As many who visit Harcourt Hill library will be aware, the School experience centre (SEC) is housed on the lower floor of that Library. 

Home to thousands of wonderful, educational resources, ranging from picture books to musical instruments and specially made resource kits for teaching purposes, the SEC is a valuable centre for all those studying education courses, attending placements … and also for those looking for something a bit different and special. 

Over the last year, and especially since the announcement of the move from Harcourt Hill to Headington campus in the near future, we have been making some big changes to the way we house, present and organise the SEC. After consulting small groups of students who use the Library, we quickly realised that our resources were largely being borrowed based on their appearance. Anything with worn, outdated looking covers or packaging would not be chosen to take on a school placements. As an important educational resource for our students, we need to be sure we are providing the most up-to-date, professionally presented and most helpful resources for our students. 

This prompted a very large decluttering session for the staff at Harcourt Hill, one that is still ongoing over a year later! We started with the Resource Kits (our ‘teacher packs’), clearing out anything that tried to portray itself as ‘present day’ when really it was still referring to the 80s. Ripped, torn, worn out; all of these kits were carefully removed from the stock and disposed of appropriately. Next we moved to weed out the CDs, DVDs and cassettes, then the posters, then the big books, then the games…the list continues. We haven’t stopped sorting yet: trolleys full of resources and books are checked every week adhering to a strict criteria and this is just phase one!

As each section is completed, new and updated stock is ordered and carefully arranged. on the shelves to showcase our beautiful offerings to students and staff. Come and look at our colourful new history books, limber up with our new PE equipment or get stuck into our new games! Learn more about how to search for SEC materials on LibrarySearch.

Do have a look – you may be surprised at how much has already changed and how much it continues to change.

— Charlotte Olehnovics, Academic Liaison Librarian