Rhonda Bruce, Teacher Librarian at St Johns College, Dubbo in NSW answered our questions about what their school library team have been doing during the COVID-19 outbreak to ensure their staff and students have access to the resources they need.

What has been the focus for your school library/ role during the COVID-19 crisis?
I have focused on ensuring that both Students and Staff have clear and precise information on how to access all the e-resources available in our School Library. I also shared information regarding free resources, including weblinks to J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books and David Walliams’ Audio books. Our Library Team also created Visual Guides to Book Titles, which we sent out as a one-page document, to entice readers. I decided to keep the Library open, meticulously cleaning surfaces, keyboards and other spaces used by both staff and students. As the number of students physically on the premises declined, the remaining students were given a study carrell in the Library and that became ‘their’ desk for the day. I very strongly encouraged both students and staff to borrow as many books and other resources as they wanted and advised that there would be no Overdue notices sent out at all. As only our Senior Students have their own devices, my Library Assistant and myself barcoded individual Chromebooks and power supplies, to lend out to students in the Junior school, if they did not have access to devices at home. Two of the smaller rooms in the Library have been set up for staff to use in Remote Learning with Document Cameras.

What major tasks have you achieved?
I created Library – How to Guide which was a number of guides to e-resources in the Library, including How to borrow e-books ; How to use the databases to which the Library subscribes ; How to use Clickview ; and other resources which were currently on offer for free from authors. All this was created on a one-page colourful word document, and this document was turned into link which was sent out to both staff and students.
What has been the result for staff and/or students?
Quite a number of both Staff and Students borrowed from the Library and are utilizing the e-resources. Borrowers who were ‘desperate’ for more to read contacted the Library and we were able to supply them with more reading material.

What other information would you like readers to know?
My talented Library Assistant, wrote, filmed and directed a short videoclip based on the lyrics and song of When she loved me from Toy Story, alluding to borrowers not to forget the Library.