Located on the top floor of the Shanahan Learning Centre, St Edward’s College Library is a teaching and learning hub that provides collaborative learning spaces, access to technology and a wide collection of reading material selected to encourage a lifelong love of reading and learning.
The Library is a blended space where tradition meets the future. It was opened in 2015 as a ‘learning commons’ in response to our students becoming creators of information and not merely consumers. With this in mind, the learning commons provides facilities and equipment for creating information products as well as traditional learning and study spaces. The physical space reflects the rapidly changing nature of intellectual architecture with the students able to create the space they need for the activity they are going to undertake. Mobile technology and movable furniture caters for noisy and quiet activities, individual and collaborative work, formal and informal instruction, showcase and feedback.
The Library provides access to a wide range of physical and digital resources, aiming to ensure that the students have access to new and relevant material. Increasingly, digital resources such as e-books, audiobooks, online databases, online newspapers and multimedia learning materials form a substantial part of the Library’s collection. The Library has a strong, networked information technology infrastructure which provides access to collections as well as the tools for undertaking research-based inquiry and the construction, presentation and sharing of knowledge. Currently the students have access to iPads, iPods, cameras, a green screen, board games and maker-space activities with wireless printing on demand from any location within the College. The Library has undergone a recent transformation with a Team Teaching Area that fits two classes and an upgrade to our Quiet Reading Area with flexible, comfortable furniture. The Library provides a virtual space through our Libguides which allows students 24/7 access to materials to facilitate learning and curated resource collections for special subjects and assessment tasks.
The Library staff provide literacy and reading promotion, media and information literacy skills development and an appreciation of literature and culture. The teacher librarians work with the classroom teachers to collaboratively plan and support the provision of media and information literacy instruction that is integrated into the curriculum and connected with the students’ interests and needs. The Library offers extended opening hours of 8.00 am – 3.30 pm from Monday to Thursday and 8.00 am to 3.00 pm on Fridays.
