International School Library Day Logo

International School Library Day 2006

Date: 23 October 2006

Theme: Reading. Knowing. Doing.

What People Are Doing for International School Library Day 2006

| Australia | Belgium | Brazil | Canada | Caribbean Area | Croatia | Egypt | Germany | Hong Kong | Hungary | India | Israel | Italy | Jordan | Mozambique | New Zealand | Nigeria | Norway | Pakistan |Philippines | Poland | Portugal | Romania | Serbia | Singapore | Slovakia | South Africa | Sudan | Switzerland | Syria | Turkey | USA |

Mozambique

From Aissa Mitha Issak, Library Director, Instituto Superior Politecnico e Universitario, Maputo.
On the school library day I will run a workshop with staff members from school and public libraries. This workshop will be run within a short training course on library management which is taken by staff members from different libraries. The aim with the workshop is to call the attention for this date and invite the participants to be alert every year. I'm using the suggested activities from IASL to discuss in the workshop.

I would like to congratulate IASL for this initiative and say that together we can make a difference. Being from a country where the libraries hardly exist, and school libraries have many difficulties, at least once a year we can call the attention for this sector.

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New Zealand

From Jay Boyer, Deputy Principal, Glenbrae Primary School, Glen Innes, Auckland.
Glenbrae School is in the heart of Glen Innes, Auckland. It is a contributing school from years 1-6, with a decile rating of 1A. Recently the school has a signed a contract with National Library to take part in the Focus programme.

Early in August, Brenda (our consultant resource librarian) forwarded an email to our teacher, Mrs Boyer. It explained about the International School Library Day to be celebrated on October 23 2006. Schools were asked to register with a school librarian in Canada if they were interested in swapping bookmarks with another school somewhere in the world. Mrs Boyer asked us if we were interested and we thought it was a great idea. Mrs B. emailed the co-ordinator in Canada and he hooked us up with a class at Evans Elementary School, Chiliwack, British Colombia, in Canada.

We searched our atlases and found British Colombia and the closest main city of Vancouver. Chiliwack is not far outside Vancouver. We asked our school librarian, Mrs McGregor, to help us find interesting and fun books by New Zealand authors. We really wanted to encourage the Canadian children to get interested in New Zealand books and to help them find out more about New Zealand. We chose our favourite book, read it at least 3 times before writing a draft review. After writing our draft, we edited it with our teacher and, when it was correct, we copied it carefully onto a review sheet that was pasted onto the back of our bookmark which also included a photo of ourselves. On the other side, we designed a colourful pattern depicting things from our culture or from Glen Innes, where we live. Some of the countries we created patterns from are Samoa, Niue, Tonga, the Cook Islands and New Zealand (Maori). We made 4 draft copies before choosing our favourite one to put onto the bookmark. We used felt pens, colouring pencils and gel pens to colour our patterns. The bookmarks were looking very cool. Everyone was working as fast as they could, making sure the bookmarks were of a very high standard, to ensure they were ready to post to Canada in time for the International School Library Day celebration on October 23. We were very pleased with them. Mrs Boyer laminated them when they were finished.

We had an email from Mrs Hermans (our swap teacher in Canada) to say the bookmarks had arrived and she thought they were fantastic. We also sent her a New Zealand book to add to her library in the Evans Elementary School library. It has been a great experience to be involved with this project and we will take our bookmarks with us to our new school next year. Maybe the Year 6’s in Room 7 next year will be able to carry on the communication in 2007. We wish them luck!

Here are a couple of pictures of us with our bookmarks and some comments we would like to share with you.

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Nigeria

From James O. Okhukhu, School Librarian, Greensprings School, Lagos
Organise a visit to another library for students to see how another library functions. Our library will accept poems entry titled Library and the best four poem writers will be presented with a gift. Recognise the best library students in each year group. Organise a design competition for various library designs which will be open to all.

