Library Information for Teachers, welcome to the 2016-2017
Welcome to one of the best Elementary School Libraries in the world, where you also have access to the Puxi ES/MS/HS Libraries, as well as all stock with MS/HS here in Pudong; we also have Overdrive too if you’d like to download the app to your device, you need never buy books again.
We Are
Joji, Stella and Kimbra and this is our fifth year working together, although Joji was in the library as an assistant before that. Amy Hossack is also in her fifth year in her role as Technology Specialist, or Technology Resource Facilitator, or Tech Coach depending on which person you speak to, and Grace Tan, our technology assistant has been in her role for longer than 5 years, so like Joji, Grace is a senior member of the team, however, the FIVE of us are in our FIFTH year as a team. Grace and Amy are very knowledgeable when it comes to all things tech, and can also help you with library issues if Joji, Stella or I can’t be found.
This year Joji will check out for 4th and 5th grade at the desk in the middle of the library and Stella will check out for Prek-3rd grade at the desk by the Primary Library (the glassed in room where Prek-1st grade predominantly have their lessons.)
General Information about our Library
*We are open school hours only, essentially 7.30-3.30 Monday-Friday
*We have almost 30,000 titles in our collection, and access to around 130,000 titles.
*60 kindles with between 100-100 books, 60 ipods with over 80 audiobooks and 20 ipads with over 200 books are available for Upper Elementary students to check out and take home
Check out time for Students
All students come to the library one time per 6-day cycle with their homeroom teacher (Grades 2-5) or their TA (Grades Prek-1) for a 40 minute pre-determined period to check out.
During that time, there is generally a mini-lesson, which might be on Destiny (our catalog), Databases, New Books, or Research Skills.
The students then have time to look for books to check out; and with the help of their homeroom teacher, librarian and library assistant, have a great ratio of people to help them with their choices.
Check out limit for Students
For Prek-1st grade we allow 5 items checked out at a time; for example if they have three items overdue, they will only be allowed to check out 2 items during check out time. Within the 5 items the students may have 1-2 DVD’s or play-aways for audio books.
From Grades 2-5 we have unlimited check out of books. We encourage them to take no more than they can carry, and be discerning about their choices given their commitments, but overall, we are very generous until we have the children pop up with 20-30 books, stumbling in the corridor…it’s a learning opportunity all around.
Check out for Teachers
Teachers are allowed to check out as many items as they like with items being due back at the end of the school year. You are also welcome to check out books for personal use or for your family etc., we welcome that and truly, the MS/HS library has an incredible collection of books for adults.
We don’t allow teachers to check out the technology, but at holiday time, if there are items in the library, I do a shout out so you can borrow kindles, ipods or ipads if you want to.
If you are checking out for your students, for them to use in the classroom and not take home, we ask you to check books out in your name e.g., a set of 15-20 books on habitat. We will then send them to you in a basket or cart, and fingers crossed they all come back; if not, when it’s your time to leave SAS, you may have a bit of a bill to pay first. (See replacement of lost items)
If you collect a large selection of books for a project, in your name, and then allow the students to take them home, please get them to transfer the item to their name; it works out better for you I promise.
Technology
3rd, 4th and 5th grade can check out one item of technology per check out period. For 3rd-5th kindles and ipods with audiobooks are available, additionally 4th and 5th grade can check out ipads with ibooks.
Replacement of lost items
We have a flat fee for lost or damaged items
10 rmb per magazine or plastic pocket/folder for ipods or magazines
100 per book
600 per kindle
1000 per ipad
1200 per ipod nano
These fees are regardless of the items replacement cost and parents/students can choose to buy the actual book or technology item if that works out better for them.
Bringing your students to the library
You are welcome to bring your students to the library anytime you want for research, reading, presentations, writing time, a change of scenery. We appreciate it if you call 5554 or e-mail ahead of time in case it is a crazy time, however mornings especially you should have the place to yourself.
Sending your students to the library
You are also welcome to send a couple of kids down if they need something that they can find or organize themselves. If you think they’ll need a fair bit of help, again, call or e mail, or pre-arrange, however generally the kids here are wonderfully behaved and appreciate a trip to the library to find a book they need NOW.
Returning Library Books
Please set up a basket near your classroom door, with a sign on it, saying library books and please have a student (or two) bring this basket back to the library every day; preferable before 8.30. The perfect scenario is that you may have classroom jobs, and so someone is assigned to this task, perhaps on a rotating basis. As students arrive in the morning, they place any library books in the basket as they unpack their bags and get started for the day, and the basket is returned before you start your morning meeting/classes. Worst-case scenario is the student returning the books DURING their check out time; this is something we really try hard to avoid, as it disrupts the flow of the lesson we have planned, and means our assistants are not able to work at capacity for your students.
Links on my blog
Using the library catalog
There is a screencast for you and your students to view here and we will go over this in library class with students. http://sites.saschina.org/kpower/?s=destiny&submit=Go
This is a link to information for students
http://sites.saschina.org/kpower/library-information/
Below is a link for information for parents on how to use the catalog and some general information including more nuts and bolts information about check out limits etc
http://sites.saschina.org/kpower/parents-information/
Please e mail back and let me know what I have missed. What questions do you have about the library? I am always happy to help.
Cheers
Kimbra
Barefoot Librarian
http://sites.saschina.org/kpower/
Twitter- https://twitter.com/kimbrap
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/barefootlibrarian/
Information from Previous Years- Not the same as the above, worth a scan through for ideas.
