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Library Welcome How to borrow a book How to use Search Star Research Rules Photocopying Pupil Librarian Activities Sections of the Fiction Library Visiting Authors

LIBRARY AT PRINCE HENRY’S

Welcome to PHGS Library


PHGS Libraries are here for you. Whether you want to study to extend what you begin to learn about in the classroom, or you want to pursue interests of your own beyond the curriculum, the Information Library is the place to come. The habit of reading, for pleasure or for development, is the sign of a good brain and a lively mind, and the Fiction Library including the older fiction in the Information Library provides an enormous collection with a huge range of genre and level which any reader can use to develop their brain, mind and soul.

Mr Gillett (Librarian) and Mrs May (Library Manager) are here to help you use the library to your best advantage, whether in class time, in private study time or in non-curricular time: breaks and after school.

There are two libraries in PHGS. Information Books which are borrowable, Reference Books for use in the library only, Audio Tapes, CD ROMs, Videos, Periodicals and Newspapers and Fiction Books for older readers are kept in the Information Library. (link to Information Library page)

All other Fiction Books, including sections for Science Fiction and Fantasy; Romance,Teenage and Growing-up; Horror, Crime and Thrillers; Quick Reads; Poetry and a selection of books made available only to Year 8 students for their E nglish lessons are to be found in the Fiction Library which is also Mr Gillett's English classroom between room 20 and room 22 on the route to "Lower School" (link to Fiction Library page)

The items in the Library are all catalogued in the Library Management Software called Eclipse. Students have access to the catalogue for searching from every computer on the Curriculum Network. Soon we hope to make the catalogue available through a web browser from any computer in the school, and eventually from your homes. The software to look for is "SearchStar" which is in the Programs menu when you click the Start button. (link direct to SearchStar page)

Both libraries are open during lunchtime, though the Fiction Library may only be open when a member of staff or older pupil librarian can be there to help you. The Fiction Library is also open at morning break, though the Information Library is not, except to the sixth form. The information Library is open after school until 3.45 pm and until 4.45 pm on two days a week, which are Monday and Thursday in 2007-8.

Study skills are the key to accessing and using the library to help you to learn. All students should learn to find resources in the library, to manage a study so they develop their knowledge and understanding in a sensible and logical progression, to assess resources and evaluate their reliability, to read and understand resources which may be difficult and aimed at higher levels of study than they have yet attained in class, to assimilate knowledge and apply it to their purposes and to produce useful outcomes from the information they have found. (link to Study Skills page)

Library membership


Every member of the school and all staff are members of the Library. Year 7 new entrants will be given a pin and allowed to borrow books from the moment they are added to the system. Members of staff and late entrants to the school may need to come and tell us about their arrival so we can add them to the Library membership.

Library charter


Every student planner has a Lbrary Charter which outlines the aggreement between the individual and the library. This needs to be signed by the student and the parent.

Library and PD


Users of the library will be given stamps for positive use and good behaviour in the libraries. Pupil librarians will be given credits for helping in the libraries. Students who are late returning their borrowed books will be sent a reminder through their Form Tutor on the Monday afternoon after the book falls overdue. If they return the book as soon as they are reminded, no further action will be taken by the library or the tutor. However, if the student fails to return the book by the next Monday morning, anothe reminder will be sent to the Tutor, who will write a comment for around school misbehaviour. Three such comments, or one such comment with two comments for other "around school" misdemeanours will lead to a school detention after school.

Accounts


A student who has shown that they can use the library well and sensibly may ask to be given a password to their account, which will enable them to view their borrowings on SearchStar, to reserve books and to write reviews of library books they have borrowed for other users to read through SearchStar.

Reserving books through SearchStar


A student who has been given a password by the Librarian can reserve any borrowable book through SearchStar so that the Librarian is alerted to their wish to borrow the book when it is returned by the current borrower. To do this the student will need to key in their PIN (on the Library barcode sticker in the planner) and their password (which can be changed, once acquired, to something memorable and private).

Reviewing


Using their PIN and password a student may access their account with the library. Here they may see all the books they have borrowed fromthe library since joining the school (and the library). Any of these books in the student's borrowing history can be reviewed by the student, and after vetting by the Librarian, the review will be linked to the catalogue entry and will be accessible to all users who look at the detailed catalogue entry for that book.

Keywording


Catalogue access to all books, whether Fiction or Non-Fiction is helped by a relevant set of Keywords in the catalogue entry. The Librarian, not having read all the books in the Library (contrary to popular myth), will be greatly helped, as will all users if anyone who reads a book, can suggest keywords which a student searching on SearchStar might look up whose search would be satisfied by finding that book. The keywords can be added to the end of a review, with the sentence: "The following keywords would help other readers to find this book:". Reviewers who would like a copy of their review perhaps to give their English teacher to mark, or to put in their best work folder, can print off a copy after they have written it, and before it has been vetted and placed in the catalogue.

"My reading" printout


Account holders may print out the list of all the books they have read since joining the school. Again, this will be of interest to the student's English teacher and would be appropriately placed in the student's best work folder. Sixth Form students could use such a list to help them write citations for bibliographies in coursework for all subjects and to alert their teachers to the exemplary extent of their background reading.