ASD Libraries Annual Report 2017: Strategy 5

Books continue to be the biggest expenditure for both libraries. For the students, teachers, and parents, the ASD libraries provide the best access to books in English in Doha, and we strive to maintain a well-stocked, up-to-date collection. 

The high school is the division with the greatest number of students, and high school books and databases are more expensive than those for the other divisions (see the Average Book Cost box). Consequently, the high school uses a greater percentage of the library budget than the other three. Because the elementary library was transitioning to the new library, they ordered fewer new books this year than in years past.

More book money has been allocated to the ES library for next year, now that their move is complete.

Although the bulk of the  MSHS library budget is still spent on books, a greater percentage of the budget is spent on electronic subscriptions (databases) than the ES library. The HS library spends the most on electronic databases.

How would you describe the library? (You may choose more than one answer)

Think about one time in your ASD career when the school library really helped you. Write about the help that you got, and what you were able to do because of it.

• Ms. Hoiseth saved my Extended Essay almost singlehandedly. She got me rolling on finding good sources and that allowed me to do it, basically. Without her helping me I'd probably still be writing it.
• When I was writing my Forensics oratory speech on how we are the result of our choices, I went to Ms. Hoiseth. She then returned with 5-6 books on everything that could help me - from neurology books to personal story books that would inspire my speech
• I can't recall a specific moment where I needed generous amounts of help from the library, however, it's amazing the amount of resources the school library has and the staff is really kind as well.

Libguides provide research assistance, subject guides, and useful resources for students on a variety of subjects. Libguides can be created for specific class assignments and can be used as a starting point for research.  ASD currently has 178 Libguides that have been viewed over 77852 times this year!  Our most popular guides include Geography - Gr. 9, A to Z Databases, Current Events, and English 9 - Animal Farm.

LibGuides are used most extensively in MSHS classes and can provide students with relevant library material, databases, and websites for their specific classes and assignments.A number of MS and HS students commented on the helpfulness of Libguides in their library surveys.

For the first time this year, ASD subscribed to Venngage, an infographics creation tool. Students and teachers can sign up with their ASD email address and automatically receive a premium account. Students from grades 6 through 12 used it to create everything from Venn diagrams comparing religions to infographics about the state of Ethiopia's economy. It's been a fabulous resource for us, and teachers and students have requested that we continue the subscription next year.

The infographic on the "By the Numbers" tab on this guide was created by Venngage.

Our goal is to never have a library collection that is more than ten years old, and we've been consistent the past few years on achieving that standard.

The MSHS library will need to aggressively weed and replace older titles next year to maintain the desired average age.

These figures were calculated from the most recent book order from the United States. The high school ordered a few new reference sets, which played a factor in the average cost of new books.  There was a 23% increase in the total average book cost from the previous school year, which is something we'll need to watch for the next school year.

Our standard for the elementary library is a minimum of 25 books per student, and for the MSHS library it is 20 books per student. Over the last several years we have been fairly consistent in achieving these goals, providing a wide selection of books for all our students.

Thanks to our inter-library loan agreement with Georgetown University - Qatar, many of our high school students were able to borrow print resources to help with their extended essays or senior seminar papers. This year we borrowed 19 titles which were incredibly helpful.

From the Senior Exit Survey: Think about one time in your time at ASD when the school library really helped you. Write about the help that you got, and what you were able to do because of it.

"Helping me get books from the Georgetown Library to do in depth research and find primary sources for my History IA (internal assessment). I was able to have detailed evidence in order to analyze the rise of the Taliban."

If you'd like more information about anything in this report, please contact:

Linda Hoiseth, HS teacher-librarian, lhoiseth@asd.edu.qa

Lauren Elliott, MS teacher-librarian, lelliott@asd.edu.qa

Karolee Martin, UES teacher-librarian, kmartin@asd.edu.qa

Cindy Wright, LES teacher librarian, cwright@asd.edu.qa 

Melanie Murray, library coordinator, mmurray@asd.edu.qa

​Members of the library team participated in some fantastic professional development this year, including:

• NESA Fall Training Institute, Abu Dhabi - "The learning library" with Dianne McKenzie
• Research-Based Librarianship Summit sponsored by Carnegie Mellon Qatar - "Preferring print in a digital world"
• EdCamp Qatar, hosted at ASD
• Makeology Summit, hosted by American International School Chennai 
• Destiny training, hosted by ASD  
• Qatar School Librarians meetings

Highlights from our professional development this year include: author visit survey and report, an understanding of the librarian's role in design thinking and the maker movement, and the adoption of a single sign on capability between Destiny and Google Apps. Thanks to these professional development opportunities, we continue to transform our practice, develop new ideas and improve services for our teachers, students and parents.