nt with similar success.
Encouraging students to use the Epic Databases, which all schools have access to via TKI, has been challenging. It takes several steps to get into the databases and they need to know the school’s password. Once there, however, Epic provides a wonderful array of databases that most school libraries would never be able to afford access to.
There are specialised science, economics, history, art and music databases, to name just a few, all of very high quality and with more being added to the list yearly. The ones we use the most are the Biography Resource Centre and the Literature Resource Centre. For senior students heading to tertiary courses, using databases is something they need to do often, familiarity with using this kind of resource is vital for them.
Projector and screen
For us at King’s, having a data projector and screen permanently based in the library is a huge bonus. Speakers often use it and meetings often require one after school hours. Students can learn interactively and use it as an embedded part of a lesson where they can practise on the screen in front of the class and then head off to the library resources and computers while the information is fresh in their minds or still up on the screen to refer back to. It’s also used for staff ICT sessions trying out blogging, wikis, social bookmarking tools and more. These are periodically held after school in the library and staff can bring along their laptops and try out new skills in a relaxed atmosphere, where the pressure is off and where hands-on trial and error is encouraged. We’ve had several of these sessions and more are planned using tools such as Wallwisher and Prezi.
The library is the hub of information in our school, all subject areas are catered for in school libraries and with ICT as an inherent part of our curriculums the library shouldn’t be out of the ICT loop and indeed should be right in there catering to the diverse needs of the school.
Bridget Schaumann is Librarian and Careers Advisor at King’s High School in Dunedin.
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