From books to bubbles, the Library has been heaving this term.

Books, databases, meetings, discussion groups, careers seminars and even bubbles - it's been all go in the Library this term. Our footcount machine showing 54,000 people through the door would attest to that!

A very special event held in March was the PASCH workshop for Burnside High and Ashburton College students which ran for four days and which was conducted completely in German! The aim of the workshop was to highlight MINT subjects of Mathematik, Informatik, Naturwissenschaft and Technik – which we call STEM or STEAM subjects.  The German tutors for the workshop travelled to New Zealand specifically to run this.  What a great opportunity for our students.

Working models, displays and interactive computer programmes developed by the students involved have been on display in the Library for the last two weeks. These will be moving to Ashburton High School during the holidays for display there.

Some keen Year 9 students have been busy preparing for our first Readers Cup competition to be held at the beginning of Term 2. The winning team will compete against teams from other Canterbury secondary schools, all hoping to win the inaugural Canterbury Readers’ Cup competition at the end of next term.

eBooks and eAudiobooks are fast becoming very popular at Burnside HS. Our collection is growing fast and we now have All Year 9 students were shown how to download these during Library orientation earlier this term and many now have the Wheelers eplatform app loaded onto their phones so they can borrow and read books anytime, anywhere. Issues have soared this year with a more than 500% increase in borrowed titles during March-April from the same period last year. To borrow an ebook over the holidays (or anytime) students can click on the Wheelers eplatform button on the Library website and log on using their normal BHS student number and password.  To borrow ebooks go to  http://opac.burnside.school.nz:2000/#!dashboard for the Library page or https://burnside.wheelers.co/browse takes you go straight into the Burnside ebooks page here.

Next term, students won't need to stand outside the Library shivering in the frosty morning air. The Library will be open at 7.15am each morning during Terms 2 and 3. We trialled this in Term 3 last year and had a lot of early-bird students taking advantage of a warm place to start the day.

Have a great holiday everyone and happy reading

From the Library team.