August 2014 (Yearly Update!)

Wow, it’s been almost a year since our last post. Things have been so busy here lately, especially with the continuing use of technology in the classrooms! Here’s a quick review of new programs and cool things that have been happening:

Information Literacy
The Library continues to offer Ninth Grade students Information Literacy sessions during National History Day. In conjunction with Ninth Grade history teachers, both members of the library staff provide intensive one-shot sessions in the Argyros Family Lecture Hall (MMLH). Topics covered include: the research process, information reliability, the structure and organization of information, and the information retrieval process. We hope that our Ninth Graders learned something from us, and wish them the best of luck as they continue to develop their research skills in the following years. The presentation and other helpful guides can be found and downloaded on the Library course in Canvas.

Collection Development
Last year, we encouraged students to contribute to the library collection, thus allowing them to take part in the building a library that they can call their own. The Library got quite an eclectic mix of requests, ranging from more light-heart romance novels to super intensive research dissertations. The popularity of novels such as The Fault in Our Stars brought on a wave of teen romance novels. David Leviathan and Rainbow Rowell were particularly popular. Another popular genre that has popped up in recent years has been Young Adult dystopian novels, popularized by the likes of The Hunger Games and the Divergence series. Requests for more of these types of novels were common this year, and include works by Marie Lu and Hugh Howey.

The Library also started conducting inventory on our collection. Replacement items for lost materials are forthcoming! We have also weeded out some of our fiction books, particularly titles that did not circulate very well and in bad condition. Weeded fiction novels will be replaced by more Young Adult and Popular Adult fiction.

Library Statistics Continue to Rise

Picking up from where we left off, the Library continues to play an important role in student lives. This is particularly evident when we look at this last year’s usage statistics. On the whole, usage of electronic resources has increased approximately 10% over the last year. With the introduction of EBSCO databases, students now have even more options to conduct research. This increase is expected, as faculty continue to utilize technology in the classroom. Circulation of physical materials has also increased, but—unfortunately—not at the same rate at electronic resources. The Library has increased usage of books and novels by about 100 titles. This is a great start, and we hope to improve these numbers in the upcoming year by calling on students to contribute to the collection.

Library Laptops (A Hot Commodity!)
Circulation of library laptops has been through the roof. The month of April saw 376 laptops move through the hands of students. And in May, that number increased to 434! We are glad that we can contribute to student success by providing them with the technological tools that they need to succeed at Sage. With the introduction of Canvas, the use of a computer or laptop has been increasingly more important. The Library will continue to meet these student needs by upgrading our laptops from 11 inch Thinkpads to 15 inch MacBook Pros in the following year.

Library Space Update
The Academic Resource Center has moved to the Library! We are excited to introduce this program into our space, and hope that students will continue to seek out help in the Library. As a result of this, we have been able to move to the entire Fiction collection to the lower library. Now, students have easy access to leisure reading! The Library is also getting new couches soon, expanding the space where students can relax with a good book (or perhaps take a quick nap between blocks!).

Commemorative Monthly Displays
We hope the community enjoyed our monthly displays. This year, we focused on using S.A.M.E.’s (Sage Advocates for Multicultural Education) question of the month as a guide for what we exhibited. Some of our celebrated/awareness months include: Hispanic Heritage Month (September), Disability Awareness/LGBT History Month (October), Native American Heritage Month (November), Black History Month (February). And while these collections did not circulate as much as we had hoped, we definitely had a fun time showing off the great resources that we have available for people interested in social equity and justice.

September 2013 update: Back-to-school Edition

School is back!

School is now in session and the beginning of the year has been great so far. Our students, especially the newer incoming 9th graders, have really embraced the communal spirit of the Information Commons we've established in the lower library. Over the summer, we've rearranged some of our furniture and added in more study tables to provide students with the space they need to study in a collaborative atmosphere. As always, the chess boards have garnered a lot of attention as competition continues to heat up.

