Library

EBS Library is the beating heart of our school. It is a safe space for our school community, where everyone belongs. The Library is for research, reading for pleasure, studying and enquiry. The Library provides users with a calm learning environment and offers a wide range of services to support the needs and interests of our staff and students.

The Library is a resource for the whole school and we aim to support teaching and learning through the provision of resources, both in print and online. All students and staff have equal access to these resources. The Librarian is available throughout the school day to provide as much support as necessary to assist students in the use of these materials. We encourage literacy and reading throughout the school by developing activities and resources that support both reading for pleasure and reading for learning.

The Library is staffed by a full-time Professional Librarian and is available for all year groups.
The Library is well-resourced and houses an array of different materials in support of the taught curriculum and beyond. Our resources include fiction and non-fiction books, e-readers, magazines, Manga and graphic novels. We also have access to a digital library of e-books and audio books, as well as other useful online resources.
Students take part in Library lessons to increase their awareness of Library use and help them to become independent library users, as well as to enhance their learning in certain subjects.
The Library organises a number of events and activities throughout the year. We also regularly invite authors to the school to conduct talks for different year groups.

Meet Our Librarian

I was raised and schooled in Whetstone and High Barnet but have lived and worked outside of the borough for many years, so starting at EBS feels a bit of a homecoming for me!

Before EBS, for almost two decades I was Library Manager at The William Morris Sixth Form, Hammersmith, a brilliant diverse community of approximately 850 students and staff. I have also worked, supplying case and corporate information, to demanding lawyers and paraprofessionals at Barlow Lyde and Gilbert, with LLB and GDL students at the College for Law London, as Assistant Librarian at Graveney School Tooting and in various other roles in the public sector, including the RAF Museum Hendon. My educational path has included a master’s Information Services Management from London Metropolitan University, a PGCert in Digital Education from the University of Edinburgh and a BA in Theology from the University of Leeds.

Professionally, I’m most interested in developing students’ information literacy and research skills (locating, interpreting, synthesising and reflecting on information use). I relish both one-to-one reference interviews, creating engaging online resources or developing and delivering class instruction. The ways that educationalists can develop young people’s reading and wider literacy skills also fascinate me. As a dyslexic, who came relatively late to fluent reading, I was lucky to receive excellent remedial education at Barts London but am also so grateful to teachers and support staff who with patience, enthusiasm and great teaching helped me access the joy of the written word. Those educationalists have inspired my work with young people, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with students at EBS to achieve similar results.

Outside of work, I enjoy reading (surprise, surprise!), especially theology, history and tales of the supernatural. I’m not embarrassed to write that I also collect Britain’s toy soldiers representing European armies and uniforms just before WWI.

Within 20 minutes of stepping through the doors of EBS for my interview, I realised that the schools’ claims about being student-centred and committed to developing both students’ academic skills and characters were sincere and I am very much looking forward to working with colleagues to contribute to our student’s growth and success.

What We Offer

We offer students access to appropriate resources that meet both their educational needs, as well as personal interests. We support them in a safe and calm learning environment which is centrally located in the school. Resources are selected based on the curriculum in close consultation with all the Faculties. These include both fiction and non-fiction books, daily newspapers, magazines, DVDs, reference books, revision guides and text books. The Library also has many computers and we provide an online library catalogue and online resources, and give students appropriate training in their use.

We provide reading lists for all year groups from 7 to 13, which are available both in the Library and online.

The Carnegie Medal is awarded annually to the writer of an outstanding book for children. If you would like more information on the winner and shortlist, please visit the website: www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk

Events

We organise library events throughout the year including arranging teams for the inter-schools Literature Quiz, Carnegie Shadowing, Stan Lee Comic Book Shadowing and Read for Barnet, as well as author visits to the school.

In Year 7, students will follow a library induction programme in which they are introduced to the library. They will learn how to use the Library, how to find and access information and how to become independent library users.

Rules

All students are expected to:

Respect the Library environment and each other while using the Library.
Be engaged in activities that are purposeful and conducive to their learning, whether that is to carry out research, read, study or complete work.
Refrain from eating, drinking or chewing.
Ensure that all resources are ‘issued’ to them before taking them out of the Library.

Mobile phones, MP3 players and iPods will be confiscated if used in the Library.

Borrowing Books

All students are automatically members of the Library when they join the school.

Years 7, 8 and 9 students may borrow up to 3 books at a time.
Years 10 and 11 students may borrow up to 4 books at a time.
Sixth Form students may borrow up to 5 books at a time.

All books may be borrowed for up to three weeks. DVDs can be borrowed for one week. Items may be renewed up to four times.

Items overdue for more than two weeks will result in the student receiving an email reminding them to return the item or renew it immediately.

Items regarded as lost will be charged to the student who borrowed them, who will receive a bill to cover the replacement value of the item.

Local Connections

We also provide a link to Barnet 24/7

The London Borough of Barnet Libraries provide an online Reference Library through their website, www.barnet.gov.uk/research-service. You can access major encyclopedias, reference books and newspapers free of charge using your Barnet library card. For example, Grove Music Online, School Britannica, The Times Online.

To access the Barnet Libraries Reference Library, click here. Once you reach the website, select the desired link and enter your 14 digit Barnet Library card number.

Online Resources

All years are shown online resources available online via the Library. These resources can be used from home or school. Year 7 students learn to use School Britannica (funded by the PTA), Newspapers for Schools and the Library Catalogue. Sixth Form students additionally learn to use the online archive of Review Magazines for all subjects.

The Library has six e-readers that Year 7 students use in Library lessons, a purchase funded by the PTA. These e-readers are for use in the Library and by school book groups. Additional ebooks can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/ and on the Barnet website by Barnet Library members.