17%, Music concert and Paula Green 14% and Making book stands on 12%. (The book stands were only involved Year 7s so this must have been very popular with them to achieve 12% of the overall vote).

Comment: The author visits are the most expensive part of library week, but students clearly think them worthwhile. It is good to see that other library week activities are all popular with some students and none were given the thumbs down.

 

2. Year 8 attitudes to reading

241 students completed the survey anonymously . National NEMP results are shown with 2008 figures first, then 2004 in round brackets, then 1996 in square brackets.

 

Highlights

On the positive side, compared with the NEMP survey more of our students thought they were very good readers and enjoyed reading quite a lot during school or in their own time. More also felt very good about going to a library and less felt not too good. Like the NEMP survey many of our students recognised enjoyment of reading as an important part of becoming a good reader.

Less encouraging was that compared to the NEMP survey far fewer students enjoyed reading as a school subject or really enjoyed reading in their own time. Far more of our students only liked reading sometimes in school.  

1. What subjects do you like best at school?

5% put reading in their top three favourite subjects, joint sixth place with two other subjects.

NEMP results

20% (sixth place)

Comparison of our students to NEMP : While our students placed reading sixth as in the NEMP survey far fewer (15% less) favoured it.

 

2. How much do you like reading at school?

Heaps 22%; Quite a lot 32%; Sometimes 36%; Never 10%.

NEMP results

28 (31) [31]                    51 (50) [55]                   16 (16) [12]                     5 (3) [2]

Comparison of our students to NEMP : Less of our students liked reading heaps (6% less) or quite a lot at school (19% less). More liked reading sometimes (20% more) or never (5% more).

 

3. Which reading activities do you like doing most at school?

Students chose three favourite activities from a list. Favourite reading activities were silent reading (23%); reading with a partner (13%); listening to teacher read (11%); written work (11%); looking at or browsing books (8%) ; talking about books (7%); reading aloud (5%); reading with teacher (5%); something else (17%).

NEMP results

Silent reading 29; reading with a buddy or partner 17; looking at or browsing through books 15; listening to the teacher reading 14; written work 9; reading with the teacher 6; reading aloud 6

talking about books 6.

Comparison of our students to NEMP :Although the percentages were different to NEMP the results were similar in that silent reading and reading with a partner were the two most popular activities and the least popular ones were talking about books, reading aloud and reading with the teacher.

4. What important things are need to do to be good reader?

Enjoying reading (19%); learn hard words (15%); concentrate hard (15%); reading a lot (15%); go back and try again (12%); choose the right book (7%); listen to the teacher (6%); think about what I read (5%); sound out words (5%); practise doing hard things (0%).

NEMP results

Enjoy reading books 21; read a lot 13; sound out words 12; think about what I read  11; concentrate hard 10; choose the right book 10; learn hard words  8; go back and try again 8; listen to the teacher 5; practise doing hard things 2.

Comparison of our students to NEMP : Our students’ responses were often similar to those of the NEMP sample (within 5%) although the order of the results was different.  Less of students thought that sounding out words (7% less) or thinking about what they read (6% less) were important but more thought that learning hard words was (7% more).

 

6. How good do you think you are at reading?

Very good 38%; Quite good 45%; Not too good 13%; Bad 5%.

NEMP results

29 (29) [18]                    56 (54) [56]                   13 (15) [23]                    2 (2) [3]

Comparison of our students to NEMP : More of our students thought they were very good at reading (9% more); less thought they were quite good (11% less); the amount that thought they were not too good or bad were similar (within 5%).

 

7. How much do you like reading in your own time?

Heaps 23%; Quite a lot 26%; Sometimes 38%; Never 13%.

NEMP results

31 (37) [39]                     28 (36) [38]                    25 (17) [18]                     16 (10) [5]

Comparison of our students to NEMP : A lot less (8% less) liked reading in their own time heaps; a lot more (13% more) liked to read sometimes; and numbers who liked to read quite a lot or never were similar to NEMP (within 5%).

 

8. What do you like reading in your own time?

Students chose up to three reading activities from a list: Fiction story books (25%); Comics (22%); Magazines (21%); Non-fiction books (12%); Poetry (9%); Junk mail (7%); Newspapers (4%).

NEMP results

Magazines 25; fiction 22; comics 18; non-fiction 16; newspapers 7; junk mail 7; poetry 6.

Comparison of our students to NEMP : Responses from our students were similar to the NEMP results (within 5%) for each category but differences were enough to change the order of popularity. For our students fiction was most popular rather than magazines.