The library is now on Canvas

There is now a library course on Sage Hill School’s new learning management system, Canvas. This new platform allows us to provide students and faculty with resources in a more efficient manner. We've integrated our library catalog, as well as our research databases, into Canvas which will now allow for easier access to library books, DVDs, and journal articles. We've also added some handy tutorials in the research database section so please review them if you need a refresher. If you'd like a librarian to demo a particular database for your class, please feel free to send an e-mail to set something up.

Circulation stats are up

The library has added more technological devices to our collection. As the entire school community learns to use Canvas together, students have been checking out laptops at an increased rate. The library supports educational technology and will continue to provide students with the tools they need to succeed in their classes. The books the library has added to the collection over the summer have also fared well. Some of our newer, popular additions include: Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson, Everyday by David Levithan, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Baker.

National Hispanic Heritage Month

This month, the library—along with Sage Hill School’s multicultural group, S.A.M.E.—celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month. Our display in the upper library exhibits various aspects of Hispanic heritage and history. Please stop by the upper library to learn more about a rich and fascinating culture!

State of the Library: March/April 2013

Commemorative Month Displays

SHS Library celebrates Edith Wharton

The last few weeks the library displayed curated collections of books and educational flyers to celebrate the following commemorative months, all celebrated in March and April: Poetry Month, Women’s History Month, Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, and Jazz Appreciation Month.

Poetry Contest

The Library is renewing a partnership with the English Department to host the annual Poetry Contest. Entries are submitted in many forms, including sonnets and haiku, and a panel that includes staff and faculty will select winners in May.

History Day Projects

The Ninth Graders finished up their History Day projects in the last few weeks as well, scrambling to get the last few research pieces included in their presentations. Many student requests were filled, further honing the library collection to support Sage Hill’s unique curriculum.

Wellness: Internet Responsibility Seminar

The Director of Library and Technology repeated the Internet Responsibility Seminar from last year this year for Ninth Graders in their Wellness classes. The presentation and discussion scenarios were adapted to keep up with the times, including newly introduced social media tools and mobile device practices. Next year, topics in the seminar may be hosted on our new Learning Management System, Canvas.

Collection Management

Various tasks have been undertaken to maintain the library’s collection of digital and physical resources. Many of our physical magazines and newspapers, such as The New York Times and Vanity Fair have been placed on the library ipad available for check out for our community. Specialized stickers meant to catch attention have been placed on our biographies and best sellers otherwise hidden in the collection. Overdue emails have been sent periodically and paper bills are being prepared in anticipation of the Annual Inventory in May.

State of the Library: December

Bretford Mobile Shelves (from their website)

Space Update

                Mobile shelves have arrived downstairs and were promptly assembled. About half of the fiction section is being moved downstairs and has already seen an increase in usage, undoubtedly from browsing and visibility. In the next year, the library will look at moving the entirety of fiction downstairs for usage and logistical reasons.

eBook Update

                The library has enlisted the largest eBook service in schools to provide Sage Hill with an eLibrary. OverDrive is now fully operational, and a private beta was introduced to the faculty over the break. It will be rolled out to the students over the month of January. OverDrive provides ebooks and audiobooks in several formats for use on private devices as well as school-provided computers.

Technology in the Library

                One of the two iPads purchased at the end of last year for library use was stolen from the downstairs library on a busy service learning day. The remaining iPad is still available for community check out but is locked to a desk upstairs unless requested. The iPad’s ability to switch languages in settings has been used to write a paper and several of our print subscriptions are also available to read with its updated operating system. Laptop use in the library is slowly climbing every month.

State of the Library: October/November

Space Update

                We saw a big return in our summer investment in the library space. Acoustics are a hundred times better, best demonstrated during the administration of extended-time PSAT tests in the upper library October 17^th. The lower library was very busy after all the regular-time PSAT students were released, but our extended-time students enjoyed a much quieter environment than we have been able to offer before. The furniture in the lower library is also being well-used and well-loved, particularly the couches, newly-upholstered chairs, and the low table with chess and checkers games available. (Chess Club has been revived as a student activity, and so far it has fostered good-natured sportsmanship across grade lines and social circles amongst our students.)

eBook Update

                The library has enlisted the largest eBook service in schools to provide Sage Hill with an eLibrary. OverDrive is used in the entire Orange County Public Library system as well as in our own Newport Beach Public Library, and it allows community members to check out eBooks the library purchases on popular consumer devices such as iPads, Nooks, Kindles, Macs and PCs.

