Senior Library

The P.L. Duffy Resource Centre at Senior School Trinity has had a facelift this year. We are situated in a magic location overlooking the Swan River and can now really enjoy that outlook.

The transformation began with new light coloured paint to cover the dark brown brick walls. This immediately lightened the library. The shelving under the windows to house some of our fiction collection was constructed by our wonderful carpenter Lawrie Dodd. This enabled us to reorganise all the shelving. We replaced the high dark blue shelving with low light coloured modern shelving. The low shelves were placed with wide aisles to enable easy access to all materials. We arranged these to canter either side of the central reference and reading section. Now the entrance to the library has a bright and open vista across the river.

The new arrangement of shelves has also allowed us to have a much expanded area for displays. One of the most popular this year was our display of rowing cups, including the splendid Hamer cup.

The Edmund Rice icon arrived from Ireland and has pride of place on the wall above the computers. The stained glass is illuminated by a specially installed spotlight, and provides a focus and reminder that our boys are growing to be “Men for Others”.

This physical transformation mirrors the continuing evolution of service the resource centre provides for both staff and students. In a time of increasing change we need to prepare our students with skills that enable them to learn new things as fresh challenges arise. The addition of talking books and Cd Roms has added a new dimension to our expanding and developing collection.

The resource centre is heavily used during school time and in the time before school, lunchtime and after school. During class times the boys come with their classes to research and read. The computers, connected to the Internet continue to be in great demand. Using this technology allows the boys to develop their research and analytical skills. In the unstructured times the students enjoy playing chess, draughts, reading, and catching up with homework.

One new programme this year was the inauguration of the Mercedes/Trinity Book Club. We met a couple of times a term, alternating between the two school libraries. There were new books, old books, talking, discussions, quizzes, reviews, as well as afternoon tea. I would like to thank Natalie Crawford from Dymocks and Mrs June Daniel from Mercedes who helped make it such a success.

The library website was allocated its own address this year, http://library.trinity.wa.edu.au/. It continues to grow at a rapid pace, and is used not only by our own staff and students but by many people both in Australia and overseas. In one day in November we had over 5600 unique visitors to the website.

My genuine gratitude extends to my welcoming, enthusiastic and competent assistants Mrs Jennifer Properjohn and Ms Catherine Hamilton who always provide supportive assistance to both staff and students.

My thanks go to Lawrie Dodd for our fantastic wall shelving.

Thank you to the members of the Information Technology Department who are always available to willingly support the Resource Centre.

The Resource Centre is a central hub for support of the learning programme of the college, and we thank the Administration and Staff that help make it possible.

Ms Rosemary Horton Senior Librarian