Facilities

Library

A great place to learn…

Sacred Heart Girls’ College Library caters for students and staff and is open on school days from 8am to 4.00pm.

The library has over 9000 items on the library catalogue, which can be accessed through the school website. As well as books, the library has 12 computers with internet access, a colour printer/photocopier, magazines and copies of the Taranaki Daily news and other local newspapers.

Our school librarian is Ms Clare Lyon; the librarian is assisted in the library at lunchtime by student librarians.

The library serves to provide recreational reading and relevant material for research and to support classroom teaching

Reading Recommendations

When you are looking for a book to read there are so many places to go for suggestions. The first place to try is the Sacred Heart Library Catalogue.

Check out the reading lists which can be found in the catalogue. Some of these lists are year level related, and others by theme and genre.

Starting your research (Planning)

Do you understand the questions?

• Think about whether you have to explain something, or give opinions

• Check out the date it is due. Try and get it finished a few days before you are meant to.

• Do you have to show your sources in a bibliography? (Do this as you go along!)

• Do you know what you are looking for?   Make a list of KEYWORDS.

Your KEYWORDS will help you with search engines like Google, and using library catalogues and indexes in encyclopedias and books.

Sources

• REFERENCE: Start with a DICTIONARY or ENCYCLOPEDIA

• BOOKS: Check out classroom textbooks, and books from the SCHOOL LIBRARY and PUBLIC LIBRARY

• INTERNET: A quick look at Wikipedia might help you get an understanding of your topic, but it isn’t always that reliable because anyone can write on it. Make sure you follow up with more official websites. External links on the bottom of the Wikipedia page are often useful for guiding you to other resources on the topic. Websites ending in .govt are more reliable than .com!

• ASK A LIBRARIAN: The school librarian can help you use the catalogue and find information in the library. The librarian can also assist in access to EPIC, INNZ and National Library information

Doing your research

Make notes

Write where you got the information from

Presenting your research

Think about how your teacher asked you to show what you have done.

Does it have to be in a particular format (e.g. essay, poster, presentation)?

Does it have to be a certain length (e.g. particular number of words or powerpoint slides?)

Did it have to include certain things (contents page, bibliography)?