Unlurking

[Gibbons F <library@COLLEGIATE.SCHOOL.NZ>]

Greetings to all LM-Netters from Wanganui,
New Zealand (the little country southeast of
Australia - home of 3.9 million people &
50 million sheep!!!)

Wanganui (pop. 39,000) is situated on the west
coast  of the North Island, about 120 miles
north of the capital city, Wellington. The name
of our City derives from the Maori (NZ native
peoples) name for the Whanganui River which
flows through the city.
(The name is pronounced Fonga-noo-ee)

The school at which I am Librarian was founded
in 1854, currently has 485 students, boys &
girls years  9-13 (age levels 12-13 years to
17-18 years).  We went fully co-educational
this year; before that it was boys only until
1992, with the first intake of girls at Years
12 and 13.  285 students live at the School,
the remainder are day students whose homes
are in our City. The gender mix is 335 boys &
130 girls.

We have about 45 students from overseas - Thailand,
China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan,
Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea,
Maldive Islands; the New Zealand students come
mainly from the North Island, some boys are the fourth
or fifth generation of their family to attend the School!

I have been lurking for some weeks, & enjoy
browsing through the postings - some of your
problems sound awfully familiar, others not so.

Our library operates 7 days a week, 8am - 9.30pm
and the students are trusted to issue their own
books (using ID card & scanner/terminal at the
Issue Desk) & to use the library appropriately
when I'm not around. Senior prefects oversee
the Library in the evenings; we are very
fortunate to be able to operate in this way, as
it is certainly not the norm for a secondary school
in this country!
Cd-Roms run all the time,
from a stacker in my office on to terminals out
in the library, Internet is available for "curriculum
related research" around 8 hours per day weekdays;
we are currently grappling with issues such as how
we will allow access from the Boarding Houses
out of normal school hours. (the School & boarding
houses are networked  & email is a common method
of communication campus-wide)

Your President Bill Clinton arrives in our country
in the next day or two, to attend the Asian Pacific
Economic Co-operation (APEC) conference from
11-13 September, along with leaders from 20 other
countries such as Australia, Peoples Republic
China, Japan, etc. As you can imagine, this is a
major event for the City of Auckland to be hosting!

With kind regards to you all,

Frances Gibbons,
Librarian,
Wanganui Collegiate School,
Wanganui, New Zealand
 (library@collegiate.school.nz)

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