The Kishore Mahbubani Library

Interim Report

Katie DayDecember 2, 2011

Katie Day Interim Library Report - Dec 2011, p. 1

Overview

Katie Day Interim Library Report - Dec 2011, p. 2

The Physical Library The Digital Library Collection Development

Grade/Dept Resources Access & Staffing Reading Promotion

Digital Literacy Coaching Curriculum Support Service

The Physical LibrarySpace Design

The library was designed for maximum flexibility as the facility grows from catering to 500 students in grades 6 through 10 this year to 1500 students in grades 6 through 12 within the next two years.

Downstairs spaces include:

two quiet study rooms - The Orchid Pavilion and The Paris Salon - each of which contains 24 individual carrels with electric plug points;

the Bamboo Conversation Corner, with 24 colorful bean bags; 4 large half-oval tables, each with an iMac on the wall end and capable of

seating up to 11 students; The Think Tank -- a regular-sized classroom equipped with a projector,

computer, and whiteboard;

Groups of soft seating; Rectangular tables / work spaces for 24+ students; Trapezoid tables / work spaces for 24+ students; Counter workspace on either side of the curved wall, one height for chair

seating, the other for stool seating or standing, to accommodate 11+ students;

Upstairs spaces include:

Rectangular tables / work spaces for up to 24 students; Other tables for 24+ students; Booth seating and tables for 24+ students; Groups of soft seating and 24 bean bags; Three group study rooms -- The George Orwell Room (for 8-10 students),

The Emily Dickinson Room (for 10-12 students), and The Pablo Neruda Room (for 10-12 students);

The First Class Lounge, where teachers, parents, and Diploma students (when we have them) have access to a sink, fridge, microwave, toaster oven, soft seating, and table seating -- for rest and refreshments.

5 iMacs available for public use;

The various spaces can be booked via an online spreadsheet which everyone in our domain (gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg) can edit directly.

Katie Day Interim Library Report - Dec 2011, p. 3

Furniture and Equipment

Most of the furniture has been purchased, with new individual soft seating for both upstairs and downstairs being delivered this week.

The display tables upstairs, which were bought from the Borders Bookstore when it went out of business, are getting more hanging shelves, so they will all

match and display the maximum number of books.

Note that as much as possible of the physical furniture is on wheels, to allow for easy re-configuring.

Plants -- lots of them -- are on the list of things to get, once more become available.

There is a printer on each floor, which everyone can use (assuming they have installed the right print drivers).

Signage

Most of the signage is in place, though we are still waiting on directional signs for The Think Tank and The

Orchid Pavilion downstairs (to help people find them).

One of the columns upstairs just got its Dewey Decimal vinyl sign installed.

The three group rooms are due to be decorated with quotes and information about the authors they are named for: George Orwell, Emily Dickinson, and Pablo Neruda.

Katie Day Interim Library Report - Dec 2011, p. 4

The Digital LibraryOnline Spaces

The library has a default website, the URL of which is painted on the walls of both libraries -- eastlib.uwcsea.edu.sg. This is the access point for all the digital

information and resources of the two libraries, including:

the library online catalog (OPAC) for both Primary and Secondary;

the library blogs -- one for Primary, one for Secondary, and one called

“Inside Information for Educators,” aimed at keeping the teaching staff

informed; LibGuides, a curation tool which allows us to easily create information

pages and links, e.g., about visiting artists like Taylor Mali or curriculum topics such as Disasters for Grade 6 -- and about the online databases available to us through the National Library and our own subscriptions;

the online booking spreadsheet for the different venues available in the

secondary library;

Katie Day Interim Library Report - Dec 2011, p. 5

Collection DevelopmentBooks

The goal in terms of the size of the circulating collection is 20 books per student. That means for 500 students, we are aiming for 10,000 books this year in the secondary library, where the separate collections include: Fiction,

Non-Fiction, Graphic Books, Biography, and Professional.

Note that bookshelves for 30,000 books were purchased, which is one reason why the library has an empty look.

As of today we have roughly 5,000 books in the secondary library available for circulation. New books are being processed every week and the buying process is ongoing, with a large order due to be completed within the week, as the set-up budget finishes at the end of this calendar year. These books will be processed

and available next term. The next budget proposal for the next 10,000 books is underway.

The ordering process has been incremental, not only because it takes time to select 10,000 titles, but also in order to get recommendations from the new staff

and to complement the developing curriculum.

Magazines

There is a selection of magazines available on the magazine racks on the upper level. The budget next year will include a sizable increase for periodicals.

Again, the goal was to get a starting collection and then expand with the participation of others in the community.

Online subscriptions are also being examined.

Katie Day Interim Library Report - Dec 2011, p. 6

Grade/Dept ResourcesResource Management

All print resources purchased by the school are barcoded and cataloged in the library.

Since August, roughly 6,000 textbooks and department

resources for secondary school have been processed by the library staff. NB: In the primary school catalog there are roughly 26,000 grade/dept. resources.

Resources can be stored in either the library (in the

Textbooks section, where students can easily check them out under their own name) or in the individual departments, in which case the library catalog indicates the appropriate Sublocation, e.g., “Dept: English.”

Professional Subscriptions

One of the tasks on my “to do” list is to get a list of

professional subscriptions staff already belong to and ones they want to belong to -- and to coordinate the process of subscribing on an annual basis and managing the resources (e.g., magazines) that might be attached to that subscription.