The eCollection is very young and small, but we hope to continue investing in it as we do the physical collection, which will probably hit a “ceiling” of around 20,000 to 25,000 books in the next ten years judging from growth and physical space limits. We currently have a collection of around 16,000 that is still in robust use.

iPads in the Library

                Two iPads have been purchased for in-library use and were briefly on loan to the Admission Department for Open House. We’re currently calibrating the iPads, purchasing protective covers, and working out ways to keep them available within the library space, perhaps with a tether or a sign-out process. They should become available by the end of the month or the beginning of November.

State of the Library: September

Space Renovation

                Summer saw a great many positive changes to the library as the school sought to support a change of tone in the lower library that would accommodate student use of the space as a social environment and changing priorities in education toward collaboration and independent learning. Isolated single-seating desk space was all but eliminated in the downstairs space, and outdated stationary desktop computers were replaced with a set of new laptops available for student check-out in the library space. Upstairs, new desktop computers replace the old and offer robust computing in the quiet study areas for students that prefer isolation. Comfortable seating in the reading area by the magazine stands was added and a small table with mobile seating was also added for impromptu meetings. The biggest investment was an acoustic renovation to render the huge stone, wall, and high-ceiling area welcoming to many small groups all talking at once. Panels with high-end sound dampening material were installed on two walls and all along the ceiling, making an incredible difference when the library is full of conversation. We’re already seeing a difference with the amount of school-oriented study work and comfortable conversation in the different spaces created in the lower library by areas of furniture and equipment.

Database Accessibility

                All of the school’s subscribed database links have been moved to virtualclass.sagehillschool.org, where students go to access their class and course information. The hope is this will make it even easier for students to utilize library resources, recommended links, and help information.

Collection Management

                The annual inventory was completed in the middle of the summer slightly ahead of schedule, and the library is already processing replacements for the books lost and damaged over the course of the year. To reflect the available technology in the school, the library is removing outdated media formats (audio tapes, VHS tapes) and sorting the remaining media (CDs, DVDs) for easier browsing. Further collection expansion will be temporarily halted for a month or two while we wait for additional shelving to arrive.

Plans for the Future

                The library has received a generous donation to reupholster all the existing armchairs from last year, and those will arrive within the week to offer more comfortable reading seating upstairs and downstairs. In addition, small side tables will be added and there are discussions to acquire a handful of mobile reading and browsing devices (such as iPads or potentially other ereading devices) for check-out and student use before the year is out. These plans are still in the works.

After the survey on the use of eBooks at school last year, the library has been watching the leading available ebook and audiobook providers in the hopes that their pricing plans will change to reflect the times and a small independent school environment. A plan is in place to launch the most flexible and viable of the available services when the school is this year.

State of the Library: May

eBooks

 Congratulations to our drawing winner, Mr. Nguyen! J

The recent survey distributed to the community brought back very interesting results. 157 students, teachers, and staff members responded. The majority of respondents (70%) read ebooks, but about a third of those preferred print. For reading devices, iPad was the big favorite followed by Kindle and Mac computers. Only 42 respondents checked out resources for personal interest this year (as opposed to checking out for school use).  A surprising number expressed interest in audiobooks (37%) and 26% already listen to them. Again, iPads and iPods were the device favorites for audiobooks. The majority of respondents didn’t think Sage Hill was quite ready for ebooks in the classroom by a narrow margin, but on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being “I think we’re ready for them now” just over half chose a 4 or a 5.

With so very few of our patrons utilizing the library for personal use, it’s unlikely the library will pursue a personal reading ebook collection in the next year unless the classroom environment fully embraces them as well. At present the price is too high to justify catering to such a small number of users (personal interest patrons who read exclusively in e-form). However, the library will definitely investigate audiobook options and, perhaps, cheaper ebook services.

The library hosted the spring meeting of the Independent School Library Exchange (ISLE), a group of independent school librarians facing the same dilemmas with e-books. To that end the meeting hosted ten e-book vendors to provide more perspective and hopes for a better cost-to-value ratio. The little mini-conference was very successful and offered more options and opportunities to follow the progress of the educational ebook market.

