The Adventure World of Hvaleyrarskóli Library

There are 415 pupils at Hvaleyrarskóli this winter, and the aim of the school library is to support and encourage reading, as well as to create an adventurous and interesting environment where reading and books are highly valued. The school library is at the heart of the school, a place everyone visits daily. The local paper Hafnfirðingur paid a visit and spoke with Steinar Ó. Stephensen, department manager.

Something eye-catching and interesting is put up on the front of the library. Children, staff and parents then stop to look and chat about whatever is on display. The library's circulation figures clearly show how keen the pupils are to borrow books. The library is open for the first two periods of each school day, and most pupils use this time to return and borrow books. It is often said that there should be up to a hundred books in every classroom, and we try our best to meet this. The Red Cross also provides homework help once a week, and another volunteer had to be added due to the high demand.

„Librarian Sif Heiða Guðmundsdóttir is responsible for how the school library at Hvaleyrarskóli has developed and flourished. At the beginning of Advent, the school library is decorated and the Christmas books are put on display. It always creates a wonderful atmosphere. Then, Christmas book presentations are held in the school library with the pupils' form tutors. Sif Heiða talks about the books using a slide presentation, and then pupils can browse them and are given a special form to write down the books they would like. New books are not loaned out until after the Christmas holidays, as hopefully most pupils will receive at least one book as a Christmas present.,“says Steinar.

At the beginning of December, the school's Christmas bauble reading begins, where pupils decorate a Christmas bauble according to their reading targets and hang it on the Christmas tree at the front of the school library. „The trees will therefore be beautifully decorated at the end of the two weeks. In the final week before the Christmas holidays, all the class teachers of children in the early years receive wrapped Christmas books to read, for example during snack time. The pupils have found this very festive and exciting.

Talking is permitted in the school library, but shouting is not. The library is a sanctuary where students are met with warmth, peace and quiet in a lively environment. You can often find connections to current world events, such as volcanic eruptions, authors„ birthdays, children's book awards or other topics. When authors visit the school to read to the pupils, their books are displayed and accompanied by interesting facts. There is also a pirate day and a “banned books„ week. One of the most important aspects of the library's work is the collaboration between librarians at the town's libraries. “It matters for job satisfaction, which results in strong school libraries and the Bókabrall collaboration, an annual event in the town's school libraries where pupils work together to solve literary challenges," says Steinar.

An interview with Steinar was published in Hafnfirðinginn on 20 December 2019.