Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 2015

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I AM IN A UNIQUE POSITION AT GIRLS GRAMMAR. I HAVE HAD THE GOOD FORTUNE TO BE A PAST STUDENT, A CLASSROOM AND A RESOURCE TEACHER, AND NOW A DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION SERVICES. THAT HAS PROVIDED ME WITH A RANGE OF PERSPECTIVES ON THE WAYS IN WHICH THE SCHOOL HAS CHANGED — AND THE WAYS, THANKFULLY, THAT IT HAS NOT. LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD

of our Shakespearean play or we could listen to a radio programme about poetry. Rare and special events! How times have changed to laptops, self-loan and self-return stations, RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags in the resources, digital signage, booths with televisions to project laptop screens, and thousands of DVDs. In the centenary year of the School, 1975, the much larger and lighter building was opened and, as a relatively new teacher, I was overjoyed to bring my English classes into such a ‘modern’ and airy space. This library in the Lilley wing grew over the years to include a whole new area in the later-built Hancock building. That library could accommodate at least seven classes and the staffing grew to include two teacher librarians, a reference librarian, a special collection librarian, and two library assistants. While the building was not the most modern and beautiful, the students claimed it as theirs and the stained glass windows certainly made the space memorable. However, our new Research Learning Centre (RLC) has opened a totally new and dynamic page in the history of information services at Girls Grammar. As Director of this faculty and manager of this new facility, I feel as if the wheel has turned full circle from my primary school days and I am home. The journey here has been a combination of excitement and upheaval, of moving thousands of resources and seeing them and the students settle into a totally new home. The place may be new and the furniture modern and different but the values of scholarship and creativity, of intellectual stimulation and imaginative exploration remain the same. This School has never been afraid of innovation nor intimidated by the future. It was founded by men and women who wanted the best education for girls who would make their mark in what was then a relatively new colony. Our new RLC has provided the perfect place for supported learning while the very design encourages the students to look out at the world and all its possibilities.

AUTHOR Mrs Kristine Cooke Director of Information Services

My interests have always included books and reading. Therefore, libraries have always been special places for me — although I was told I was a ‘bother’ at my primary school for reading too many books! How wonderful to come to a high school where I was not only welcomed but also encouraged to immerse myself in the information and insights that books have to offer. I have such warm memories of the librarian in my senior years who used to keep poetry books at the desk for me — just because she thought I would enjoy them. I hope that, despite the

drastic changes in physical facilities, what continues to this day is the idea that the library is a home for each and every student, and the role of the information and library staff is to support readers and researchers, to enlighten them to the wonders of knowledge and wisdom that books and films have to offer, and to provide a safe and stimulating environment.

The library of my student days was a smallish but two-storey affair with reference and non-fiction [the serious books] upstairs and fiction downstairs. There was an outside staircase that led students down to the collection of novels I so loved. This library was built with Old Girls’ funding and opened in 1956. There are archival photographs of the serious foundation stone ceremony where everyone looks very pleased to be gaining a future library that outgrew one room in the main building. The furniture in that library was mainly wooden, and some of the tables and bookcases were quite lovely. To this day, many library spaces have included selected pieces from this early version. The present students seem to enjoy the old tables and chairs — and even the old classroom desks we have incorporated. It is as if, while they admire the new, the sense of tradition is not lost on them. I also find it almost quaint that, in my days as a student, the extent of the technology was a record player on which the teacher could play recordings

AUTUMN ISSUE / 2015