Victory In Reading! -Creating a Library Culture.

Currently I am working at a beautiful College called Victory College in Gympie Queensland I started in July 2017. A Kindergarten to Year 12 school working with approx. 570 students. The library is set in beautiful grounds and has a computer lab, a Lecture theatre, classroom area, Senior Reading area and a junior area that includes a Home Reader section, and a Teacher Resource, Primary and Textbook room. I am fortunate to have a part - time Library assistant and two reliable volunteers to help with end processing of catalogued materials. The biggest challenge I faced in this library was the lack of a 'library culture' at the College. This was very evident when I first walked into the Library. As their first qualified Librarian to have the privilege to accept a position at this school. I realised there were many things missing from the library. Yes the building was called the Library and yes students came and went from it and borrowed books. The library assistant was a casual TA and there were classes that came and went without any library lessons as such. The library was not what I consider to be a successful healthy reading environment with an active reading culture established in the school. The first aide was the priority and was located in the library, so for the first few months I was greeted with ill students sitting outside the sick room and everywhere else in the library. The Chaplains also were located in the Librarians office and were there to support students in need of emotional help. There was one day when I stood at the front circulation desk and had one student say "I think I am going to be sick" and the other student emotionally saying "I need a quiet space to talk to Chappy Josh" , I was very tempted to say 'Would anyone like to read a book?. It took quiet a few months to negotiate with college members, however with the wonderful support of the Principal -the First Aide was removed from the library. I think what drove this to a head was there are no toilets located in the library. Students literally were vomiting into plastic bags, all over the floor which is carpeted and every where else. The Chaplains soon realised after I carefully explained to them that we had two years of cataloguing not touched, as well as the entire collection had never been weeded over a decade of old books needed to be removed. All this needed to be addressed, as well as recognition for library staff and what we are capable of doing and needed to do. I then found out the entire library collection was incorrectly catalogued and labeled. So the work to re-catalogue the LF collection (little Fiction) into Junior Fiction - Kindy to Year 3 and Fiction -year 4 to year 6 and Young Adult year 7 to 12 commenced. The building of the Young Adult collection has seen new items with a classics collection added and the first Senior Book Club called the VIP Readers where they have boarding passes to enter the library at a certain time. The 'Quiet Readers' club is for our students who have autism or suffer from sensory issues and need a quiet time once a week to access the library by themselves. The lights are lowered and students also have a boarding pass to access the library. As an inclusive school recognising the divergence in our students, I feel libraries are the perfect space to be proactive in this area, it is very important. We now have nine year 4 Library monitors who are training students on how to use the Library catalogues for the first time. Prior to this students did not know the Dewey Decimal system and simply asked the library staff to find a book for them. The beginning of library lessons now sees 17 classes booked in each week into the library including two senior classes who borrow fiction regularly. With access to parents for information being difficult- I created our library weebly - https://victoryinreading.weebly.com a QR code on the outside of the library along with a large sign that says (in part) 'This is your Library all welcome" has started to change the library culture. Students are actively participating and winning library literary competitions. We are steadily building our seniors up with reading stamina to eventually participate in schools Readers Cup events. Students have a story read to them each week, this is vital in creating an enjoyment of reading and introduces students to the many forms of literature available. Teachers are encouraged to participate and join in or borrow for themselves for class readers and other books for classroom use. The cataloguing is almost caught up and the Young Adult is now allowing Year 7 and 8 students to borrow fiction over the holidays. No one degree, no one lecturer can train and teach a professional librarian how to tackle the immense divergence needed in Information management in libraries today - from Councils, to Universities, to State Schools, to Private Colleges to Special Libraries. I have had the pleasure of working in all of these libraries. This College library I am presently working in has had its challengers. One of the joys is I am now networking with Council libraries and I am happy to say I am also mentoring other non-qualified librarians in other schools in the local area and sharing my knowledge in how to make their libraries progress. While I enjoyed mentoring librarians in the International Librarians Network, I forget how satisfying it is to train and teach other librarians locally where we area able to support each other in building Libraries together and creating a library culture for our communities.