Guest Entry: Mrs. Wiebe and the Learning Commons

It's always great to receive blog entries from staff, the more the merrier. The following was submitted by Mrs. Wiebe who works with our students in the Learning Commons.

What has been happening in the Wilma Hansen Learning Commons this year?

Thanks to the generosity of the Parent Association; our Library Assistant, Mrs. Wiebe has been able to purchase more items for our collection than she would otherwise have been able to.  

Mrs. Wiebe has also introduced the Scholastic Book Club this year; she would encourage all students to consider purchasing books from these flyers as the rewards they produce provide new materials for our LC.  

With these two extra means of revenue, we have been able to add a number of new and gently used books in a variety of genres and reading levels.  It is a challenge to consistently engage junior high readers as there is a vast spectrum of reading levels, maturity and interests.

Some of the great new things you will see are:

 

·       - More graphic novels—this is a hot new genre that is seeing lots of interest from students and young people in general.  Many people are visual learners and there are many quality GNs that combine both good art and literature.  GNs also have value in that reading at any level is better than not having appealing books available. We know readers become successful people, and so it is important to engage as many students as possible, and make the Learning Commons an inviting and comfortable place to be.

       

        -  Over 20 of “The 10 best, most, greatest” books.  These are high-interest non-fiction books that deal with relevant material—both current and historical.  An easy, engaging read that surprises the reader into learning something!

·        -  Additional copies of high demand books such as “The Fault in our Stars”, the”Divergent” series, the “Maze Runner” series and others allow multiple students to sign out these books at the same time.  The dystopian genre seems to be the choice of young adults right now, followed closely by fantasy.  Also popular right now are series of books that are not all written by the same author.

 

·         - Replacement books—over the years, quality books in our collection have gone missing, often leaving series with gaps in them or unfinished.

·        - Periodicals—we will soon have some new magazines in the LC for browsing.

 

While these needs have not been completely filled, we can see a larger number of engaging reads now more readily available in our Learning Commons.  We hope students will take advantage of these new additions, as well as discover the many treasures that already exist in the LC.