9. How do you feel about getting a book for a present?

Very good 29%; Quite good 35%; Not too good 20%; Bad 16%.

NEMP results

26 (35) [45]                     39 (38) [39]                     24 (20) [13]                      11 (7) [3]

Comparison of our students to NEMP : Responses were similar (within 5%) to NEMP.

 

10. How do you feel about looking at books in a bookshop?

Very good 38%; Quite good 38%; Not too good 14%; Bad 10%;

NEMP results

33 (39) [52]                        42 (37) [37]                       18 (19) [9]                      7 (5) [2]

Comparison of our students to NEMP : Responses were similar (within 5%) to NEMP.

 

11. How do you feel about going to a library?

Very good 46%; Quite good 36%; Not too good 10%; Bad 8%

NEMP results

39 (40) [53]                      37 (41) [32]                       19 (15) [12]                        5 (4) [3]

Comparison of our students to NEMP : More felt very good about going to a library (7% more) and less felt not too good (9% less). Responses for quite good and bad were similar to NEMP (within 5%).

 

12. How do you feel when your teacher reads a story out loud?

Very good 34%; Quite good 41%; Not too good 13%; Bad 12%;

NEMP results

35 (41) [51]                       40 (41) [36]                       19 (13) [10]                        6 (5) [3]

Comparison of our students to NEMP: Similar amount felt very good or quite good as in the NEMP (within 5%). Less felt not too good (6% less) but more felt strongly that it was bad (6% more).

 

13. How do you feel about how well you read?

Very good 39%; Quite good 44%; Not too good 9%; Bad 8%.

NEMP results

36 (39) [30]                      49 (45) [49]                      12 (12) [18]                        3 (4) [3]

Comparison of our students to NEMP : Those who thought they were very good or not too good were similar to NEMP (within 5%) but less thought they were quite good and more thought they were bad (5% each).

 

14. Preferred spare time activities

Students selected their top three activities: Games or sport 17%; TV 15%; video computer games 14%; browse internet 13%; play with friends 11%; phone friends 7%; read 7%; art 4%; contact people by internet 5%; something else 3%; make things 2%; music 0%.

NEMP results:

Play games or sport 17; play video or computer games13; play with friends 13; music 13; watch TV 12; talk on telephone with friends  9; read 7; communicate on the internet  5; do art  4; look up things on the internet 4; make things  3.

Comparison of our students to NEMP : Our students were similar to the NEMP survey in many ways except watching browsing the internet was more popular (by 9% more). No responses for music suggests a mistake in data collection. The percentage that liked reading was exactly the same.

 

People entering the library

The counters on the security gates were used to give an indication of foot traffic into the library over the year. On average there were 3031 people a week (606 each day).

 

Circulation statistics (up to the end of T3)

a) Total loans by collection

There were 34493 loans of books in 2009 compared to 33 219 (2008), 26 340 (2007) and 19 804 (2006). Based on all borrowing (including borrowers such as staff and resource boxes) the average number of loans per borrower was 31.3 compared to 31 (2008) and 27 (2007). Looking only at data for Year 7 and Year 8 students the average number of loans was 33 which is exactly the same as 2008.

In percentage terms there was little change from last year with Non-fiction accounting for just under a third of loans. The percentage of Fiction loans increased a little and still accounts for well over half of all loans. The percentage of Graphic Novels borrowed dropped a little. This could be because many of the really popular ones were stolen in 2008 and not replaced until late in Term 3 2009. Picture Books again accounted for only 5% of loans. This could be because students feel that they are "too old" for them. Speedy Reads and Other Language books increased very slightly but they are small collections.

 

Number of loans per book by collection

Collections vary in size which means that simply taking the number of issues does not give a complete picture of how popular a collection is.  The average number of loans per book in a collection provides a complementary perspective. There are just under 9900 books in the active collection. The average number of times a book was borrowed was 3.5 compared to 3.2 (2008) and 2.4 (2007). When average loans for constituent collections the results are very similar to last year.  As in 2008 and 2007 the Graphic Novel collection (which is mainly fictional) is a relatively small collection, but had by far the highest issue rate. The rate appears to have dropped dramatically since last year but this is almost certainly because the bulk of new graphic novels were catalogued at the end of Term 3 so that while they are officially in the collection students many are not on the shelves yet and students have not had chance to borrow them.

Separating the other language books to give them a higher profile has not improved the borrowing rate significantly.

