Library Spotlight: Mater Maria Catholic College, Australia
by Matt | Ago 30, 2018 | Categories : Library Success Stories Tips and Tricks
ePlatform School Spotlight of the Week - Mater Maria Catholic College
We reached out to Library Technician Collette McCowage, to see how they were keeping their students engaged with digital reading and an overview of their experiences with ePlatform. Read their response below;
Mater Maria Catholic College is a co-educational school, Years 7 to 12, located in the tranquil bush setting in Warriewood Valley with approximately 1020 students. We are very excited about the soon to be opened, digital resource centre and student services building. This specially designed three-tiered building will provide numerous indoor and outdoor learning spaces, as well as centralising the support services of the College improving access to meet each student’s learning and wellbeing needs.
In April 2015 Mater Maria subscribed to the Wheelers ePlatform and gradually purchased College own copies of eBooks totalling approximately 400 titles. This new innovation provided the students with the opportunity to read electronic books anytime and anywhere through their iPads and the average loans increased by 20 titles per month.
In March 2016 Mater Maria subscribed to a consortium of Diocesan libraries which increased our eBook collection to over 600 titles however the average loans decreased to 5 - 10 titles per month.
In December 2016 Mater Maria commenced building works of the new digital resource centre which meant relocation of the Information Centre to a temporary location. The Information Centre was required to reduce resources by 65% (mainly the old non-fiction collection) and during this time the eBook usage declined especially the shared collection. The focus was on a space for the HSC students to study and on building up our fiction print collection.
In December 2017 Mater Maria reviewed this underutilised resource and saw the opportunity to advertise the Wheelers ePlatform to the students due to the limited space for the current print collection. At this time Wheelers had introduced a consortium of High School Libraries eBooks and Mater Maria subscribed to this consortium adding over 1200 eBooks to the private collection of 400. This provided students and staff access to currently 1600 eBooks. The increase has provided greater benefit of choice of reading materials for all the students and staff.
In January 2018 Mater Maria launched a number of promotions alongside the print fiction collection. Mater Maria promoted eBooks via the College Newsletter which is accessed by students and their parents fortnightly. Included in this article was a link giving instructions on how to use the ePlatform by Wheelers, showing how easy it was to navigate. Further communication was completed each term via email to all students and staff, reminding them about accessing eBooks especially just before term break so they could read during the holidays. Mater Maria has also placed a link to the Wheelers ePlatform on the Information Centre’s homepage through the Destiny Catalogue giving students another mode of access. Promotional posters from Wheelers were placed around the Information Centre as a visual reminder. As a result of these promotions, the usage of eBooks increased by 200% meaning the average loans are 150 loans per month.
All students from yrs 7 - 10 are involved in the DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) programme. The programme operates each day for the first 20 minutes of the designated period during the term. This has opened up more choice for students to read and saves time if students have forgotten to bring their book to class. Also when a print copy is out on loan or a student desperately wants to read the next book in the series and doesn't want to wait, the eBook platform is always available to them.
The ability to customise settings (for dyslexia and changing fonts), look up words, make annotations and save bookmarks is a great feature. The App is great for students who can download and read eBooks on a multiple array of devices with iOS, Android and Windows platforms. Students can read anywhere, and anytime, even offline.
Mater’s teachers and staff have supported our eBooks as a companion to our print copies even though some favour the print version, they see the value of the digital version.
Mater Maria is also trialling audiobooks giving students another choice and we hope to see the results of this in the coming months.
In the future with the new digital resource centre, Mater Maria looks at introducing the ePlatform to all students especially the new Year 7 students at the beginning of each year as part of their transition skills to High School.
- Collette McCowage
Library Technician
Thank you, Collette, you're doing great with ePlatform!
If you'd like your school or library to be featured, contact Renee on reneej@wheelers.co.nz