In our latest blog, Mrs Margaret Formby and Mrs Ilona Kendrick, SGGS Librarians, share the recent safety changes made to the school Library and explain the adapted process that has allowed students to continue accessing important books and media post the coronavirus pandemic.   

Over to Mrs Formby and Mrs Kendrick…

 

                    

 

The SGGS Library usually sees hundreds of students in a typical day, returning and issuing books, book clubs, browsing the latest titles, recommending books to friends. But as we all know, 2020 has been far from typical, so we needed to adapt our services to ensure that we could continue to run the library in a COVID-safe way. 

 

An interactive environment

We are fortunate to have ‘Reading Cloud’ at SGGS which enables students to log in at their convenience from home or school, to access the entire library catalogue of resources, fiction, non-fiction, foreign language books and DVD’s.  They can reserve a book which can then be collected from the Pop-Up library in their year group bubble. This new library Click & Collect service is working well so far and we can get books to the students swiftly. Books can then be returned to the trolley in Reception at any time during the week. We quarantine all returned books for 72 hours in the library before issuing them to another student.

As browsing the books in the library is no longer possible, we have set up a mobile library service for each year group bubble during lunchtimes. Students are able to browse a small selection of books and speak to Mrs Formby or Mrs Kendrick about book recommendations and queries.

 

Ongoing communication

We were very keen to maintain the communication links with students so that we can continue to advise, discuss and resolve any queries they may have. Students can come and speak to us in person at the Pop-Up library in their bubble and they can also email the library directly if this is more convenient. Mrs Formby, Mrs Kendrick and students all use hand sanitiser before touching any books at the Pop-Up Library and face coverings are worn.

We continue to buy new books for all age groups in school.  They are a mixture of fiction and non-fiction and are often relevant to current global issues and reflect the diverse authors and topics that are of interest to our students.

Students have been super in adhering to COVID guidance and their responsible behaviour has made it possible for us to continue to deliver the library service, which is fantastic.