Students across the Island are making plans to celebrate the Million Minute Challenge on Monday, October 26 which is national School Library Day.
The Million Minute Challenge is an all-day event that encourages students to develop a love of reading. “Students look forward to the Challenge every year because it is a day when we all come together to set reading goals and have fun reading,” says Anne Ives, president of the PEI Teacher-Librarians Association.
Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Gerard Greenan has proclaimed October 26, School Library Day in Prince Edward Island. “We are very pleased to support this important day which encourages students to love reading, provides well-deserved recognition for our teacher-librarians, and calls attention to the important role of school libraries,” said Minister Greenan. “Government is supporting the continued success of school libraries this year through a special $230,000 grant to enhance school library collections. We are also providing funding of $400,000 for a new library automation system to increase the use of school libraries and improve library services.”
The new KOHA library automation system is being installed in all school libraries over a two-year period. The computerized system allows students and teachers to search for library books and resources from any computer in the school. When a student searches a topic or author, a list of all the related resources in the library pops up on the screen within seconds. If a book is out on loan, the system will indicate who has it and when it will be returned. The system tracks which books are being taken out of the library and what individual students are reading.
Anne Ives said the new system is a great improvement over the previous one which was often time-consuming and unreliable. “The new KOHA system is much faster and more user-friendly, and this allows us to spend more time with students which is the bottom line for librarians,” she said.
The word KOHA is a Maori word meaning gift or donation. “The new system is proving to be a gift of user-friendly navigation and time efficiency. It is allowing teacher-librarians to spend more time facilitating students in their knowledge quests,” said Carol Fitzpatrick, provincial library specialist.
The system is now in place in most high schools and intermediate schools. It will soon be available in elementary and consolidated schools.
Funding for the new library system is being made available through the Government of Prince Edward Island capital budget which contains $52 million for Education and Early Childhood Development over the next five years.