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Norway

From Jill Egan, Librarian, International School of Stavanger.
At the International School of Stavanger we are hosting a Library Open House for parents - a time for them to learn about the library services and collection, as well as meet the staff and enjoy refreshments. For the students, we are holding a contest to see who can guess our visiting author, and this will be revealed on October 23. In the high school library, we are showing our appreciation for our patrons' usual good behaviour by having a "relaxed rules" day. Students will be permitted to email, talk without being shushed, have soda or juice and a couple other priveleges we normally do not allow. I have also invited teachers for an "after-school snack" in hope of stealing a few minutes with them for collaboration. This is our first year trying this and I have gotten a lot of positive feedback already, just from the plans.

Pakistan

From Nooruddin Merchant, Programme Officer, Learning Technology, Aga Khan Education Service.
Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan (AKES,P) is amongst the earliest non governmental organizations in this region establishing its first school in 1905 in Gawadar, Balochistan province. A century later, AKES,P with 186 schools, over 200 community based initiatives and 100 public and 100 private partner schools is providing educational access to over 75,000 students across Pakistan.  A total of 220 staff is employed out of which 1600 are teachers.

AKES,P in its schools based at Karachi have initiated a learning technology programme to facilitate the school learning community to engage computers, internet and library resources for creative, innovative and applied use for promoting self / independent learning. This year focused programme for promotion of literacy and reading is being developed in collaboration with the school library teams.

The International School Library Day is being celebrated for the first time in Aga Khan Schools in Karachi. A book fair which will be hosted in each school simultaneously for three days, in which parents and students will be invited to participate. The fair will be held from 2nd November to 4th November 2006. Due to Eid holidays (festival of Muslims after the holy month of Ramadhan) from October 23rd to 26th it was not possible to organize the event on October 23rd, therefore, first week of November was selected.

A special reading and storytelling corner will be created where school librarians and teachers will tell stories to small children. A reading area for those who are interested to read books will be established which could be utilized by parents as well. The timings of exhibition will be from 9.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. The extended hours will facilitate working parents to join in the book fair with their children in the evening and purchase the books. A promotional pamphlet is developed and sent to each child and his / her parent. For motivation, portrait of students and teachers having books in their hands and reading will be pasted in the stalls on the book fair and school softboards. Inauguration Ceremony will be held in which a famous writer of children books will be invited for sharing stories from his books and signing of books. The inauguration ceremony will also have a demonstration from children wearing mascots / having get ups of famous characters like cinderalla, snow white and the seven dwarfs, Harry potter, Sheikh Chilli and Mulla Nasiruddin (a locally famous character amongst students). The nearby schools and their librarians will also be invited in the event. The schools will also organize poetry and essay writing competitions during the three day event.

Today's Readers are Tomorrow's Leaders Poster for our ISLD celebrations

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Philippines

From Grace Albarida, Esteban Abada Elementary School, Quezon City.
In celebration for ISLD we have come up with a lot of fun filled week long activities.

  • October 16, 2006 - Storyteller on Run - Kids act as a storyteller who will look for pupils who can read their books with. Logsheets will be given for each storyteller to list down the names of the listeners.
  • October 17, 2006 - Patron's Corner - Users of the library are encouraged to give messages for the library which will be posted outside the library for the others to read
  • October 18, 2006 - Book Trivia Contest - Quiz bee for book lovers
  • October 20, 2006 - Book Character Parade - Kids will dress up like their favorite book character. They will go around the school community as reader advocates
  • October 23, 2006 - Closing Ceremony - A 4-hour program which will highlight the presentation prepared by the book lovers club (Student Library Assistants) and awarding of winners which will be graced by the school officials.

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Poland

From Renata Sowada, President of Polish School Librarians Society, Jurassic Branch in Czestochowa
The Polish School Librarians Society will have many activites during International School Library Day 2006. We are planning exhibitions connected with this holiday. There will be many competitions in our school libraries. The most important activity will be held on 24th October 2006. We are organizing The Third Librarians Forum in Czestochowa. It will take place in the City Hall in our city. Czestochowa is located in the south part of Poland, has 250 thousand inhabitants. During the Forum we are going to solve a competition of school library websites that received a name of Dr Anne Clyde.
Towarzystwa Nauczycieli Bibliotekarzy Szkó? Polskich and Polish School Libraries website.

From Jan Korczynski, ENSIL coordinator in Poland.
An interactive digital platform for school librarians in Poland and school librarians who speak Polish in other countries has been established for ISLD 2006. See the Polish website, ISLD Poland.

