Welcome to the Elementary Library

It has been a wonderful beginning to the year in the Elementary Library. The returning students walked in oohing and aahing over the new space, briefly mourn the loss of the loft, and check out many, many books. The new students quickly get the hang of things, and know they can approach Ms Stella, Ms Joji and me with any questions.

With more than 1/3 of our Elementary Students being new to SAS this year, it seems like a good time to share some information about our library.

Our Shanghai American School Library houses the largest collection of English books in all of China, and although our ES Pudong library is the smallest of our 4 libraries, it has close to 30,000 titles in its physical, and digital collection…How lucky are we?

We currently have 60 kindles, 60 Ipod nano’s and 20 Ipads all loaded with books, (some kindles have over 150 books on them) so there is no shortage of new reading material available. If there is a book you want to read, and we don’t have it in our Pudong Elementary library, check destiny to see if we have it somewhere else, like Middle School, or Puxi Campus. If you can’t find it there, let me know and I’ll order it for next year, and possibly purchase on kindle, audio or Ibooks if it is available.

We encourage your children to bring back their library books as they finish them; and not wait until their allocated library day to return them. They can place books on the blue cart in the main hallway as they enter the Elementary School in the morning. Kinder and Pre K students can place them in a basket in their classroom and they will be brought over each morning by a library helper. Each book checked out by children and parents is for 14 days

To use our database to see what is available in our library go to http://destiny.saschina.org and click on Pudong Elementary then log in using your school ID number as the username AND password. From here you can check the catalog to see what we have, go to ‘my info’ to see what you have checked out, and renew books as long as they are not already overdue.

Guidelines for Check Out

We encourage students to check out many books through the year.

Each time they come to the library:

Pre K can check out 3 books *

Kindergarten can check out 5 books *

1st Grade can check out 5 books *

*(this is the maximum students can have checked out at any one time)

Grade 2-Grade 5 can have UNLIMITED check-out privileges; so they need to use their common sense and make sure they don’t check out more books than they can read/carry.

While Grade 2-Grade 5 students check out is unlimited, within that, they can check out a maximum of:

-3 Graphic Novels

-3 DVD’s

-3 Books in a Series

We encourage EVERY student in Elementary to check out at least ONE non-fiction book each check out period.

Additional Lunch Recess Library Visits

Monday and Wednesday-Grades 2 and 4 are allowed to check out in the library during their lunch recess time. If the day is too hot/wet/polluted you are welcome to stay and read. If the day is fine, we’ll send you out to play once you’ve checked out your books.

Tuesday and Thursday-Grades 3 and 5 are allowed to check out in the library during their lunch recess time. If the day is too hot/wet/polluted you are welcome to stay and read. If the day is fine, we’ll send you out to play once you’ve checked out your books.

Parent Check Out

Each parent is allowed to have 10 books checked out in their name at any one time. Please come in and see us to find out how we can help you this year in the library.

Parent Volunteers

We have a robust volunteer system in the Elementary Library. Some parents volunteer for a regular time, some drop in when they can, or if we e mail them specifically to ask for help, and some spend an hour or two when they come in to school for a child’s activity, and have some extra spare time.

If you think you would like to volunteer, we will have a welcome meeting on Friday September 6^th, straight after the Principal’s Coffee. It will also be an information session on using our library catalog and databases, as well as general advice on making the most of your child’s library experience. You won’t be pressured to volunteer; it’s just a chance for you to learn more about what we can offer you such as access to Sora (overdrive) Flipster and RB Digital which you can also read more about here. http://libguides.saschina.org/c.php?g=891876

We can’t wait to greet you all in the library. With over 1,000 new books, bringing our collection to about 30,000 items, there really is something in our library for everyone!

We are so excited to have you as part of our community. I think you’ll agree with me that the facilities we have at SAS are second to none, and when it comes to the Libraries at our school, that is indeed the case.

Ms Joji, Ms Stella and Mrs Power