Library campaign visit Kinbu

OK, formalities over. Now it's time to get to the real meat of the blog - and update you on what the 'campaign groups' have been doing. On Thursday the 18th of February, a few senior mentors went to visit the Kinbu Library to get an idea of what needs to be done.

The English teacher Mr Alfred Vaeta kindly took us round. Many mentors made comments about the fact that the library seemed to be in better shape than they had first thought it would be, but there was still a lot that needs addressing.

The first thing we noticed after walking in (after our eyes adjusted to the dim lighting) was that there was a lot of dust around. Despite the fact that the library is dusted every morning, there was dust everywhere. There are no nets on the windows, only rather flimsy looking curtains - an obvious cause. The windows cannot be shut to keep dust out as hardly any of the fans work, and it would get unbearably hot.

Walking around, a few intriguing items caught our attention. Clearly, the school’s storage had spilled into the library, but even that did not explain the presence of some rather fascinating items which included (of all things) a car engine. There were boxes of assorted rubbish, a couple of old speakers, piles of brooms and other cleaning equipment… many things that should have no permanent place in a library. Interestingly we noticed a library store, but this was full of – yes you guessed it – more junk.


There don’t seem to be any plans for these things in the immediate future. Of the several donated books that 'cannot be used by Kinbu students', Mr Vaeta seemed to allude to the fact that they would be thrown away! After calling him on this, he briefly mentioned they could be donated, but many mentors were unconvinced of this.

After talking to the students, it became obvious that many changes need to be made, and fast! You can read a brief selection of their thoughts here.