From Agnieszka Brzezna, Library teacher.
Our school library is participating in the ISLD 2006 and is organizing a meeting entitled "Internet and threats". The lecture is given by Mr Marcin Drews from District Centre of Education in Lubin. During the meeting there will be discussed some news from the world and Poland, treating about the cases of net games addiction, as well as there will be indicated some threats connecting with visiting the date service web sites. Students will be familiarized with a Jean Baudrillard's similacrum theory and its presence in cyberculture issues.

From Victoria Sedyykh & Zoia Kuznetsova, Librarians, Russian Federation Embassy School, Warsaw.
This is the third time our school is taking part in celebrating ISLD. Children like the theme: "Reading. Knowing. Doing." They often come to our library to dicuss characters. Therefore, it was planned to make a performance about the Imperial Lyceum at Tsarkoye Selo, which was opened 195 years ago in October.

It was originally the "new" wing of the Catherine Palace, build by Neelov in 1789-91 for the children of Paul I. In 1811 it was decided to turn the wing into the Lyceum - a privileged school intended for the families of the Court. A certain number of alterations were made by architect, Stosov, and on October 19, 1819 the Lyceum was officially opened.

Russia's greatest poet, Alexander Pushkin, was a student at Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum from 1811 to 1817. Here on January 8, 1815 the young Pushkin was taking a school exam in front of the audience of well-known people, reading out his poem "Recollections of Tsarskoe Selo".

Among the first graduates of the Lyceum, which took place on July 9 1817, were Decembrists Pushchin, Kyukhelbeker, Colkhovskiy, sailor and historian Matyushkin, poets Pushkin and Delvig, diplomat Gorchakov, composer Yakovlev.

In the Lyceum Garden stands a famous seated Statue of Alexander Pushkin made by the design of sculptor Robert Bach in 1900. Pushkin is shown as a youth, wearing the uniform of the Lyceum student. The future poet daydreams sitting on an iron bench in a tranquil corner of the park.
A verse inscribed on the pedestal of the monument reads:

Those springtime days in secret valleys,
Where swans call out and beauty dallies,
Near waters sparkling in the hill,
The Muse first came to make me thrill.
 (Pushkin "Eugene Onegin", Translated from the Russian by James E. Falen)

Website.

From Anna Walendzik, Primary School No. 1, Lomianki near Warsaw.
In order to celebrate the International School Library Day we gave the students (aged 9 - 12) an enquiry asking for their interests and favourite books and magazines. We also prepared an exhibition of belles - lettres for children and teens, popularized scientific books and methodical guidebooks for teachers. We visited a museum of Maria Kownacka. This famous Polish writer is a parton of our school. We were glad of that special day at our school library. Everybody had a good time. Thank you for this great worldwide celebration of all school libraries, librarians and books, of course.

From Iwona Muller, A report of the celebration of the International Day of School Libraries in Zespól Szkól Handlowych named Boleslaw Prus in Katowice.
The twenty-third of October was a very ceremonial day in our school because it was a library’s names day. A few days earlier we have provided information about a forthcoming celebration (leaflets, posters, sentences and quotations about reading books).
On Monday morning members of the Library Club decorated our library with balloons and colourful ornaments. They also prepared a special track (paper arrows and feet) leading all students, teachers and other workers to the library. The library activists handed out advertising brochures with information about the celebration and the library’s office hours. Additionally, we carried out a special survey among the students and workers concerning "The last book you read". That day there was a special sweet treat for all the visitors (candies for students, coffee and cakes for workers). Moreover, everyone could feast their eyes on an exhibition Book – now and then.
It was a really eventful day in our school. Outside the library we organized a little school contest for a catchy slogan about our library. The library’s names day was a great opportunity to return books because we declared a general amnesty for all the borrowers. In order to commemorate this extraordinary day we displayed our school chronicle. All the guests could inscribe their names and even leave their dedication. On the occasion of the forthcoming celebration the school library held a painting contest "My school library".
It is worth mentioning that the second issue of our school magazine (edited by the members of the Library Club) gained in popularity. New edition of Uczniak included interesting news about school, library, culture, poetry and culinary columns, a book review and interview with the Vice-Manager of school.