 

 

 

Average loans per book in each collection in 2007-09

 

	2009	2008	2007
Graphic novels	5.8	10.2	8.3
Fiction	4.6	4.4	3.7
Picture books	3.2	3.2	1.4
Non-fiction	2.4	2.1	1.5
Other languages	1.4	1.5	0.3
Speedy reads	0.9	1.1	0.7

 

b) Loans by year group

There were roughly the same number of Year 7 and Year 8 borrowers registered on Access-it at the end of September (482 and 463). However like last year, Year 7s borrowed far more books:

• Year 7s borrowed 17 692, compared to 17 318 (2008), 11 027 (2007) and 11 437 (2006). That’s an average of 37, compared to 39 in 2008.
• Year 8s borrowed 13 683 compared to 12 765 (2008), 13 659 (2007) and 7489 (2006). That’s an average of 30 books per child, compared to 28 in 2008.

c) Loans by class

The number of loans per class ranged between 2622 and 529, a range of 2093 compared with 1597 (2008) and 775 (2007). However the lowest borrowing class was small class, while the top class borrowed 600 more books than any other! Like last year all but one of the classes above the interquartile range (ie the “top borrowers”) were Year 7s and all but one of the classes below the interquartile range (ie low borrowers) were Year 8s. The median number of loans per class was 1085, compared with 960 (2008) and 866 (2007). Class borrowing was checked regularly from Term 2 and catchup sessions arranged for those with low borrowing.

 

d) Loans by gender

Average borrowing was similar to 2008. As in previous years girls borrowed considerably more than boys and the gap between the two continues to grow.

	Total loans			Average loans per student
	2007	2008	2009	2007	2008	2009
Girls	14 108	17 193	19 115	31	41	41
Boys	10 579	12 890	12 260	23	27	25
Gap between	3529	4303	6855	8	14	16

 

Loans by gender and year group

When broken down by gender and year group Year 7 girls again stand out as by far biggest borrowers. However unlike last year when the Year 8 boys borrowed least, this year it was the Year 7 boys. They borrowed nearly half as many books per child as the Year 7 girls. This is a concern because if they are borrowing less in Year 7 there is a good chance they will be borrowing even less in Year 8. 

 

	Girls				Boys
	Total loans		Average loans per student		Total loans		Average loans per student
	2009	2008	2009	2008	2009	2008	2009	2008
Y7	11762	9492	48	48	5930	7826	25	31
Y8	7353	7701	34	35	6330	5064	26	22

 

 

Students were assigned to one ethnic group each on Access-it using data imported from Integris. These ethnicities were then grouped as follows:

Total loans per ethnic group reflected the total number of students in each group. Bigger groups borrow more books as a group.

However looking at the number of books an average student from each ethnic group borrowed reveals a different pattern. There are only 3 Middle Eastern students and 1 African student so their loans need to be disregarded. The pattern is very similar to last year. Again Indian and Asian students on average borrow more books each than other ethnicities, while on average Pacifica and Maori students on average borrow less each. The average Maori student borrowed nearly a third less books than the average Asian or Indian student.

  

f) What students borrowed

1. Stine, R. L.                    Goosebumps author                                                 664 loans
2. Wilson, Jacqueline       Writes mainly about issues for pre-teen/teenage girls 326 loans
3. Griffiths, Andy            Just… series                                                                278 loans
4. Shan, Darren                Vampire series                                                         248 loans
5. Rowling, J. K.                Harry Potter author                                                   230 loans
6. McCombie, Karen          Writes mainly about issues for pre-teen/teenage girls  207 loans
7. Mazer, Anne                 Pre-teen girl series                                                   178 loans
8. Jennings, Paul              Mainly short stories                                                   174 loans
9. Gelsey, James              Scooby Doo                                                             171 loans
10. Mahy, Margaret                                                                                           162 loans

 

The top 2 authors were the same as for the last two years with RL Stine having double the number of the loans as the next most borrowed author. (He was also the author that “survived” in the Library Week “Survivor” vote. Shan, Mazer and Mahy (the only NZ author) were new to the top 10. Most of the authors were known for particular series. 

 

1. Just disgusting! (Short stories, by Andy Griffiths)                                           47 loans
2. Just stupid!                                                                                                46 loans
3. Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets                                                      45 loans
4. Just crazy!                                                                                                 45 loans
5. Hideous & hilarious (NZ Short story collection)                                              40 loans
6. Just Annoying!                                                                                           40 loans
7. Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone                                                      38 loans
8. Another 30 New Zealand stories for children                                                 37 loans
9. Beyond the river (Joy Cowley)                                                                    36 loans
10. Harry Potter and the deathly hallows                                                            36 loans

 

Over all Andy Griffiths books remain the most popular year after year with the Harry Potter series as second. With the Year 7s studying New Zealand authors and short stories some of these have also made their way into the most borrowed list.

