Torch - Spring/Summer 2019

School Profile

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L ibraries have come a long way since 1926, when Havergal unveiled the Ellen Knox Library, dedicated to the memory of our First Principal. Teeming with a rich collection of books and periodicals, this beautiful sanctuary was designed to inspire and enrich student life and provide a sacred space for research, quiet reflection and study. In 1979, the Upper School library was moved to its current location, but it retained the characteristics and ethos of the original. Today’s library has a different story and a renewed purpose. The age of the Internet has transformed Havergal. The Learning Resource Centre—or “RC”—is a vibrant hub where students meet to work and share and discuss new ideas. No longer the quiet place of contemplation, it’s a bustling, interactive social and learning environment. It is run by the Learning Resource Centre department, including Head of the Learning Resource Centre Tony Nardi, Librarian Elizabeth Shamess and Archivist Debra Latcham. “The library is more of a learning laboratory, where IT and inquiry come together. Students can access virtual resources that allow them to think, imagine, discover, create, explore and develop a love of reading. [This new environment] resonates with today’s students who are plugged in and have information at their fingertips,” Nardi explains. This evolution has created physical changes in the RC: more tables and chairs for students to work together, fewer books and even fewer computers, since most girls bring their own laptops. “I’m buying a lot less print material and investing more in ebooks and databases that provide a range of material for their assignments,” Nardi says. Instead of directing students to encyclopedias, he walks them through databases and shows them more effective ways of searching for information using Google. With 24-7 access to all of the library’s materials, students can research from anywhere, including their classrooms and at home. When it comes to fostering the kind of library environment that best suits today’s students, Nardi reflects on a quote from the late journalist Norman Cousins: “A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life.” Technology hasn’t entirely taken over the library’s efforts to instill a love of reading. The library stocks all Grade 7 and 8 classrooms with riveting books to support their Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) program and Nardi runs mini-book club meetings with small groups of Middle School students. For older students, the RC hosts an annual Blind Date with a Book event during which students transform the library into a bookstore, even gift-wrapping some books with brief, enticing descriptions for readers to browse.

No longer the quiet place of contemplation, it’s a bustling, interactive social and learning environment.

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Junior School develops avid readers Over in the Junior School Learning Hub, Librarian Erica Rodd is intent on fostering a love of reading in every student, from Kindergarten to Grade 6. With the biggest space in the school, she has a gorgeous backdrop for her mission. The light-filled, two-storey centre is home to a collection of 30,000 books. That’s an average of 107 books for every student, well above the North American average of 27:1. “My goal as a librarian is for students to enjoy a robust and fulfilling life of literacy that becomes the foundation for a lifelong love of reading,” Rodd says. She says choice is a huge motivating factor when it comes to nurturing a reader. That’s why she encourages students to look outside of their reading level and pick up books they’re drawn to. “I want the stakes of borrowing books to be low, so their sense of exploration can stay intact.” Rodd is always looking for opportunities to connect readers with books. She strategically displays them, has one-on-one meetings with students and is even known to put books into the hands of readers in the hallways or their classrooms. “If I notice a student hasn’t asked for help in a while, or are in a rut, I’ll create a pile for them to look through.” Like the RC, the Junior School Learning Hub is a place where students learn to research, which supports curriculum studies. Rodd works with classroom teachers to co-teach special units in many subjects. She also runs the popular Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading program, in which Grades 5 and 6 students volunteer to read 10 nominated books. This year, 100 per cent of eligible students are participating. Havergal’s RC and Junior School Learning Hub may not look or operate like the libraries of yesterday, but they are empowering our girls of tomorrow.

TABLE OF CONTENTS | SPRING/SUMMER 2019 • TORCH 11