From Beata Jansen, teacher, ZSP nr 1 w Koscierzynie.
On Monday 23 October 2006 students and school library staff, Barbara Gostomska and Beata Jansen (working collaboratively with some classroom teachers - Lucyna Nadolska, Hanna Szymkowiak, Monika Linkner Modrzejewska, Dorota Piesik, Sabina Tkaczyk, Ewa Lewandowska) celebrated ISLD (MDBS) for the first time.
The aim of this special day was to celebrate school libraries and to highlight their importance in the education of our children. In our school we marked the day by: basic information of ISLD in our school library show-case called "Library Information", posters (one large and some small ones), a school radio and school newspaper, "Bzyczek".
We planned: A ceremony of a formal joining students in Library Hard Core. Some competitions: competition of School Library Ex Libris, a competition of Beautiful Reading, a literary competition "A Poem of a Library", and one called "Be a Friend of Kubus Puchatek".
We organised also some exhibitions connected with this holiday, showing the effects of our students works made during the competitions and a small one of the most interesting books in our school library.
We also get on with the action promoting reading "Cala Polska Czyta Dzieciom" (The Whole Poland is Reading to Children) in our school. It was a day with a lot of photos, sweets for children and bookmarks for teachers.
Visit our website.

From Katarzyna Horbowska-Zaranek, Teacher Librarian, SOSW Nr 1 Biblioteka, Lublin.
On 23 October 2006 the whole community of the Special School and Care Centre for Slightly and Mildly Mentally Handicapped Youth No. 1 in Lubin celebrated the International School Library Day. The ordinary school library transformed into "Under the Angel" library. The gathering of students in the school library aimed at providing those mentally retarded with completely new aesthetic experience and upgrading the school library's function. We moved heaven and earth to redecorate the school library so that blue and white were dominating colours to evoke associations with paradise. Angels made of paper by our students with the use of origami techniques were finally dangling from the ceiling performing their blissful dances. On that particular day the library was decked out with angels or angel motives. The library exhibition entitled "Under the Angel" included angel figures, pictures, stained glass, candleholders and many other angel decorations. The angel decor was lent from private collections of our teachers and students. Visitors to the library could help themselves to white angelic biscuits with an icing or mint drops for wings growing. The main attraction was a multimedial presentation entitled "The angels are not only in heaven". The slide show was to teach the definition of an angel based on various encyclopedias and dictionaries, explain the origins of the word angel, trace angel types and their functions as well as investigate the fascination with angels in Christian and other cultures. On the virtual tour through a museum, the students could admire the trials to depict and immortalise those heavenly creatures on the canvas, sculptured in clay or wood, conjured up by famous, less known amateur or folk artists. The show was interspersed with a poem, i.e. Colourful Angels (Kolorowe Anioly) recited by a student disguised as an angel or her reading a fairy tale with a moral entitled Two Angels (Dwa Anioly). In the background you could hear a Gregorian choir humming some angelic tunes. All those who visited the "Under the Angel" library on that day were presented with the most memorable quotations about angels. We are all angels with one wing, we can fly only when we hug other people with the other one. Let us not forget about that! Everybody has an angel in themselves, it just needs to be looked after.

From Ksenia Tosta, Library Teacher.
The preparations for the ISLD 2006 in the Complex of Technical School, Wodzislaw Slaski, began two weeks before the appointed term. I made bills and posters in the form of invitations to the Feast of the School Library. They were hung up in all the school area. Road signs told the way from the main entrance door to the library. On the billboards (school corridors) a multimedial presentation about the celebration of ISLD 2006 in our school was projected. In the library I hung up a noticeboard where students and teachers visiting the library on the day wrote their greetings for the librarians. Everyone, who borrowed a book, got a sweet treat - a bar of chocolate or something else. The persons using the reading room were offered sweets. I decorated the reading room with coloured slips of paper with maxims and quotations about the library and books. In the reading room I made a mini-exhibition concern ISDL 2006. In the framework of Library Feast I organized, along with the School Educator, a gathering with the Society Bona Fidesa (the Society of Mutual Aid in Katowice).

