What’s NOT happening in the library?

It has been a terrific start to what is shaping up to be an amazing year for me; I am so happy I made the decision to apply for the job of Elementary Librarian at Shanghai American School when it came up. After 7 years in the 5th grade classroom, I thought I couldn’t be more satisfied in my career, however I find the challenges of a new role stimulating and so very interesting that I know I made the right decision.

My mind is constantly buzzing with idea; for authors, for book clubs, new books, read-a-louds, board displays, recommendations, new collections, blogs and activities to do with the students and teachers. I am so fortunate to work in an environment where literacy is so valued and resources are so generously provided.

*Ms. Stella and Ms. Joji have been flat out shelving over 1,000 glorious books for us.
*Our new kindles have had over 200 books added to them, including today’s newest release, The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers, Book 4!

Our Ipads are out on display showing off the many magazines bought with our Zinio App as well as a huge variety of games and activities to discover. The advantage of having so much great technology at our fingertips is that we hope to get the latest release books and magazines into the hands of our students and teachers as soon as possible. We also have Ipods for check-out and they each hold almost 100 audiobooks for our students to read. We expect the kindles, ipods and play-a-ways to be in constant rotation.

Don’t ever despair that our children are not reading ‘real’ books though, they are allowed to check out as many as they can carry, and boy, they do. Sometimes I wonder how they are going to make it out of there, but it is fantastic to see our avid readers with arms full of books, talking about books, and checking them out.

If you’d like to read more about the type of readers we have in our library, check out my recent article in Shanghai Family.

The loft that Mrs. Boyer, now our Middle School Librarian, designed is getting plenty of use as students race to the stairs, take their shoes off and prepare to get comfy with a good read for company. What a wonderful space!

Stay Tuned…