Librarian: Ms T Davidson.  

The library contains a wide variety of printed information selected to support the curriculum at all levels. There are approximately 9,000 books in the collection.  Most of this material can be borrowed by pupils for use at home. Pupils are allowed to borrow four items at a time for two weeks, extended loans are available for senior pupils. There is also a selection of magazines to browse such as Focus, National Geographic, Good Food, History Magazine, Geographical and others. The library has a computerised catalogue system which the pupils can use to locate material within the library.

The Library currently has twelve PCs and eight laptops which are on the school intranet and are also linked to the Internet and to a printer which pupils can use to print out homework or research notes.  Pupils can book these computers for individual use at intervals and lunchtime.  There is seating for 34 pupils at the tables and four comfy chairs for relaxing with a book.

There is a good selection of fiction and of non-fiction titles which can be used to assist with homework.

The Careers Library is situated within the School Library and holds an extensive range of information on courses, jobs and job-finding skills.  There are also Scottish university prospectuses for pupils to take away. All pupils are encouraged to use the Careers Library for their own research. The Librarian is happy to assist pupils in the use of the careers material. 

For further information, please click the following link:

Careers Library

A team of fifteen pupil helpers assist the librarian at intervals and lunchtimes and pupils are welcome to add their names to the waiting list for this.

The librarian also runs a weekly reading group for pupils from all years, please click on the link below for more information:

Boclair BookEnds

Non-Fiction

Non-fiction books are information or fact books, they are organised by the Dewey Decimal System which uses numbers e.g. football books are at 796.334

            700     Arts and Recreation

                        796     Sport

                                    796.3       sport with a ball

                                                796.334        football

You can check the CODEBUSTER and get a Dewey number there for non-fiction
Or
You can look up the library catalogue – just put in the author’s surname or the title or a keyword 

Key to Locations on catalogue

JF – Junior Fiction; TF– Teen Fiction; SF – Senior Fiction; NF – Non-Fiction (look for a Dewey Number); HH - Horrible Histories: THR Teen Healthy Reading

Once you have your Dewey number, go to the non-fiction shelves which are all clearly numbered and locate your book. Remember that non-fiction books are arranged by subject, so you will also find related topics nearby.

Fiction 

Don’t forget that all the fiction books are arranged in alphabetical order by the author’s surname.

So Roald Dahl comes before Anthony Horowitz comes before Philip Pullman comes before Jacqueline Wilson.

You can look up the catalogue to see if the library has a particular book by your favourite author or you can simply go to the shelves to see if the book you want is there!

Please see the link below for latest news from the library

Library News

Research Skills

In Boclair S1 work through a programme of Information Literacy Skills which is designed to help the pupils get to know the library and how to use it. We then progress on to using books and the Internet to find reliable information effectively. The pupils work together to produce spider diagrams and mind maps on topics, they work as a team to find answers to randomly chosen questions, write their answers in a sentence and note their source or sources. We discuss effective Internet searching, the reliability of websites and the implications of copying and pasting without crediting sources.

Projects Research

What do I want to know?

• start with a mind map or spider diagram
• put your topic in the middle and fill in the legs with keyword
• who, what, where, when and how questions will help you think of keywords

Information Gathering

• use books, encyclopedias and the Internet
• look at the contents and index pages of books
• think about your search terms for Google

You will be able to find resources online and in the library

Choosing the Right Source

How do I know if this book or website is right for me?

• do you understand what you're reading?
• if there are more than five words on the page that you don't understand then you need to choose something more straightforward
• is the information relevant?
• can you see any of your keywords?
• can you trust the website?
• if you're not sure, then check against another source

Note Taking

read the text- ask questions - what is this about - what is important

• do you really need this information

Make notes by

• reading the passage right through
• check you understand it
• deciding the important points
• making bullet points of the main ideas as you go along
• not overloading yourself with too much information
• noting your sources as you go

  Now, go back to your spider diagram

  • have you notes for each of your keywords?
  • sort your notes by keyword
  • go back to your sources if you need more information

  Writing Up Your Essay or Project

  • put away the original sources
  • refer only to your notes
  • use your own words
  • write in sentences
  • don't forget your bibliography or source list

  Final Steps

  • print off your essay
  • proof read it to check it reads well and the spelling is correct
  • check it is in the right order
  • add your bibliography

Bibliography

This should be written in the following way

Books:

• author, title, publisher, date of publication

Websites:

• you should include the full web address

And finally - plagiarism

Plagiarism is 'stealing or borrowing from the writings or ideas of someone else without permission'

From: Chambers School Dictionary, Harrap, 2009

it includes:

• copying from books
• copying and pasting from the Internet
• pictures and graphs

You must credit the author of anything that you include in your essay/ project that is not your original work

The following powerpoints will help with essay writing:

Projects

Research

Shelf Help is a project to promote mental health and wellbeing among pupils, for more information see our Shelf Help page.