If you’re interested in this topic, I would be happy to discuss it with you and obtain even more input.

More Handy Stuff From Your Library

I recently added several hundred ebook titles to the library collection (http://library.sagehillschool.org) thanks to Project Gutenberg. These titles are out of copyright, and there are links from our library site to theirs, which offers free ebooks in many formats. Click “Catalog” and enter “Gutenberg” as a keyword to see a listing of these titles, which includes many classics.

For more free ebooks, you can check out Amazon’s Free Library for your kindle or kindle reader on iPad here: http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=2245146011 and visit http://archive.org/details/texts for even more obscure out-of-print collections. (Check out, in particular, the facsimile of the original author-illustrated, hand-written edition of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground by Lewis Carroll: http://ia700305.us.archive.org/7/items/alicesadventures19002gut/19002-h/alice_1.htm.)

Library Use

Historically library circulation declines in the last two months of the school year, as other programs, including arts and service learning, put on final shows, performances, and visits.  Circulation is at its lowest during testing times (December and May), when no new material is introduced, which is as it should be. There were still 238 physical resources that left the library in the month of March, and electronic resources nearly met February with 1268 articles accessed. Visit www.sagehillschool.org/library to see more of this year’s statistics, both physical and electronic, as they become available. We’ve also added many new titles, including local flora and fauna guides suggested by the science department, to our collection.

End of Year

              

 Please encourage your students to return their books to the library by May 21. We are starting inventory soon and we want as many of our resources as possible to be available for next year’s students. I’m also taking volunteers the next few weeks if you find the idea of scanning every book in our collection irresistible.

State of the Library: December

New Additions

Click here to see pretty graphical covers of all our new additions to the physical collection so far this year, thanks to LibraryThing, a free book collecting and review social network.
You can also visit the school website to see a smaller version (a ‘widget’) along with this year’s collection usage data: www.sagehillschool.org/library.



Usage

Though our Electronic Circulation is strong this year even in December despite only four class teaching days (see graph below), Physical Circulation, which includes books, videos, magazines, is the lowest its ever been. I'm extremely concerned about the relevance of our physical collection to the community, which has up-to-date additions this year in both popular fiction and requested reference resources. The lack of use is possibly explained by the altered schedule, which puts a lot of pressure on the first quarter and eliminates teaching days in December altogether. The new relevance of eBooks with our student population (see my previous discussion here), or that perhaps our students read less in their free time have also been suggested to me as possible explanations, and I have no doubt both play factor. I encourage you to let our students know about the collection and reference it in your classes if a student is looking for a book "my friend told me about"--and don't hesitate to come looking for your own reading, as well. Any suggestions on actions I can take to promote the collection are very welcome.

This Day in History
(Via Encyclopedia Britannica, visit www.sagehillschool.org/elibrary for more!)

Bogyoke Aung San with Clement Attlee,Jan. 1947. (AungSan.com)

1948:  The Southeast Asian nation of Burma (Myanmar) formally gained independence, completing the transfer of power negotiated by Burmese leader Aung San and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee in 1947.

1965: American-English author T.S. Eliot died in London.
1935: American professional boxer Floyd Patterson was born in Waco, North Carolina.
1809: French educator Louis Braille, who developed a system of printing and writing that is extensively used by the blind and that was named for him, was born near Paris.

State of the Library: September

What of October, that ambiguous month, the month of tension, the unendurable month? - Doris Lessing

Hello all and welcome to the first "State of the Library" for the year. This is a monthly update of library activities and performance. I also try to give a few tools or insights of available resources that might help in your classrooms.

Electronic Resource Circulation

Usage
Physical resources (books, cds, videos, magazines) had a modest beginning this year with 123 checkouts, and as you can see from a comparison against previous years, that's a little below the median, higher than two years ago but lower than last year.

Physical Resource Circulation

Electronic resources took a jump from last year to 420 articles accessed (from last year's 253), continuing a trend in which electronic use exceeds physical. Still, last month's statistics would assign a checkout to over a quarter of our student population.

