Library

Bournemouth School Library is an exuberant hub of learning and energy. We pride ourselves on offering a safe, welcoming and inclusive learning environment where all staff and students can work effectively, whether individually, in classes, or as part of a group, during the school day or outside of school hours.

We offer a range of different resources including classic and contemporary fiction, textbooks and background reading for subject work, revision guides and reference books, two daily newspapers and 32 magazines and journals. We provide support to all curriculum levels ensuring that we develop students’ creative and independent learning ability, whilst offering opportunities for all students to take responsibility for their own learning and recreation.

The library undertakes a variety of different activities, events and displays throughout the academic year, including a weekly reading group, Dungeons and Dragons club, Warhammer, and a calendar of literature-related events and the commemoration of important historical dates.

Our overall mantra is to help staff and students foster a love and enjoyment of reading in all its forms.

The library is available for use by staff and students during registration, break and lunch time, and after school; as well as to sixth form students during their study periods.

Lower school students may use the library during lesson time with the permission of library staff and the teacher whose lesson they should be attending.

The library is available for lessons, and currently the English department has block bookings for fortnightly English library lessons with students in years 7, 8 and 9. A timetable of block bookings is produced and displayed on the door to the library at the beginning of term, and this is supplemented with a list of one-off bookings updated weekly.

Non-fiction is shelved around the edges of the library. All non-fiction stock is shelved in numerical order according to the Dewey Decimal system. These numbers are shown on the spine of the book. Books with a yellow stripe on the spine are for reference only, and are not (usually) available for loan.

Periodicals: Approximately 30 titles are taken regularly and back-dated copies are available. Many of the journals are catalogued allowing for articles to be searched using the keyword facility on the library catalogue. Non-current journals are available to loan for 1 week.

Newspapers: The following newspapers are available: The I and The Times.

Audio-visual (AV): A selection of audio books and DVDs are available to borrow for up to a week at a time at no charge.

Fiction: There are over 6,000 fiction titles currently in stock, including popular fiction, children's classics, short stories, classics (pre-1945) and adult fiction. Fiction is shelved under the first two letters of the author's surname, e.g., Anthony Horowitz would be shelved under HO.

Stuck for a book to read? Ask library staff to recommend a book, have a look at the books on display or check out the current Book of the Week.

Booklists, recommendations and the library catalogue are available using Accessit, the library’s new management system. Log in to your library account here or through the useful links dropdown menu of the school wesbite.

Computer access is available throughout the day with a booking system operating after school.

Entitlements

Lower school students (Years 7 – 11) are entitled to borrow 4 items of stock at any one time. One of these items can be an AV item (DVD or audio book). Books are issued for 3 weeks, and AV items are issued for 1 week.

Sixth Form students are entitled to borrow up to 25 items, 4 of which can be AV items. The same loan periods as the lower school students apply.

What if someone has the book I want?
You are able to reserve a book that is currently on loan by logging into your library account, or by speaking to a member of library staff. When a reservation is ready to collect a note will be sent via tutor groups

What do I do if the book I am reading is due back but I haven’t finished reading it?
If you haven’t finished reading your book after 3 weeks bring the book back to the library and staff will be happy to renew it for you. The only time that a book cannot be renewed is if a reservation has been placed on it.

Overdues
Items that are not renewed will receive an overdue letter. Students are sent overdue reminders via tutor groups before a replacement bill is sent to parents/guardians.