Library

In 2011, through Building the Education Revolution (BER) funding, Mossman State School was the lucky recipient of an amazing new resource information centre which we fondly call the RIC. Situated within the RIC is the library with a separate kitchen and staff workstation, library office and computer technician’s room. Students borrow and return each week but may keep the books for 2 weeks if necessary. Late notices are sent home when books are overdue. The library is also utilised by students during break times for quiet reading, changing their books when needed, playing board games, drawing and colouring-in, building with Lego, making jigsaw puzzles and accessing computers. 

Each year the library purchases many new resources, including the shortlisted Children's Book Council of Australia nominated books which are displayed in the library in August during Book Week for teachers to read to students and, after Book Week, students can borrow. ​

Our library has 2 part-time staff, Mrs June Christie and Mrs Charmaine Howarth, and a wonderful volunteer, Mrs Marilyn Byrne. Our Library has a wide range of resources categorized as follows: prep fiction and prep non-fiction, junior fiction, middle fiction, fiction and non-fiction, Lexile levelled books and quizzes, reference books, class sets of dictionaries and atlases, instrumental music books, teacher reference, audio visual which includes kits, charts, big books, DVDs, CDs, C2C (Curriculum2Curriculum), computer software, games, special needs, guidance officer, LOTE (Language other than English - Japanese), challenge centre, human resources education, class and home reading books.

Be sure to visit our online library search​. Students can use this site to log on at school or at home (parents also) and get information about specific books in our school library and through our site they can also access other sites including the following:

• The Australian Museum  - check out for information to add to your assignment.
• Trove online – an online service that has articles, images and journals.
• State Library of Qld – search for eBooks, databases, journals, images and websites and more.
• Learning Place – access sites in either Prep-4 or Middle Students’ sections (need your user name and password) to narrow down your search. The Learning Place is where you can find resources, share, create and learn. This is where you can make an avatar, blog, upload multimedia into albums and work on your studios. Check these out!
• edTube which is your multimedia sharing gallery. Add your video, images and audio to albums set up by your teacher. Use them in Studios later on. 
• edStudio is where you can create, author and publish with your classmates and teachers. Pull multimedia from edTube albums to engage your audience.
• create blog posts for your teacher to moderate. If published your post may be shared with other students your teacher works with or other students across the state of the same age.
• ABC Splash – access informative ABC videos levelled to your school year.
• Goggle – has many search options. One is Safe Mode. This will apply a filter to results to try to improve the quality of your search results.
• Rural Libraries Queensland (Mossman and Port Douglas Libraries) – use your library card barcode and pin number to:
• search their collection 
• use eResources:  
• Access online databases or download e-audiobooks, eBooks and music.  
• Access Tumblebooks – a selection of eBooks developed especially for children. 
• Listen and watch eBooks online, read a review, write a book report and play games.

Available also on our site is a list of the Children's Book Council of Australia shortlisted books for the year with information about these books. There is also a library treasure hunt for students to complete. So check out our site and play around until you become familiar with the operations. You can drag & drop into “My stuff” or email information. If you are experiencing difficulties, please ask for assistance at the School. 

Our class and home reading books are situated off-site in the reading resource room but are still catalogued as part of our library collection. These are PM benchmark/reading recovery levelled so that students can read at their reading ability. We regularly purchase new reading books as funds become available. 

Each year we hold two Scholastic book fairs, one in February and one in August, which are very well supported by the school community. Book fair opens daily during that week from 11.00am to 11.30am and a family open night is held on one night early in the week of book fair from 5.15pm to 6.30pm. The book fair offers a wide range of books including popular series, new releases, picture books, chapter books, fiction, nonfiction, activity books and other great reads from more than 60 publishers.  Also available is a wide range of novelty items such as erasers, sharpeners, pens and pencils. The open night includes a free sausage sizzle and an opportunity to peruse and/or purchase books or novelty items with your children. Families and community members are invited to attend this fun reading event that helps inspire children to become lifelong readers. In conjunction with book fair, we also hold a colouring/activity competition for class groups with the winners receiving a $10.00 voucher each to spend at the book fair. The book fair is held in the RIC and is well worth a visit to see the books displayed and the room decorated in theme. For every book and novelty item purchased the school receives a commission which enables us to choose books to place on our library shelves. Our book fairs are usually very well supported and our library gets to choose between $700 and $1000 worth of books from each fair. We really appreciate and value the support we are given by families and friends every book fair. 

We regularly update the Teacher Reference books and computer software as progress is made in teaching and technology. We also subscribe to the Australian Geographic magazine and this is available for the students to read and borrow. 

The Library, as part of the RIC, has become an impressive, well-stocked, well-used building which our school and community are very proud of.