You can see other charts that isolate data from year-to-year or by database at the Library Wiki site.

Last month 8 classes received library training in classrooms and in the library, including Mr. Rice's psychology classes, Mr. Izurieta's advanced Spanish class, and Science Inquiry classes from Mr. Lee and Mr. Zarubin. Mr. Rice's psychology classes also set up blogs for research documentation.

Resources

San Jose, 1906

Primary Sources with Calisphere
The University of California's themed collections of primary sources chronicling the history of California. You'll find letters of environmental activist and scientist John Muir, historical maps of disasters, and collections representing California's diverse culture.

And with ARTstor:
Use these wonderful subject guides or follow the ARTstor blog to find collections of images for uses in history, languages, literature, theater, dance and more. ARTstor has recently come to agreements with the Réunion des Musées Nationaux (RMN), which will add 12,000 works from the national and regional museums of France, and the World Monuments Fund, which has added over 1,000 images of architecture and cultural heritage sites.

Don't forget to check out the fascinating work done by Mr. Zarubin and Dr. Haney with their students on gene mapping: link one, link two, and link three.

New Additions
We have many new additions to the library collection. We are in the process of replacing lost books as well as acquiring other works in fiction and non-fiction (as recommended by YALSA). We have also updated some study guides and college counseling guides after our summer weeding. I already have requests from the history, science and art departments for our next order!

October in history from Oxford Reference
• October 11, 1984: Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan became the first woman to perform a spacewalk.

• October 14, 1066: English king Harold II was killed at the Battle of Hastings, an event captured in the Bayeux Tapestry.

• October 22, 1879: Thomas Edison invented electric lighting, demonstrating 30 incandescent electric lamps connected in parallel with separate switches.

• October 24 and 29, 1929: The New York stock market crashed on 'Black Thursday' and 'Black Tuesday', wiping billions of dollars off the value of stocks.

• October 30, 1938: Panic spread when radio listeners confused Orson Welles' performance of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds with a factual report of an invasion from Mars.

State of the Library: April Edition

Welcome to the home stretch! As we leave behind April and approach the end of the year, the library is looking for ways to support the community as a whole.



Jacquelyn Martin for Kansas City Star



Breaking News

Many of our students were only five or six years old during the 9/11 attacks and continue to learn the historical significance of the political decisions of today. One of our publishers is offering free resources in light of current events, and I thought many of you may find the short articles of interest:

• George W. Bush’s Address to the Nation on September 11, 2001: The Full Text & Analysis
  Milestone Documents in American History
• Osama bin Laden’s Declaration of Jihad against Americans: The Full Text & Analysis
  Milestone Documents in World History
• Osama bin Laden Biography
  Great Lives from History: The Twentieth Century: 1971-2000
• The War on Terror
  Weapons & Warfare

In the Library
In a quick look forward, the library is going to be hosting many exams in the month of May, and various AP examinations are being held in MMLH and upstairs. We are being especially sensitive to group work and noise level where possible to respect students taking and studying for exams. If you would like a class to come in for research or study, please contact me in advance! The space may not be available. We appreciate your support in this busy time!

Spring at Sage Resources
There are so many unique topics being addressed at Spring at Sage! As you begin your prep work for your seminars, please don't hesitate to contact me with the resources you plan on using, or that you think your newly-inspired students may find of interest. I would also be happy to see if the already collection has something that may support you. I hope to have a display of spring topics to reflect the exciting places and ideas our students will experience this year.

Future Databases

I've been in contact with several companies that provide databases and resources. At the end of May I'll be asking the Research Committee to look at one or two databases, particularly with an eye to science and math. I will be sending out details as classes and finals complete, and even if you are not on the committee, I hope you may let me borrow your two cents on the resources the library is considering offering our community!

State of the Library: March Edition

Usage
After completing the initial draft of the library's CAIS chapter, I was able to look at our statistics from a broader perspective. In the last three years physical circulation has slowly drifted down to hover around 200 resources a month on average, while electronic circulation has steadily risen with thousands of articles being read each month. (This month, over 2300 full-text articles were accessed.) With our relatively small student population (just over a hundred students a class) our monthly physical circulation is strong, and more than justifies shelving and bound-and-paper books. Last year, physical circulation rounded out at about 5 check-outs per student. This month, 342 resources made it into student hands.