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Portugal

From Angelina Maria Pereira, School Librarian-EB 2,3, Maria Manuela SA - S. Mamede De Infesta
A non-stop reading session from 8.30 until 18.30 - invited people (the librarian of the local public library, the responsable for Education in the City Hall, parents, staff, teachers and students) choose a book and read for classes; exchange of bookmarks with two Canadian schools (Bookmark Project); two quizzes - Guess Who's the Writer (10 Portuguese writers) and Guess Who Wrote (10 titles of national and international writers; special edition of our Bulletin

From Isobel Mendinhos, Teacher Librarian, Galopim de Carvalho, Queluz.
In my country a National Reading Plan has recently been launched. Its aim is to fight against the low levels of literacy the PISA report has made evident in Portgual. In this context,this year, we're going to promote two events. During the day we will take books, magazines and newspapers out of the shelves and organise a sort of exhibition called Books and reading for everyone. Students and teachers are invited to go to the library to informally talk about their preferences, while they drink some juice or tea - "Read and Relax". After dinner, parents are invited to the school auditorium to participate in a debate with teachers, a writer, a librarian of the public library, an editor of books for children and young people. The theme will be "Books and reading - Building our children's future".

From Maria Jose Jardim Leal, Faro.
We are a school from Faro, Portugal, and to commemorate the School Library Day we ask you to send us, in your language and in English, some nice slogans so as to promote reading and information literacy. We are sending you an example from one of our young students.

From Cecilia Almeida, Teacher Librarian.
Since the beginning of October, CRE Lorosae at EBI da Charneca de Caparica has developed several activities in order to call the attention of all members of our educational community for the importance of a School Library / Learning Centre in the learning process and the acquisition of literacies by students.

  • Reception activities with all teachers that are at EBI da Charneca de Caparica for the first time
  • Delivering SL/LC guides to all teachers
  • Reception activities with all students - storytelling time with the 1st and 2nd grades and a "Library paper" - peddy-paper with activities in different levels
  • Three articles published in the Pedagogical Council Bulletin (delivered to all teachers, auxiliary staff and parents' association) referring to the importance of our SL/LC, the International Seminar on School Libraries at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon last September, and the celebration of the International School Library Day on October 23rd.
  • Inviting all students to visit their SL/LC on the 23rd October (big wallpaper invitation)
  • Inviting all parents to come and visit their children's library next 23rd October evening (invitation card)
  • Disseminating the importance of the SL/LC, its activities and the International School Library Day in the local press (sending an article to be published)

From Paula Lima, Coordinator of School Library.
We decided to ask the Elementary School students from 3rd and 4th grade to create a logo for the International School Library Day. From all submissions we created a jury that will evaluate all logos and so select the best one to send to you by email. We expect this logo will be published on this website so that both the school and the student can be rewarded with this recognition.

From Manuela Baptista, Teacher responsible for the school library, Escola E.B.2,3 de Rio Tinto No. 2, Rio Tinto.
To celebrate once again this day we have arranged a variety of activities:

  • The building of a giant poster entitled "My School Library"
  • Meetings regarding the project, "Ler Consigo" (reading with you): First meeting - guest, Elisabeth Vilar (French language assistant) organized/conducted by the 7C; Second meeting - guest, Jorge Nunes (writer and father of a member of the ":School Library Friends' Club"
  • A contest, "The library at my school". Our students are asked to write texts on the topic Reading/Knowing/Doing and the best will be publised in a local newspaper and on our Blog
  • A meeting of members of the "School Library Friends' Club", integration of new members and presentation of activities to be organized during this school year
  • Promotion of the book, Poemas Soltos (Loose Poems) organized by the school libraries in our municipality
  • Offering presents on the School Library Day to members of our school board, teachers, local politicians, etc.
  • Sending a press release to local newspapers with information about our activities to celebrate ISLD
  • Production of a CD with the back up of the events (with the help of the "Oficina de Imagem Digital" (Digital Image Club)

From Maria Artur Barros, Teacher Librarian
To commemorate School Libraries Day in my school (a 1200 students secondary school at Castelo da Maia - 12 km north from Oporto, Portugal) we promote a sentences contest: we ask students to build a sentence expressing what they think about books, reading or libraries. The most expressive ones, chosen by a group of teachers and students, will be posted in our library all year long. Although in Portuguese, I have included a poster. Poster by a student.

