ASD Libraries Annual Report 2015: Strategy 3

Review, deepen, and refine, as needed, the practices, tools and programs essential for each student to meet or exceed the ASD standards.

Elementary eBooks

Our Lower Elementary students have enjoyed using MyOn, BookFlix, and Tumblebooks extensively, reading during recess as well as select class periods. FolletShelf, an eBook platform, continues to be used this year with both research and recreational titles. To encourage familiarity with the resource, many Battle of the Books titles have been made available on Follett Shelf. 

MS/HS eBooks

The MS/HS library has added to our Kindle collection. We now have 30 Kindles for circulation, where we can add new releases and popular titles immediately. Also new to our eBook collection is the addition of 12 professional Kindles and 6 professional iPads. These are available for individual teachers, or professional reading groups. Professional books are requested by teachers, learning coordinators or administration and can be ordered quickly. These are are available to individual teachers, or professional reading groups. Many unlimited eBooks are also available on FollettShelf for research assignments. This allows multiple students to access the same information simultaneously. 

Elementary students are readers! By the time summer ends, our students are just waiting for school to start so they can return their summer books and check out some fresh titles. It's not unusual to have parents dropping off books ahead of time so that their child can get some more books on the first day of school. With a circulation of over 110,000 books checked out in a year, you know the library is the place to be.

Elementary students are readers! It’s not unusual at all to find students sitting in library, reading books, during classes as well as at recess time. Any number of students will be seen walking and reading their book as they head out for classes.  Fiction titles are especially popular with all of our elementary students. Non-fiction books are frequently selected to support particular units, though many of our younger students are thoroughly enjoying our new small but growing Early Non-Fiction section. 

With the financial support of the PTA, the MS One Book One Community was a huge success this year.

Ken Derby, author of many books, including "The top ten ways to ruin the first day of school", visited ASD to share information about being an author with our Middle School and Upper Elementary Students. It is inspiring and helpful for our students to meet authors and hear about the writing and editing process. We were happy to have him visit! 

Utilizing feedback and langauge art teacher suggestion, we have worked to develop our MS/HS library picture book collection. The collection numbers have grown from 101 to 285, and checkouts are up by 267%. Language Arts and Social Studies teachers are encouraging the use of pciture books in the classroom, and we have seen an increased number of casual picture book readers during break and lunch. 

Graphic novels continue to grow in popularity. Our collection has grown this year from 874 to 1210 and checkouts are up by 150%. More teachers and parents are beginning to understand what students and librarians have known all along, that graphic novels make for an enriching and rewarding reading experience! 

The elementary library is the place to be at ASD! Our students are passionate about reading, exploring new titles and sharing favorites with friends. Classes, small groups, parents, tutors, as well as teachers use the library weekly. Technology is integrated throughout lessons for research and presentations, as well as during recess where students can be found reading digital titles from MyOn or Follet Shelf or exploring some of our educational databases.

Elementary Programs

• 141 Super Hero Readers read over 2000 books, earning an invitation to choose a free book.
• The Battle of the Books is a reading incentive program for 4th and 5th grade students. Teams of students read the list of ten selected books, preparing for the widely anticipated battles in November and December. The culminating battle keeps everyone in suspense! 

• "Many Children, Many Cultures, Many Books" was the theme for this year's Reading Week. Teachers and volunteers 
  joined us to share their love of books by reading favorite stories to different classes. Week long activities included 
  dressing up as a favorite book character, making bookmarks, listening for daily snippets from popular books, talks from 
  a visiting author and, of course, free books for everyone! 
• The best part of Poetry Month is the extremely popular poetry jams in the library. The stage has lights, cameras and lots of poetry action! 

• This year our summer reading program draws on popular fun with "Heroes in Every Story!"  
  Our Summer Newsletters (UE, LE) highlight many exciting science books to explore.
  
  
• Students also come in on a daily basis for instruction, checkout, and pleasure reading.  
  Recess time is popular with 100 or more students dropping in to read, socialize, or checkout books. 
  The library has over 25,000 titles for students, teachers and parents to borrow with a total of 113,147 items checked out. 

For pleasure reading, fiction is the most popular and largest collection area in both libraries. We work to maintain a balanced collection for non-fiction, with emphasis placed on curricular needs.  

Fiction circulates more than non-fiction for individual reading. Often non-fiction that is used for a research project is checked out to the class for the length of the unit, and then several students will use it each day during the project.

It's natural for the number of titles read to decrease as the students read longer, more complicated texts and experience more homework demands, but we continue to encourage pleasure reading for high school students. English 9 and English 10 assigned independent reading for their students, which helped those circulation numbers.

The MS/HS library hosted a regular Professional Reading and Treats session. Teachers were encouraged to drop in for a coffee, treats baked by our very own Dr. Coble, and an opportunity to have a look at professional titles or newly arrived books. These drop in sessions were very popular and drew attention to some lesser known professional books, with many books checked out. Themes this year included: student achievement and new fiction and non-fiction. 

"Our librarian regularly and consistently supplies us with books aligned with our curriculum and units of study. Great!"

"Our librarian has set up an outreach service to our PK parents to draw them into the library and use our school's library resources - this has taken dedication and commitment every week - our students are very grateful as am I."

"I have been nothing but impressed and grateful for the outstanding support I've received from the Library. You are amazing in so many ways and I value the time, effort and support you've given to me and my students. Thank you!"

The libraries publish summer reading lists via Libguides (see below) and encourage students who will be in Doha for some or all of the summer to check out library books. Over 3100 books were checked out of the elementary library, and 1100 books from the MSHS library. Students were excited to check out whole series of books to tackle over the summer!