Authors announced for Spring Read 2010!

East Ayrshire school librarians and East Ayrshire Libraries' Pat Standen have been busy organising the next schools book festival, Spring Read 2010. We are delighted to announce 4 great authors who will be appearing at schools in the area during March next year.

Keith Gray - award winning author of Ostrich Boys, The Runner, Malarky, etc.

Catherine Forde - fantastic author of gritty and uncompromising stories such as Sugarcoated, Skarrs, and of course, Fat Boy Swim.

Catherine MacPhail - Spring Read regular and author of the popular Nemesis series, as well as Run Zan Run, Roxy's Baby, and many more.

Theresa Breslin - much loved author of Whispers in the Graveyard, Remembrance, Divided City, and many more.

J. A. Henderson - award-winning author of Crash, Bunker 10, and Colony.

New resources

As well as all of the new books arriving in the Library in the new term there are some other new resources I'd like to highlight.

• Issues Box Files - these have been updated and continue to be updated, with articles / newspaper cuttings on contemporary issues. An index of the files can be found in the Library folder in the I:Drive or here at the wiki - http://www.jhalibrary.wikispaces.com/. These complement the Library's subscriptions to Essential Articles and Issues (online and print editions).

• Careers Library - this is constantly updated with new material on university and college courses, choosing courses, jobs and careers, job applications and cvs, financial support, and so on. This material comprises prospectuses, leaflets, books and DVDs (which can be borrowed). There is a wealth of information for pupils ranging from S2s choosing subjects to S56 preparing to leave school.

• Electronic databases - we have access to a range of databases via East Ayrshire Council's Library Services, which can be accessed here - http://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/comser/libraries/referenceandinformation-it.asp. There is also a link to these resources in the Library folder in the I:Drive. These resources include:

News UK - a searchable database of newspaper articles from most UK dailies

Britannica Online - a vast online encyclopedia, differentiated for age groups

Readers' Cup 2009

The 2009 Readers' Cup event took place at Auchinleck Academy on Friday 12 June. The hosts won the competition in the end but for most of the time it was very close. The JHA team did brilliantly. Here are some pics of the team -

Our wonderful team is:

(above, l to r) Cassie Wright, Molly Gladman, Graeme Jardine and Scott Robertson

Above is the team with their goody bags accompanied by their proud librarian.

Thanks also to our great team of supporters (above), who won their fair share of chocolate in the audience questions. And also to Mrs Everson for accompanying us!

And finally, thanks to Mrs McGill at Auchinleck Academy for organising the event, and the other school librarians and East Ayrshire Library service for supporting it.

Spring Read 2009

Spring Read 2009 was a great success. JHA took pupils to 3 schools (Kilmarnock, St Joseph's and Grange Academies) to see 3 excellent authors (Catherine MacPhail, K. M. Grant and Catherine Forde). The authors were all very entertaining and inspirational. There has been a great surge in demand for their books from the Library!

Thank you to the school librarians for organising these events so efficiently - Mr King at Kilmarnock, Miss Kirkwood at St Joseph's and Miss Reid at Grange.

Special mention must go to all of the S1 and S2 pupils from JHA who attended these events. Their behaviour was superb throughout. Well done!

Spring Read 2009 authors announced!

Spring Read 2009 - the East Ayrshire Schools Book Festival - will kick off in February with author visits to most of the schools in the area.

We have 3 great authors appearing this year -

Catherine MacPhail (who appeared at JHA in 2008, and everyone loved her!) - author of Tribes, Fighting Back, Roxy's Baby and Worse Than Girls ...

K. M. Grant - author of How The Hangman Lost His Heart, Blood Red Horse, Blue Flame and Blaze of Silver ...

Catherine Forde - author of Sugarcoated, Firestarter, Skarrs, Fat Boy Swim and I See You Baby ...

If you are interested in meeting these authors in person you can sign up for the author visits (just give me your name). Visits will take place between February and March in schools throughout East Ayrshire. Details to be confirmed soon!

Library User Consultation

Every two years I consult with Library users (pupils and staff) about what the Library offers and what users would like it to offer, i. e. resources such as books, magazines, software and any other services. I use the results of the consultation when I plan Library projects and how to spend my budget in the coming year.

Staff and pupils have been issued with questionnaires about the Library. If you have not received a questionnaire and would like one extra copies are available from the Library.

You can also take part in the consultation by submitting any suggestions via the 'Comments' link below.

Thanks!

JHA Library Wiki is here!

JHA Library has begun its own wiki - a collaborative website for the school community. The wiki is in its early stages but you will be able to see from the menu that it could be extremely useful for the school as an addition to an official school website.

