Library History

The school library began operation in September 1980 with a student population of 150. The library's collection was the Calgary Board of Education's Starter Collection for elementary grades. At that time the school had grades 1 to 7. Two years later, grade 8 was added, therefore the library's material was not sufficient. Although a portion of the library budget concentrated on obtaining Junior High materials, it was possible that in September of 1986, Junior High would no longer be at Brentwood. As projected, Brentwood School became an elementary school only as of September 1986.

A library technician was the only worker in the library for the first four years. She arranged the library furnishings, organized the resources on the shelves, including the audio visual kits, filmstrips and equipment in the storeroom. The library technician's hours are 8:15 to 12:25 and 12:50 to 4:00 PM.

The library is open for students at lunch and after school. The library technician manages all library operation: collection development, ordering cataloguing and processing books and non-print material, maintenance of materials, displays filing, ordering films and kits from outside resources, assisting teachers obtain material (eg:bibliographies on a study unit), supervising students, library instruction and library clubs. Book Fairs are scheduled twice a year also.

From September of 1984 to June of 1985, the library was given a part time assistant to work on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Her duties were to assist in all tasks mentioned above. Since September 1985, there has been one full time library employee.

In September of 1994, Brentwood School became a ECS to grade 4 school. In September of 1995, the school population was about 400. In September 2001, the grade 5's and 6's came back to Brentwood. Today, the library serves about 350 students from K to 6 and employs a full time librarian. Her duties are similar to the above.