Library Impact Report 2023 -2024c by habselstreeschools

LIBRARY

ACADEMIC YEAR SEPT 2023 -2024

THE BOURNE LIBRARY

Authored

by:

TERENCE CHAN Head of Libraries and Archives

A MESSAGE FROM THE BOURNE LIBRARY

This is the first annual Library Impact Report from the Bourne Library 2023-2024. Over the past twelve months we have analysed data, collected feedback and evaluated our initiatives to ensure that all students are supported and inspired by reading. We want all our students to be confident independent researchers and lifelong learners. The report provides an overview of the work undertaken by the department and the impact it has on their learning, reader development, and our pastoral role in supporting students’ mental health and wellbeing. In 2018 research from The National Literacy Trust found that students who were the most engaged with literacy were three times more likely to have higher levels of mental wellbeing than children who were the least engaged (Clark & Teravainen-Goff,2018). This year the department has worked consistently on EDI and promoting diversity through literacy. We have worked closely with departmental heads and students to ensure our collection is diverse and representative of all “Representation is excellent! Writers (and characters) from all backgrounds and walks of life are promoted: all students can see themselves somewhere on a display or a shelf! John Dunne (English Department)

One thing is evidently clear in this report – the students love their library, and we are a community of readers.

TChan

HABS: A Community of Readers

LIBRARY STATISTICS

Distribution of Loans Across the School

Table 1: Book loans for period Sept 2023- 2024

Distributions of Loans 2023 -2024

Distribution of Loans Sept 2023 -2024

EDI

EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSIVITY

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

In October, the library celebrated Black History month with the joint theme, ‘Eliminating Prejudice is Everyone’s Business’ and ‘Saluting Our Sisters’ – honouring the achievements of black women. Displays and reading lists featuring fiction and non-fiction included black women promoting social justice, courageously battling oppression and advocating change.

The library display was an informative focal point highlighting the contributions and achievements of black women who have made a difference in society, science, politics and academia. In addition, the library produced a reading list featuring contemporary YA black authors.

“The library is an inspiration, A mood lifter for the community.

Weekly updates – kind supportive, cleverly reflecting school calendar events, supporting SEN. Willingly supportive of staff needs I have loved the library and bringing groups over”

Mrs. D Bardou Teacher of History and SEN Department

CHINESE AND LUNAR NEW YEAR

The Bourne Library celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year with vibrant colour and energy, welcoming the Year of the Dragon. The Dragon is one of the most revered zodiac signs in Chinese culture bringing great success and good fortune. The theme for our library display is ‘Celebrating Authors of Chinese and East Asian Origin’ A selection of books relating to Chinese history, art, and culture were on display

DIWALI CELEBRATIONS AT THE LIBRARY

The Bourne Library was shining ever so brightly in November as we celebrated Diwali, the Festival of Lights. Diwali is a religious festival lasting five days, marking the start of the New Year.

To complement the colourful and vibrant Diwali display created by Mrs. Vekharia and Mrs. Moriss from the Biology department, the library celebrated award-winning Indian authors and stories from the Indian subcontinent.

The display included books by Jhumpa Lahiri, Namesake, and The Lowland, novelist and poet Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss, and works by the romantic writer by Nikita Singh, to name but a few.

READ WITH PRIDE

In June, the library celebrated Pride with a display entitled, ”Read with Pride” Titles covered both YA fiction and nonfiction in support and recognition of the LGBTQ+ community.

CHRISTMAS (Festive Reads)

In December, the Library turned into a magical winter wonderland Displays of books with the theme Christmas, winter, the colour green, and stories with happy endings were displayed around the library. Students were treated to a screening of the animated film KLAUS at lunchtime.

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

To celebrate the achievements of women throughout history and champion women’s rights the library compiled a book display in March. This year’s theme was “Women Who Advocate Equity, Diversity and Inclusion” A selection of fiction and non-fiction books were highlighted next to a recycled and repurposed mannequin made from an old library book. Titles included Invisible Women, by Caroline Criado Perez, Manifesto On Never Giving Up, by Bernadine Evaristo and the Maya Angelou’s novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

NEURODIVERSITY WEEK

Neurodiversity Celebration Week is a global initiative that challenges stereotypes and misconceptions about neurological differences. A roaming display made its way around different locations in school, raising awareness and promoting books relating to this important topic. A reading list was generated and distributed to all students.

