Rutherglen High School

About Rutherglen High School

Rutherglen High School (RHS) is located in the North East of Victoria on around 30 acres of land. Established in 1965, it services the surrounding farming communities and rural township.

The school provides a challenging and balanced comprehensive curriculum with the flexibility to meet the needs of each student.

With its own fully operational farm, RHS offers an Agriculture program - VCE Agriculture, and a ‘Farm-to-Table’ subject as part of their alternative Year 9 Future Makers program.

The School Council continues to upgrade the facilities, with a specific emphasis on changing technology.

The RHS Library

The focus of the RHS Library is on supporting and promoting literacy and providing a safe, supportive, well stocked learning space for students.

Library Manager Lou Webb describes the library as a small but welcoming space where students can work and read in peace. A reading area with comfy lounge chairs complements a desktop computer zone for more active study and homework.

Library staff work closely with the RHS’ Literacy team to provide and promote relevant resources to their students and teachers.

Students are encouraged to use the library space before, during, and after school, with library staff always available to assist. They can also book themselves in for a tutorial on accessing and using resources, including the many digital resources the library provides.

Lou said the library manages to be ‘most things to all people’.

“Our library acts as a classroom, a traditional library space and a ‘go to’ place. Library staff have a good awareness of what is happening across the school and can direct students, staff and visitors beyond the library.”

The library and its resources are well utilised and respected by the school community.

“Students love the large variety of books/collections and are very respectful of the library space and resources.”

Benefits of Oliver v5 school library software

The RHS library is equipped with over 3,000 hardcover books including Fiction, Non-Fiction, Reference, ‘Quick Reads’, Junior Recommended Fiction, Graphic novels, Picture Books and Class Sets. In addition to the physical books, the library collection includes talking books (CD’s, MP3’s, eAudio Books), various interest magazines and a range of digital resources and eBooks including ClickView Online and World Book Online.

Managing and ensuring the school community has access to all of these valuable resources is a major part of Lou’s role.

“Processing resources, promoting them, and getting them out to the ‘customers’ in a timely manner is pivotal but also challenging for one full time person and 1 part time person to manage.”

Lou describes the Oliver v5 system as invaluable in terms of processing and performing these tasks.

“The smart cataloguing is a life saver, it’s really improved the time efficiency and ease of cataloguing.”

For Lou, who is passionate about developing literacy and instilling a love of reading in her teenage library patrons, the other really great thing about Oliver v5 is the user interface.

“Softlink get how teenagers are used to seeing their digital media programs.”

As well as engaging students, Lou says the graphical user interface makes it very easy for them to navigate.

“Students really like the fact that they can see, at a glance, whether a resource is available or not.”

RHS students also like being able to type their book reviews directly into Oliver v5. The school and library have some fantastic programs that encourage reading and peer support, for example their Triple R – Read, Review, Recommend and English DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) sessions. Student reviews are typed directly into Oliver and published once they been approved by Lou. Students also make recommendations to their peers.

Integration and Softlink Support Services

Integration between the schools Student Administration System (CASES21) and their Oliver v5 library system makes the online experience seamless for the student and is another time saving factor for the school.

The school’s IT technicians happily liaise with Softlink when needed or during upgrades and the team really appreciate the support provided.

“Softlink Support is most excellent, concise and expeditious.”

​Learn more about engaging students with the Oliver v5 search interface:

• In this video case study (4:14min), Dr Graham Gardner discusses the impact and benefits of Oliver v5, his experiences with Softlink Support, and LearnPath, Softlink’s information curating tool.
• Designed with students, for students! In this brief video (1:18min), see why Oliver v5’s user interface increases student engagement and makes resources more readily accessible.
• We love customer feedback! In this blog post, we look at why Oliver v5 customers love the search interface and free training webinars.