Cambridge High to turn back the pages

Books are coming back to Cambridge High School.

School commissioner Dennis Finn has confirmed the school's library, which former principal Alison Annan got rid of last year, would return.

"The library is coming back," he said.

In March last year, Mrs Annan said many students were doing their research online and the non-fiction section of the library was not being used enough.

Teachers could select fiction books to store in classrooms.

"It's getting to the stage where schools can't really compete with libraries in terms of the funding required," she said at the time.

The library building was to be turned into a cybercafe and funded by a $1.5 million capital building grant that schools are given every five years by the Education Ministry.

When ERO reviewers visited Cambridge High School in August, they brought a career librarian to review the school's decentralised library.

In her affidavit to the Employment Court, Mrs Annan said that day she and the rest of the staff felt "doomed".

Mr Finn said yesterday that the idea to reinstate the library was one he was keen on progressing "as quickly as possible".

He said the old library building at the school was barren and empty, with the only books now stored in individual classrooms.

The school would have to find new books to stock the library and he was looking at funding options. "There is certainly enough support for this to happen."

- NZPA