Have a look - www.jhalibrary.wikispaces.com

The idea is that staff in the school from any department can add resources to their own pages for pupils and other staff to access, anywhere with an Internet connection. For example, homework tasks, worksheets, links to websites, etc.

I hope to do an in-service course on using the wiki in the near future - TBC.

Bloggers of the Month announced!

S1 and S2 Bloggers of the Month have been announced for October. These awards are given to the pupils who have written the most outstanding book reviews in their year group.

Well done to -

S1 Winner Molly Gladman (1Y)

S1 Runner-up Kelsey Caldow (1B)

S2 Winner Cassie Wright (2R)

S2 Runner-up Shannon Alderson (2W)

Primary / Secondary Literacy Event

On September 8 the Library hosted a Literacy Event featuring the acclaimed Scots author Matthew Fitt. This is was an excellent event over the whole day, with visits from P7 pupils from New Farm Primary, Onthank Primary and Silverwood Primary.

Primary 7 and S1/2 pupils joined together to hear Matthew talk about the languages we speak. He encouraged pupils (and staff) to recognise the value of oor ain tongue, the Scots language - a rich and diverse language that many of us use everyday together with English and other languages (for example Polish, French, Urdu, Spanish, Gaelic).

Matthew also read from some of the books he has written / translated, for example King O The Midden: Manky, Mingin Rhymes in Scots and The Eejits (Scots version of Roald Dahl's The Twits). You'll be able to find these and more of Matthew's books in the Library. Have a look at Matthew's new website for Scots language activities - www.itchy-cool.com.

Finally, I'd like to thank the staff and pupils from the primaries who attended, and of course the S1/S2 pupils from JHA. Everyone behaved brilliantly and helped make it a great event.

New Read To Succeed Sites

The Read To Succeed sites are now up and running for each individual English teacher. This means pupils in each S1 & S2 English class have their own webspace to review books etc.

You will see links to these new blogs on the right. Please have a look at what the kids in English have to say about the books they are reading.

Pupils who have written particularly excellent reviews will be rewarded with the Blogger of the Month competition, judged by pupils! Winners will be announced soon ...

Launch of Little Book of Poems and Stories

The Little Book of Poems and Stories has been published and is now available from the Library.

Congratultions to the contributors to this excellent little book (JHA pupils now in S1 & S2). The quality of writing is superb and these pupils should be very proud of their newly published book!

S1 Writers:

Becky King (1R / 1P3)
Lauren Connell (1B / 1P1)
Rebecca Gilroy (1Y / 1P7)
Marc Barclay (1Y / 1P8)
Jordan Strachan (1W / 1P5)
Diane Frew (1R / 1P4)
Shannon King (1R / 1P4)
Megan McGinney (1B / 1P1)
Rebecca Lacey (1Y / 1P7)
Jamie Martin (1W / 1P5)
Calhi Young (1G / 1P3)
Lee Craig (1R / 1P3)
Claire Murphy (1R / 1P4)
Abbie Cuthbert (1R / 1P3)
Courtney Craig (1G / 1P2)
Leroy Moue (1R / 1P4)
Dean Kooi (1Y / 1P6)
Angus Rae (1Y / 1P8)
Chloe Parnell (1G / 1P4)
Abbie McAlinden (1G / 1P3)
Ross Ferguson (1R / 1P4)
Ashleigh Boyd (1Y / 1P8)
Kalvin North (1G / 1P3)
Scott Robertson (1Y / 1P7)
Shannon Cooper (1R / 1P3)
Terri Wallace (1Y / 1P7)
Amy Stalker (1Y / 1P8)

S2 Writers:

Becky Moore (2G / 2P2)
Ryan Steel (2B / 2P2)
Dilyan Dunlop (2G / 2P2)
Shannon Alderson (2W / 2P5)
Robyn Anderson (2W / 2P6)
Lynsey Campbell (2B / 2P1)
Danielle Murray (2B / 2P1)
Jenna Gilroy (2G / 2P3)
Aiden Shaw (2G / 2P3)
Ryan Gordon (2R / 2P4)
Emma McCallum (2Y / 2P7)
Graeme Jardine (2B / 2P1)
Craig Smillie (2B / 2P1)
Gemma Adam (2G / 2P2)
Cassie Wright (2R / 2P4)
Chloe McCulloch (2R / 2P4)
Carolanne Murdoch (2W / 2P5)
Samantha Colthart (2W / 2P5)
Erin Hamilton (2Y / 2P6)
John Livingston (2Y / 2P7)

Readers' Cup Final

The Readers' Cup Final took place at Cumnock Academy on Monday 9 June - it was a great event, superbly organised by outgoing Librarian Ms Colquhoun. Unfortunately our team didn't win but we scored well in some rounds - good effort guys! If we had more opportunities to prepare in the weeks beforehand who knows how well we could have done ...