 

g) Types of books borrowed according to gender

It is commonly held that girls tend to prefer fiction and boys non-fiction. This is supported by the data over the last few years in our school:

	Percentage of total borrowing used to borrow novels
	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Boys	48%	55%	47%	46%	48%
Girls	66%	71%	68%	63%	68%
Difference between girls and boys	18%	16%	21%	17%	20%

 

Again the Year 7 girls particularly focused on novels (well over two thirds of books they borrowed).

Boys borrowed far more graphic novels than girls.

	Borrowing of Graphic Novels Number borrowed and percentage of boy/girl total borrowing
	2007	2008	2009
Boys	1049	1766 (14%)	1447 (12%)
Girls	433	788 (5%)	487 (3%)

 

 

3. Resourcing

Resources

Are current physical, staff and learning resources adequate? Please explain. [Nag 1.ii.b]

 

 

1.Physical

Older seating in the library needs replacing. Use of Raid dispenser in Terms 1 & 2 reduced the amount of fleas.

 

2.Staff

As Library Assistant, Kerry Bax continues to do a fantastic job with the day to day running of the library. Two student librarians from each class have been trained and the library could not run without their help in issuing and returning books, following up overdues and shelving.

 

3. Access

a)Library management system.

Now that the Access-it webpac is more stable students are using it regularly and getting used to checking their borrowing record, placing reserves and writing reviews. Lack of machines in the library area and their unreliability can be frustrating.

 

b)Resource boxes

These boxes allowed limited resources to be shared more fairly when several classes were working on the same topic. They were only allowed to be borrowed as a set and for a period or two at a time.  Many teachers have now come to rely on this service. So far this year 20 resource boxes have been created (compared to 16 last year and 12 in 2007). Boxes were borrowed well over 330 times (compared to 550 loans 2008, 200 in 2007).

c) Digital resources 

Access to EPIC, a web based suite of databases funded by the Ministry of Education continued. Many students were introduced to it, but were put off by the difficulty of logging in. The collection of websites to support Action Learning topics on Delicious continues to be maintained and it is now searchable using Google custom search. A new Delicious collection of websites about books and authors was also created and students have been using this regularly. The webpac has also been a good place to provide access to and promote digital resources such as online suggestion forms, videos, video book review and book recommendations.

d) Classroom libraries

Teachers were offered 20 books for their class each term for students’ recreational use in their room. 21 of the 27 classes borrowed class libraries. 

e) Summer holiday borrowing

Year 7 students were offered the opportunity to borrow books over the summer holidays for the first time. 550 books were borrowed. 12 were not returned (at a replacement cost of $296).

4.Collection development

As a result of the collection assessment process during 2008 and 2009 stock has been significantly reduced:

Stock at 2007 stock take                                             11 006

Additions since previous stock take                              473

Deletions since previous stock take                               1 176

Items on catalogue at latest stock take                        10 265

Plus items purchased but not yet on catalogue              38

Closing stock at 2008 stock take                                  10 303

(Closing stock figure includes 503 items currently in Archive stack)

 

Composition of the collection

 

Collection	Percentage of books per collection				Approximate percentage of total value of collection
	2007	2008	2009	2008		2009
Archive			5			5
Fiction	37	39	40	33		35
Graphic Novels	2	3	3	3		5
Non-Fiction	51	49	42	54		47
Other Languages	1	1	1	1		1
Picture Book	5	5	6	5		6
Reference	3	1	0	2		Below 1
Speedy Read	2	2	2	1		1

 

 

Proportion of books in each collection

  

The aim is still to reduce non-fiction to about a third of the library and we continue to move in this direction.

Spending up to the end of Term 3

These are approximate figures. The transaction ledger reports should be seen for exact amounts.

Books

The average price paid for the basic non-fiction and novel collection books increased in 2009. We also acquired books through Scholastic Book Fair and Club and by donation.

 

	Staff library	Non-fiction	Poetry	Novels	Picture books	Graphic novels	Maori
Target spending	$200	$1,800	$200	$4,000	$1,000	$2,000	$400
Total net spending	$279	$1,732	$ 192	$3,059	$791.14	$1,704	$149.48
Number of books bought	8	81	11	236	55	96	9
Average net price	$35	$21	$17	$13	$14	$18	$17
Average price 2007 & 2008		$19/$18	$23/$14	$12/$12	$13/$15	$14/$14

 

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