Resource Centre
Overview
Catholic Education’s Resource Centre is located downstairs in the Catholic Education Services Building at 130 Lake St, Cairns and on-line. It is a place of reflection, learning, collaboration and creativity, a partner in the journey of lifelong learning.
The Resource Centre supports the educational, personal and spiritual growth of the Cairns Catholic faith community through the provision of quality information resources and services.
It serves the Cairns Diocesan community of schools and parishes with quality religious education resources. A theological collection along with research support is also available to students undertaking adult faith education courses in theology, scripture and spirituality.
Opening Hours
The Resource Centre is staffed from 7:30am – 4pm, Tuesday to Friday. Enquiries may be directed upstairs to Reception, Catholic Education Services, if the Resource Centre is unattended.
Please note that the Resource Centre is a multi -purpose space and is sometimes booked for meetings and conferences, restricting access to the collection. Contact support staff with any enquiries.
Support Staff
The Resource Centre is staffed by a Teacher-Librarian and Library Assistant who provide professional consultancy services.
Contact support staff on Ph 4050 9723 or ces.library@cns.catholic.edu.au
Borrowing
Resources may be borrowed for three weeks. Extensions are happily granted if the resource has not been reserved by another borrower.
Online Catalogue
The online catalogue can be browsed via subject, author and title searches. Registered members with password access are able to email requests for resources via the reservation link.
The catalogue can be accessed through this link: Online Catalogue
Special Collections
Special Collections compliment the Resource Centre’s multi-media mix of religious resources:
- English as a Second Language (ESL)
- Languages Other Than English (LOTE)
- Music and the Van Hooser Sacred Music CD Collection
- First Nations Collection
History of the DRC First Nations Collection
The Resource Centre had maintained a small First Nations collection of reference materials to support the Diocese’s ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives’ educational programme for many years. However, the expansion of the collection began in earnest in 1997, as schools and the wider community sought ways to support the National Reconciliation Movement, which was then gaining momentum across the nation. Many of the Diocese’s schools were keen to become involved in this movement by giving Aboriginal and Torres Islander peoples and issues stronger focus in the curriculum. At the same time, First Nations enrolments in the Diocese’s schools began to expand and it was important that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families saw that schools valued their cultures and traditions by including them in the general curriculum.
However, most schools have limited resource budgets and the purchase of audio visual and print material with a specific First Nations focus was beyond the financial capacity of many. By creating a central collection available to all schools, the Resource Centre is able to ensure access to high quality, contemporary resources on all aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and ongoing issues. These resources have been carefully chosen to present students with First Nations perspectives rather than duplicate often inaccurate or one sided accounts presented in some mainstream texts or accounts.
A particular focus of the collection is the collection of resources on Torres Strait Islanders. For while the amount of accurate and high quality material on Aboriginal Australians is increasing, there is far less in circulation on Torres Strait Islanders. As many of Catholic Education’s First Nations students are Islanders and Cairns is now home to a very large Torres Strait community, a concerted effort has been made to fill this gap.
The collection is used by schools, university students and researchers, as well as members of the general community.