WELCOME teachers to our amazing Elementary Library…
Information for where to get great display ideas:
Posters-I get lots of my book list posters and ideas from these three sites. Pragmatic Mom, Imagination Soup and What do we do all Day I follow these people on twitter, instagram and facebook and know that Pinterest will take you on another journey that you may not return from for days when you type in library displays/book ideas/library ideas etc. However, I feel that when you continue to follow someone you’ve had success with, just stick with that… the internet can be a dangerous place.
Other classrooms and libraries. The best ideas I’ve got have come from visiting other schools, whether they be in my own Shanghai Librarians Network, or other cities around the world. Your portable camera/phone is your best friend here, and I keep these ideas in folders in iphoto, some of them, I may never use, or take years to get back to, however they’re great for inspiration. Design Ideas-I follow a lot of great hashtags on instagram and I know many people use instagram. A library ‘design guru’ among other things…Kevin Hennah, also has good ideas for keeping your library fresh here.
PRACTICAL IDEAS
PRACTICAL IDEA – Get your students to do a display for the week/fortnight…. Once a cycle have one kid plan a display, tell you their idea, and then stay in for a recess to set it up. They can use whatever they want… bad kitty display, stuffed toys, meowing chinese cat… think of the fun they’ll have.
PRACTICAL IDEA-Just like don’t walk on the grass, or wet paint, there is nothing like having a section of special books/can’t take home very often/private collection books/books from your childhood to incite your students curiosity… so rotate that stock…. And it will soon be in the arms of your students, and you never know, they may discover a new favorite author, genre or series.
PRACTICAL IDEA-It’s all about rotation, never keep the same books on display for too long, that screams tired… NO ONE is going to check out that book. I’ve tried… if you move it to different locations, recommend it, write notes on it, monitor it, (check its history if its in the library) and it still won’t move… it’s time for that sad event… a book burial!
PRACTICAL IDEA- A book exchange basket/box is a great idea for each classroom; getting kids used to the give one-take one idea is fun, and keeps stock moving. If you wanted to amp it up a little, you could always have each contributor put a sticky note with just a couple of key points NOT a book report, but just their name, and maybe the best three things about the book in bullet form, or even just the genre of the book, who they think in the class would like it.
PRACTICAL IDEA-Taking photos of staff and students in the school/classroom either reading their favorite book, or like Barbara Boyer did several years ago, them holding or pointing to (a book that isn’t there yet) and then you can move that sign around your space at your discretion…. I mean surely Mr Magsi would like to recommend “Basement of the Undead” by Jason Strange right?
PRACTICAL IDEA-Maliha also suggested taking photos of teachers holding a book in front of their face, therefore hiding their identity and asking students to guess who is who from the book title…stay tuned for that in the not too distant future.
PRACTICAL IDEA-Instagram accounts. The hashtag is here to stay, and I LOVE IT! If you haven’t already got an instagram account, perfect, if you have, and it is for personal use, you may want to consider starting another account to differentiate between school use and personal use. Some people keep facebook for personal, and instagram and or twitter for professional, whatever you choose, I am a huge fan of instagram for classroom teachers and librarians as it is a fast and efficient way to promote your classroom, students and activities.
General Library Information for Teachers
Teachers, I don’t know about you, but this is the loveliest and best resourced student library I’ve ever been in AND our ES Library in Pudong is the smallest of the four libraries at Shanghai American School, which by the way, contains THE largest English book collection in ALL of China. There is something to suit EVERY lesson you’d ever want to teach in this library, from amazing resources for art and counseling teachers, to beautiful picture books to an outstanding non-fiction collection that grows better each year due to YOUR suggestions.
Our technology resources are growing all the time; we currently have 60 kindles, 60 ipod nano’s and 11 ipads all loaded with books, (some kindles have over 150 books on them) so there is no shortage of new reading material available for Upper Elementary students. 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.
Teachers, (grades 2-5) please come with your class for their scheduled library check-out time. Please line your students up outside the front door of the library. Joji, Stella or I will always greet them there, and we’ll lead them in to the workspace we’ll be using that day. If you know you will be late, or can’t make it that day due to a field trip or special event, please let us know in advance; we’ll always do our best to try and reschedule for you. Teachers, please allocate a student/group of students in your class to return the library book basket at the START of each school day after most/all of your students have arrived, and had a chance to return their finished books to the library basket. Please make this part of your new morning routine, as it will help us exponentially in our library check out period. Also, let students know that starting this year, there is a cart at the back entrance of the library in the main hallway, they are welcome to return books there as they walk to the playground in the morning.
Here are the Guidelines for Check Out (for your students) EVERY student in Elementary must check out at least ONE non-fiction book each check out period.
Pre K-1st Grade you are to check out up to 5 books at a time. We’d like you to always check out ONE non-fiction book (at least). You are also allowed to check out one magazine or one DVD too, as well as fiction books in the Primary Library. Grade 2-Grade 5 students, you guys can have UNLIMITED check-out privileges; so use your common sense and make sure you don’t check out more books than you can read.
Grade 2-Grade 5 students, like I said, your check out is unlimited, within that, you can check out a maximum of: 1 Graphic Novel 2 DVD’s 3 Books in a Series
Lunch Recess Time 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.
I can’t wait to greet you all in the library, with over 1,000 new books, bringing our collection to over 30,000 items, there really is something in our library for everyone!
the barefoot librarian 