Featured Resources
This month I attended the California School Library Association's Southern Section conference, and attended a great session on web tools "for productivity, creativity, learning and inquiry." Here are a couple that jumped out at me:

•  See and listen about the Eiffel Tower. Qwiki makes encyclopedic information come alive with a combination of a computer read-aloud and slide-show images. A more interesting way to introduce a topic that creates a dynamic visual. (P.S. Do a search for 'Sage Hill School'...)
• Tripline offers the ability to tour the world from home. You can add text, pictures and multimedia to map locations. Tripline automatically assembles a video from the input. Check out The Lewis and Clark Expedition. Tripline also allows for mobile and iPhone app use, a good idea for some of those science trips, perhaps?
• Students can create online flashcard sets with Quizlet, then practice or test themselves. The best thing about the site, however, is that it archives other sets, including some language and standardized tests. How's your SAT vocab?
• Speaking of vocab, watch the way Visuwords connects words with meanings by visual relationship. Take a stroll through a dictionary.

Wellness Seminar: Internet Responsibility
Last month I was able to speak to all of our ninth graders through a seminar coordinated through Mer's P.E. wellness program. The topic was internet responsibility, and I focused very heavily on social networking and online reputations, responding to the outbreak of cyberbullying-related suicides and online incidents. After 11 suicides across the nation in last September alone, a conference was held at the White House on March 10th to focus heavily on this topic, attended by the head of Facebook security, the author of the book the movie Mean Girls was based upon, and others. (Rosalind Wiseman's follow-up book, Queen Bee Moms and Kingpin Dads, can be found in the Educator's Library portion of our collection.) My goal, like that of this conference, was to initiate discussion and awareness of this issue among our students rather than preach my opinion.

I also discussed online safety, online reputation, and privacy issues.

The seminar began with three breakout groups, each of which received a scenario. The scenarios were each drawn from an actual incident that occurred this month, which I revealed only after I asked the students how they would handle each issue. (You can read the discussions and find linked news articles by clicking here .) I felt the students were extremely engaged and I had some wonderful discussions with many of them. During the presentation following, my hope was to get students thinking about their presence and actions online and share the consequences other teens are experiencing. (You can see my presentation on GoogleDocs by clicking here. Hit “Actions” on bottom left to pull up another window that says “Speaker Notes”; you can scroll through the presentation and see my notes at the same time as long as you can see both windows.)

Research Projects
As always, don't hesitate to contact the library to reserve research time or to collaborate on a project. I would love to visit your class, and I'll bring with me some tuned research tips to help.

State of the Library: February Edition

Hello all,
It's a short one this time around, but you'll find several attachments and articles of interest. Happy weekend!

New Additions

There have been many recent additions to the collection, the vast majority at the request of various members of the community. You can download the list here and peruse requests for psychology classes, current issues, English, and science, with subjects ranging from Calvin & Hobbes to Jackie Robinson. We added recent speaker Kortney Clemons' biography as well as some other interest books on the military and The Paralympic Games.

We have also recently received a generous donation of fantasy and science fiction books. Visit http://library.sagehillschool.org/, click "Sage Hill School Library", then on the left click "Resource Lists", and then click the tab on the right "Public Lists" to view continually updated lists of requests for various classes (and from students!).


Featured Resources

The new edition of Independent Schools features the article Gordon mentioned in the staff meeting, highlighting schools with a strong public purpose. The library subscribes to Independent School, which is published by NAIS and publishes four issues a year. (I found the article on "They Myth of the Model Minority" in the Winter edition very interesting.) You can read the article on Sage in the current issue in the downstairs library, as it is not live on the internet yet.

Also downstairs are other periodicals on education you might find intriguing, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, which has lately featured articles on financing college and the digitization of education.

Usage
We had over 160 books go out last month (significantly less than January but still high!) and our students accessed more than 1,700 full-text articles from our various databases. Nothing to sneeze at! Check out the wiki for more detailed statistics.