From Ana Cristina Fontes, Escola Basica 2/3 Jorge de Montemor.
To celebrate the event the library is going to organize what we called the "Walking Library". In one of the school corridors we placed the drawings of several human figures. The bodies of these figures were made of books extracts, real invitations to reading them. All the books used in the activity are available in our school library and excerpts were distributed to the students in colourful pages. You can have a look at our posters...Tomorrow I will take some pictures.

From Ana Maria Cabral, Teacher responsible for the school library, Agrupamento de Escolas Conde Castelo Melhor em Pombal.
The group of Schools Conde Castelo Melhor of Pombal celebrates, on the 23rd October, Monday, the International Day of School Libraries. This year school libraries all over the world are remembered through the motto "Read. Know. Do." School libraries of the School Conde Castelo Melhor, Primary Schools of Pombal, and Primary School of Meirinhas, join this year's celebrations with activities addressed to students, teachers, parents and the community in general.

There are many initiatives releasing WORDS from books or storytellers that, during the whole week, animate the 900 students of the Group of Schools.

From the Community, "ECHOES OF READINGS..." through the local radio. And, all along the 23rd, words full of enchantment reach the listeners! It is the readings borrowed to the WORDS by our students of the 4th grade of the Primary School of Pombal.

From Teresa Henrique, Escola Secundaria de Sacavem.

We are sending you our logo for this special day. Just read. You will go much more far away.
Our best wishes for everybody around the world!

From Joao Martins, Coordenador BE-EB2,3/Sec Joao Garcia Bacelar, Tocha.
This is the first time celebrating the ISLD. Our initiative for the 2006 edition is based on the key words - Reading. Knowing. Doing. We led a marketing campaign at school to advertise this special event. Students and teachers are invited to visit their school library and leave their ideas on "What a book is good for?" (Students 10-12 years old) and "Create an original sentence with the key words - Reading. Knowing. Doing." (other age groups, including teachers). Best ideas will receive a surprise gift for their participation.

It is amazing to see libraries from so many different countries sharing their activities through the web. It surely means that our work is quite meaningful! Best regards today and best wishes for all of your around the world.

From Biblioteca Campo Maior.
The school library of Campo Maior High School is going to celebrate ISLD with an exhibition aimed to enhance the respect and importance of school libraries in Portugal. Thus, we will focus on three main points: a general overview of school libraries; the 10 years of the library's network in Portugal; the 50 years over the set up of Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian, a private institute that for decades has been responsible for financing and supporting artistic, educational and cultural projects in Portugal.

The celebrations program includes the highlight of the author, Saint-Exupery, and the 60 years after the publishing of the book Le petit prince.

During the 23rd October we will hand out candies with short quotations from famous authors attached and bookmarks about the books. Also excerpts from the books, which have been made by students, will be decorating the school bar and the canteen.

Our team will also remember some of the most popular works of last year. We wish all school libraries a very happy day.
See our bookmarks.

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Romania

From Laszlo Kiss, Teacher Librarian, Liceul Teoretic Mikes Kelemen.
Greetings from Transylvania/Romania!
The Miles Kelemen High School Library on ISLD organized the following program:

  • Reading tales for 1-4th grades. Every class spent 30 minutes in our library and the students from the 11-12th grades read the tales.
  • The History of Paper-making: We organized an exposition. The posters were printed on handmade paper by Laszlo Vincze, who has got a traditional paper mill factory in Hungary.
  • We printed T-shirts with the logo of our library. We wore them during the celebration. In 2005, on ISLD, we organized a painting contest to create the logo of our library.
  • I organized from our county (Covasna) the school librarians for a little conference: Themes - The International School Library Day: An opportunity to be known!, and The Romanian School Libraries and the Integration of Romania in the European Union.
  • We entered the International Bookmark Exchange Project. Our partners are the Stephens County Middle School, Toccoa, Georgia, USA. We shall organise an exposition with their bookmarks on Friday.

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Last Updated 19 November 2006 (KSB)