INFORMATION LITERACY AND RESEARCH SKILLS

DAWSON PROJECT LESSON

Earlier in the year the library supported Year 9 students with referencing and research lessons for their Dawson Project. Several well attended lunchtime sessions were held in the library. Students were given advice about where and how to start their initial research ensuring that their sources were of a good quality – information about Jstor, access to the London Library and numerous journals was provided. Year 9s were also introduced to referencing and academic integrity: in text citations and bibliographies (Harvard) and the serious consequences of plagiarism were explained. A more light-hearted Q&A session at the end (reinforced with a sweet treat) showed that pupils had been attentive. An invitation was extended to all Year 9s to return to the library throughout the course of their project to consult seek further support if needed.

“I like the vast number of resources the library provides” Justin L6H1 (Student)

HABS DIPLOMA EXTENDED RESEARCH PROJECT

‘How to Research your ideas?’

The library has a fundamental role in ensuring all students are confident independent researchers.

In October, Librarians delivered a talk in The Bourne Hall on Information Research skills to Sixth Formers in the Girls’ and Boy’s school The session focused on, Sourcing and Evaluating Information, Effective Searching, Note taking, Referencing and Academic Honesty. Students were also introduced to the plethora of online resources available to them.

Throughout the academic year, sixth formers arranged private sessions with librarians where they could discuss their research strategies, where to source relevant information in support of their research project.

WE ARE HABS

OLD HABERDASHERS DISPLAY

A permanent display of published Old Haberdashers continues to grow.

AUTHOR: MATT DICKINSON

To end our week-long World Book Day celebrations, we had the pleasure of inviting Matt Dickinson to talk about his successful career as a writer, author and his exciting expeditions to Mount Everest. Matt spoke passionately to the whole of the Lower School describing the adventures and challenges he faced climbing Everest, and why one shouldn’t carry a ‘Toffee Crisp’ in your pocket. This led to Matt writing his award-winning YA fiction novel, The Everest Files.

‘The library comes to life and turns truly magical for World Book Day 2024”

“I loved listening to Matt Dickinson talk about his expedition to Mount Everest. He had really inspired me to overcome challenges and never give up” .

PARTNERSHIPS

This academic year The Bourne library had donated over one hundred books to local schools and care homes in the local community. We were delighted to invite students from The London Academy to join us at our World Book Day celebration.

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY (Library Writing Competition)

Every Picture Tells a Story was a digital writing competition where students from Prep to the Senior School had the opportunity to interpret one of six photographs and write an imaginative story from their interpretation. Students chose their genre and style of language. We had over 500 entries – making this one of the largest writing competitions in the school.

EVERY TEACHER TELLS A STORY

Students from all year groups gathered at The Bourne Library for the ‘Every Teacher Tells a Story’, World Book Day event. Teachers and members of the Professional Services read extracts from their favourite childhood book. To name only a few of the participants, Mr. Wheeler read from his favourite Dr Who story, Dr St John chose The Wind in the Willows, whilst Mr. Arnsberg read from A Blink of the Screen, by Terry Pratchett. What an amazing, well-attended and inspiring event

“I really enjoyed listening to teachers read about their favourite books growing up. I remember my grandad reading ‘The Wind and The Willows’ to me when I was younger. It was an inspiring afternoon, and the cookies were yummy”

YEAR 9 STUDENT

WIDER SCHOOL ENGAGEMENT

SUSTAINABILITY, EARTH DAY AND COP-24

In preparation for HABS Elstree’s first joint Sustainability Conference, the library transformed itself into, ‘The Secret Garden’ Books themed with sustainability, environment and climate change were on display together with popular YA fiction books such as Tsunami Girl, by Jullian Sedgwick, Exodus by Julie Bertagna, This Book is Cruelty Free, by Linda Newbery and The Last Whale by Chris Vick.

In addition, the library celebrated Earth Day with books relating to environment protection. This year’s focus was Planet Vs Plastics and our commitment to end plastics for the sake of human and planetary health.

YEAR 6 INTO YEAR 7

The Library and Admissions Team invited our new Year 7s to write a Book Review on a postcard over the summer break. We received over 100 postcards from all over the world. All postcards were shared and displayed at the beginning of term for everyone to enjoy.

UK ELECTION 2024 – HUSTINGS AT THE BOURNE LIBRARY

Over 120 students gathered at the Bourne Library in July to hear election candidates from their designated political parties to debate policies and answer questions from the audience. In addition, students had the opportunity to have a look at the library’s General Election display consisting of books on political figures, the British democracy and former Prime Ministers.