Congratulations go to Auchinleck Academy who won with a massive points total - the best so far. We will be back next year and hopefully challenging for the top spot!

Here is a pic of our team, left t0 right - Matthew, Alan, Lewis and John.

And here is a pic of our ever-cheerful supporters!

JHA Library on Librarything!

You can now search for Senior Fiction on the JHA Library pages on Librarything (www.librarything.com/catalog/jhalibrary). Librarything is an amazing site that contains lots of peoples' book collections (including some schools'), which you can search very easily. It also uses tags which makes browsing really easy and fun (especially if you use tag clouds).

Initially the JHA pages are for senior pupils choosing personal study books but hopefully I'll get the whole fiction collection on there for everyone to get access to. Please have a look, and remember it is a social networking site too so you can comment on books if you wish.

Return to Normal Library Business

The Library is now open as normal after the lengthy period of closure due to SQA exams. This has affected the groups we like to run at this time of year (Friday Library Group, Carnegie Shadowing Group, Readers' Cup Team, etc) hence the lack of activity on this site!

Catherine MacPhail at Spring Read 2008

On Wednesday JHA was host to an author event featuring the excellent Catherine MacPhail, with guests from Loudoun Academy and Stewarton Academy. Catherine's talk was superb, engaging the pupils in the creative process and providing her fans with insight into her well-known books.

I will be ordering additional copies of most of her novels due to great demand. Pictures of the event can be seen here.

Thanks to pupils and staff from Stewarton and Loudoun for being perfect guests. And thanks too to East Ayrshire School Librarians for organising the Spring Read events along with Pat Standen at East Ayrshire Libraries!

Readers' Cup 2nd Round Winners!

The 2nd round of the Readers' Cup took place P4 & P5 on Thursday 6th March (World Book Day). With guest quizmasters, prizes and sweets, this was an enjoyable event to liven up a dreich Thursday afternoon.

Congratulations to those who made it through to the final JHA team:

S1 - 1st place: Alan Reynold (1G); Joint 2nd place: Ryan Steel (1G) and John Priest (1B)

S2 - Joint 1st place: Lewis Moue (2R) and Matthew Griffen (2W)

There are more pics of the quiz at the side of the page.

Thanks also to Mr McGraw and Mr Chatham for being excellent Guest Quizmasters - both clearly watched Bamber Gascoigne when they were kids!

Catherine MacPhail site

The JHA Library Group have produced an amazing new website for our Spring Read visiting author, Catherine MacPhail. Please have a look at the site - www.freewebs.com/catherine-macphail/. There is lots of great info on the site as well as book reviews by the group, and you can also sign our guestbook!

Hopefully Catherine will be able to have a look at the site before her visit on 19th March. There are still some places free for this special event - if you'd like to attend just ask in the Library.

Book Oscars

As part of the Spring Read Book Festival 2008, Doon Academy is holding a Book Oscars and they are inviting you to vote. To do so just follow this link - http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/325920. I will post a message here with the results!

World Book Day & Readers' Cup 2nd Round

The Readers' Cup 2nd Round will be held on Thursday 6th March - World Book Day!

The S1 quiz will be held during P4 and the S2 quiz will be P5 (English periods). There will be special guest quizmasters and prizes for the winners.

Remember the winners will be representing the school at the Ayrshire Readers' Cup Final at Cumnock Academy in June.

Spring Read Author Visits

The plans for the Spring Read Book Festival are coming along - we now have dates etc for the author visits that JHA are involved in. Here they are:

Tuesday 4th March, 11.00 - 12.30 pm, Loudoun Academy
Janet Paisley (poet)
JHA attending along with Stewarton Academy.

Friday 14th March, 1.30 - 3.00 pm, Kilmarnock Academy
Nicola Morgan (author of Fleshmarket, Mondays Are Red, Highwayman's Curse)
JHA attending along with Grange, St. Joseph's, Loudoun and Stewarton.

*****Wednesday 19th March, 1.30 - 3.00 pm, JHA*****
Catherine MacPhail (author of Nemesis, Roxy's Baby, Run Zan Run & loads more)
Loudoun and Stewarton are our guests.

I think we've been very lucky in getting Catherine MacPhail - a major author with lots of books and a wide appeal for boys and girls.

More info on Catherine's visit to follow ...