Katie Day Interim Library Report - Dec 2011, p. 7

Access & StaffingAccess

The library is open from 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM to the general community, Monday to Friday, and all members of the community, including non-teaching staff and parents, are welcome to borrow materials.

Monday to Thursday the library is open from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM for the Boarding House students, who are expected to study there under the supervision of the Boarding House parents on duty.

Note that other secondary-school students have been taking advantage of the library door being unlocked past 4:30 PM, whether because of evening or sporting events, and there is an outstanding question about who is responsible for overseeing the library after 4:30 PM for non-Boarding students. While I am

usually here beyond 5:00 pm, there is no backup for when I am not. How many adults are required is another question, given that it is a two-story facility.

Staff

I am the only teacher-librarian for the middle and high school students and I have one staff member stationed in the secondary library: Miss Ernie

Marlina, who is in her second year of employment at UWCSEA. Debbie Diaz is the teacher-librarian in the Primary Library and she has two staff members in her library: Miss Kalimah, who has

been at UWCSEA for over 40 years, and Miss Shirin, who started working here

this year. All three assistants have two-year Library Technician diplomas.

Note that the processing work is shared between the two libraries on top of the circulation and general desk counter duties.

Our staff were severely taxed during July and August, trying to process all the new materials purchased. The primary school had a budget equivalent to the secondary library, i.e., enough to buy 10,000 new books, to accommodate

Katie Day Interim Library Report - Dec 2011, p. 8

expanded classroom libraries in light of the new Reading Workshop curriculum. Think 10,000 books for primary and 10,000 books for secondary, as well as 6000+ textbooks and department resources -- all in the same academic year. Another complication was that Miss Ernie was unexpectedly put on medical

leave of absence for the entire month of August. A temporary cataloger, Miss Lizan, was hired to replace her in August/September, and budget for four extra helpers for the rest of Term 1 was allocated.

At present between the two libraries we have four temporary paid staff working

on a regular basis. The hope is that we can keep at least one of them on for the rest of this academic year. Next academic year we will definitely need more staff in the secondary library and possibly the primary one as well.

Volunteers

The parents have been welcomed as volunteers in the

library since the beginning. A volunteer sign-up form was put up on the library website and a call went out for help in the eBrief. Parents were told to drop in whenever they had free time on campus. The drop-in volunteer jobs include: covering paper dustjackets in plastic,

stamping and putting barcodes on new arrivals, and assisting in assigning reading levels to certain books in the Primary Library.

In September one new parent, Nadine Bailey, offered to serve as the Parents’

Association co-ordinator of the library volunteer group, which has been a big help. She maintains the list of contact information and sends out appeals for help, e.g., when a big shipment arrives.

In the new year we anticipate asking a few volunteers to commit to a regular

schedule.

Katie Day Interim Library Report - Dec 2011, p. 9

Reading PromotionVisual Aids on the Shelves

The books and the shelves are being adorned with signs and stickers that will help patrons get a feeling for our collections. Series are being visually highlighted as well as authors. Genre labels (e.g., Historical Fiction,

Mysteries, Humor, etc.) will also help students find suitable books.

Red Dot Book Awards &

Readers Cup

The international school librarians’ network in Singapore runs an annual book promotion for students of all ages called The Red Dot Awards,

followed by a Readers Cup competition. (See the website: reddotawards.com).

There are four categories: Early Years, Younger Readers (for up to Grade 4), Older Readers (Grades 4 to 8), and Mature Readers (Grade 8 upwards) -- and

eight titles of recently published books are selected for reading and discussion. Then in March students vote on their favorite books from the lists and a winner is announced. A subset of five titles in each of the Younger Readers, Older Readers, and Mature Readers categories is selected and used for a book quiz event in May called the Readers Cup, where all the schools compete against each

other.

March is Book Month

During the month of March both UWCSEA campuses will celebrate Book Month. (It used to be a single week -- Book Week -- but we decided to expand the time to provide greater exposure and events.) Soon calls for

teacher volunteers to join the Book Month committee will go out as organizing the annual celebration of reading is a group effort.

Katie Day Interim Library Report - Dec 2011, p. 10

Digital LiteracyThe teacher-librarians (Debbie Diaz and I) are members of the Digital Literacy team along with the Digital Literacy Coaches. We work closely with them on the Research and Information Fluency aspects of the NETS curriculum, e.g., devising lessons and materials about smart searching and referencing.

Curriculum SupportTeachers can request piles of books from the library for any topic or purpose. I can also generate lists of resources in the catalog and provide the link.

In addition, books from the National Library of Singapore can be requested. All school libraries in Singapore are eligible for a D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) library card, which allows them to borrow up to 2,000 books at a time for up to 9 weeks. In August I

used this privilege to let the boarding house students check out 10 books each (as our own collection was not yet available). At this time we have over a hundred books on natural disasters from the NLB in Grade 6 classrooms, thanks to this service.

ServiceThe library is involved in various literacy projects,

e.g., with ISF (the Indochina Starfish Foundation) in Cambodia and The Island Foundation on Bintan. I have been to Cambodia twice now to help them organize their library and to train their library helpers. Just last week I was there for three days

along with Louise Phinney. I also run a Middle School Service ECA with Mario Saez on literacy

and digital literacy for migrant workers in a shelter here in Singapore.

Katie Day Interim Library Report - Dec 2011, p. 11