Getting Started

As I am about to start reading about the information profession and the history of school libraries, I feel I need to reminisce on what the library was like when I was at school.

I remember my primary school library fondly. It was the early 80s and the library was newly built. There were lots of odd shaped windows and many nooks to settle into for a quiet read. It was new and exciting and our librarian "Mrs Barnhill" was an enthusiastic motherly figure with a soothing voice. I don't remember much about library classes, however.

In my junior highschool library "Mrs Lewin" taught us about using the catalogue to find books and we did some basic research assignments. I remember feeling a bit disappointed that there were not many fiction books but at the time I didn't realise that most students used the library only for research.

I went to boarding school for years 11 and 12 and the library there was more like a classroom with a few books in it. We had to go there during our "frees" and our names were checked off to make sure we were there. Then there was silence - absolutely no talking! I don't recall the librarian helping us find information, and the collection of books was not really adequate. More often than not we would visit the town library to hurriedly scrawl down extra information.

There were no computers then. Even when I was doing my teacher training at uni there were only a few computers. They were used as word processors - for typing up assignments - there was no internet. Things have certainly changed in the twenty or so years since then.