School Resource Centres
The Department of Education and Training holds a state-wide distributed collection of resources in both school and non-school libraries to support teaching and learning and professional development.
The major purpose of a school resource centre is to assist students to achieve information literacy, to help them become lifelong independent and interdependent learners, informed decision makers and effective communicators. It is integral to the teaching and learning process.
The school resource centre incorporates:
- a library of a wide range of appropriate print, multi-media and electronic resources selected to match the school's curriculum, the students' learning styles and abilities and their interests;
- teaching, learning and production areas suitable for individual, small and large group use to facilitate the development of information literacy skills;
- equipment and technologies to enable students to present their research assignments in a variety of modes;
- services to other community groups where appropriate. Consult the Guidelines (new window
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) for the development of Joint-use School-Community Libraries.
The role of the Teacher-librarian is to work cooperatively with teachers to integrate the teaching of information literacy skills into the curriculum developmentally and sequentially, and to manage the school resource centre and its collections. The Director of Audit has provided information about the Teacher-Librarian regarding annual stock-take and risk management, Accountabilities for Queensland State School Libraries, which is related also to the Code of Conduct.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about School Library Management also provide brief information on specific issues.
A manual for developing policies and procedures in Australian school library resource centres, an initiative of the Australian Library and Information Association Schools Victoria and Victorian Catholic Teacher Librarians is available on the ALIA website.
More general information about school libraries and resource centres is available from related professional organisations and other websites.