BOURNE LIBRARY

‘POETREE’ COMPETITION

National Poetry Day was founded in 1995 and is an annual celebration that encourages everyone to make, experience and share poetry with friends and family. Students were encouraged to write a short poem on the theme REFUGE. The library received over 50 poems from all year groups. All entries were hung on the ‘Poetree’ in the centre of the Bourne Library for everyone to read. This was an inspiring event that encourages a love of language and promoted the vital role that poetry plays in all our lives. Winners of the competition received a National Book Token gift card.

JOINT READING GROUP

Librarian Catherine Daly led the Carnegie 2024 reading group with the Girls’ School Library. This provided students from both schools the chance to interact and work together. During six weekly sessions selected texts from the Short-List for writing were discussed.

Students engaged with texts exploring a variety of cultures: Beth Zillah’s, Song Walker, focusing on the traditions of Australian first peoples, Nicola Davies’ poetry collection, Choose Love, sensitively conveying modern-day migrant and refugee experiences, and closer to home, Nathanial Lessore’s novel, Steady for This, noted for its humor, but novertheless, exploring the harsh realities of growing up on a South London housing estate.

Students discussed with empathy the way in which the texts shows that lifechances are affected by circumstances often beyond one’s control

Students analyzed a variety of writing forms, including traditional prose, free verse, and use of regional dialect to help shape their own opinions of what makes a ‘good’ read.

Presentations were initially led by library staff with students successfully and confidently presenting the latter sessions to their peers.

LIBRARY TALKS

This year we introduced the Bourne Library’s lunchtime talks which were given by members of academic staff and have proved highly popular. Our first talk was given by Dr St John who spoke about TE Lawrence’s famous book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. To commemorate D-Day Mr. Clark’s talk recounted the landings in detail. This was supported by the library’s display of books and archive information relating to Old Haberdashers’ who were involved in the D-Day landings. Both talks were well attended. Further sessions are planned for the new academic yearspeakers will be invited from all parts of the school community.

DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARD

At the Bourne Library

In the previous year we have supervised and trained several students at all levels. Two students have now completed their Gold Volunteering with us. Four students completed their Bronze award and are remaining with us to complete their Silver level volunteering. Our volunteers attended each week and had the opportunity to organize and shelve books, assist with marketing library events, and helping with displays around the library.

LIBRARY THEMES AND DISPLAYS

SHAKESPEARE WEEK

‘To read or not to read’

Shakespeare Week 18th – 22nd March 2024 –From Shakespeare’s sonnets to contemporary graphic novel adaptations of his works, we celebrate the greatest playwright and writer of all time, having written 38 plays and 154 sonnets. William Shakespeare makes his appearance at The Bourne Library.

FROM STAGE TO

SCREEN (..and everything in between)

The red carpet was out, the glittery backdrop took centre stage - this can only mean one thing, it’s BOOKS INTO SCREEN … and everything in between!

We have a selection of books that have made it on to the big and small screen.

The Golden Era of Detective Fiction refers to the period between 1920 to 1939 or the inter-war years. This period brought us enduringly popular, elegantly written novels and the queen of this age was none other than British writer Agatha Christie. During her lifetime Christie wrote sixty-six detective novels and fourteen story collections. Her novel, And Then There Were None’ , remains one of the best-selling books of all time. Christie will be remembered for creating two of the most popular detectives in literary history: Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Christie and other authors from the Golden Era of Detective Fiction have created a legacy of detective novels based on gathering clues and solving mysteries where the reader figures out the eternal question…Whodunit?

Authors such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tey and Margery Allingham paved the way to modern detective and crime fiction as we know it. Explore a selection of books inspired by The Golden Era of Detective Fiction at the Bourne Library.

“The library is the place where I can escape the pace of life and delve into the depths of fiction” George L6M1

GOTHIC LITERATURE

To support the English department’s focus on Gothic Literature and to celebrate Halloween, the library created an eye-catching display featuring works such as, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Henry James’ Turn of the Screw, and Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto, whilst also looking forward to the modern-day ghoulish and spine-tingling tales of Stephen King, Darren Shan, Derek Landy and Shirley Jackson. Indeed, one of our most successful displays of the year resulting in numerous student loans

D DAY COMMERATIONS

In June we commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings with a central display of books relating to the Second World War. A DDay talk was presented by Mr. Stephen Clark from the History Department that was attended by more than 50 students.

REMEMBERANCE DAY

Remembrance Day is a time to reflect on the past and consider the future. In November, the Bourne Library put together a selection of books that can help offer new perspectives and discussion on difficult topics through stories, poetry, and a selection of non-fiction books. The librarians created a book list for students to explore Additionally, poppies from the National Poppy Appeal and a collection box were placed in the library for the whole month.

THE NEW READING AREA

Above: New silent reading area.