This is the first year we have done Summer Checkout in our library. It had never been done when I inherited the wonderful job of Elementary Librarian back in 2012. Our campus is way out of town for most people, not a place you hang out near by, or just pop into, so parents only really come on campus when they have to for something, and, the main reason we’d never done it, seemed to be that from day 1, to day 60 of Summer Vacation, most of our kids were NOT in China, and there was a fear of the books being left all over the world.
A few years back I remember seeing how well Tamara Pretz over at ASIJ was doing her Summer Check Out and i thought, I want to do that. My partner at the time on our other campus thought it was a good idea too, we were excited.
Fast forward a couple of years, that partner changed schools, a global pandemic rocked our world, and the next librarian and I were out of the country last June when school had been physically in session for our ES students for only 2 weeks in 6 months with a handful of students. Now, here we are, 12 months later…and our Pudong Elementary Library Team did it!
I am SO glad that we did. It was busy, exciting, sometimes a little stressful and certainly hectic, BUT, mostly it was AMAZING seeing kids RUNNING into the library with bags brought from home, and even some suitcases. There was serious book shopping to be done and I was so happy to be bustling around pulling books for kids and trying to help 4 year olds understand what 60 days at home would look like. Hardly any of our students will leave China this year, and some won’t even get out of Shanghai, so it was the perfect time to launch this initiative telling them they will (hopefully) have plenty of time for PLEASURE READING!
I set a limit of 20 books per student, from PreK-5th grade, so the potential was 7400 books could go out with our 370 students. We die have almost 20 kids leaving us, so that took it down a little, and some parents put their own restrictions on their child’s check outs, and I was pleased to see, some kids did too. The difference between 20 picture books and 20 thick chapter books is a lot, so I just wanted EVERY child to have options. I was really proud to see how the kids handled themselves and we ended up checking out close to 5,500 books in 6 days. Hooray for children, Hooray for reading.
Leaving students, you will be missed, and don’t forget you can still contact me anytime for book recommendations and you’ll still have access to Sora and Databases all Summer.
Have a great holiday everyone and remember if you need to check out our Digital Resources, you can now find links to everything housed here on our Destiny Home Page.
the barefoot librarian 