Note that Oxford English Dictionary statistics aren't available for the last two months; their new statistics program is glitchy, but they promise me numbers soon!

Library Environment
We're in the home stretch for the end of the year, and the library is very busy this season. If you would like to bring your classes into the library, please give us time to put it on the calendar so we can ensure adequate coverage--and if you want some research backup, I would love to assist, so I want to make sure I'm immediately on hand! Email me with times and classes, and I'll be able to better support your projects.

State of the Library: January Edition

Hello colleagues,

Welcome to the January edition of the State of the Library, which reviews the month previous. December was taken over by finals, with very few instructional days, so I skipped ahead to January, and there’s a lot to say!

Find this and other State of the Library update emails archived at http://libraryatsage.blogspot.com. (With images edited to protect copyright, and names edited to protect the innocent.)

In-Service Day

If you’re interested in getting started with PBworks but couldn’t make my session about it, you can download the handout here and watch videos, or come talk to me about using this website-creator tool in your classroom!

Usage

Things started up again with a bang at the library, and usage has shot up to higher than any other month this year. Electronic circulation went over 1,000 full-length articles searched, and book circulation is almost twice any other month so far at over 260. I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves!

As always, you may see more detailed statistics on the wiki.

Mission Statement

After months in the making, the library’s Mission Statement and Collection Development Policy is finalized and live on the web for our community. It’s important for every library to have a policy that guides acquisition of resources and keeps community goals in mind—I encourage you to take a look. The document is meant to be continually revised!

Featured Resource: ARTstor

ARTstor is an image database that shows art objects, paintings, drawings and even buildings in high resolution. The image view tool works in your browser and you can zoom in to items to see the smallest details, from cracks in plaster to fine brush-strokes. ARTstor also has a detailed image information feature that shows you measurements, collection locations, and more. Please check it out by visiting library.artstor.org while on campus. Register a name for yourself if you would like to visit off-campus. Let me know if I can guide you through the amazing features of this database!

Library Instruction & Class Visits

Multiple research projects are underway right now, with the history department leading the charge. Ninth graders in Patterns of Civilization are working on their National History Day projects. Nikole S. and Chris D. were kind enough to invite me to their classes to remind tenth graders in European history about our available resources as they begin research for their second semester papers, and also went over some database searching tips they’ll find useful as they continue their academic careers. The Chinese classes are studying Chinese culture with papers of their own, and Donna O.’s visual art classes received some detailed instruction on the featured database (below) ARTstor.

Resources

Tyler Z.’s science classes are working on comic strip based projects while Nathan H.’s current issues classes are delving deep into the Cold War and intellectual freedom issues. We’ve also had some arts requests for artist biographies and ceramics history, and a student request or two! Please let me know this month if you expect to request some library materials, as we are being careful with collection funds.

Service Learning

Our partners at Killybrooke brought some of their fifth graders into the library last Service Learning Day to partner with their buddies while they researched their science experiments. Fifth and ninth graders participated in a brief activity on why citation is important and then let loose to find sources and background information on important science concepts. The library is going to host third graders from El Sol at the end of this month for a similar activity! Click here to see the first handout.

Library Environment

Khara has been invaluable in the lower library over the past few months, and we both put an extra effort in during final exams to make the library a study environment, a new endeavor that was largely successful! Things are back to normal with a bustling library atmosphere that often has a couple classes at once, so let me know if you would like to schedule some time for your classes to focus here in the upstairs library.

Feedback Welcome

Khara and I have also discussed the library’s resources and policies quite a bit with our CAIS committee. Everyone has provided valuable feedback and we appreciate your surveys, commentary, and messages. Please don’t hesitate to communicate feedback to me about what the library has to offer! We’re always improving.

State of the Library: November Edition

Thank you all for your kind words about this communication, if you find it useful, please do let me know! – N.

Usage

As is typical this time of year as students begin reviewing for finals rather than launching new projects, library usage has dropped; both electronic and physical circulation. Electronic circulation has almost halved with over 360 full-text articles accessed, and physical check-outs rounded out at about 100. However, our magazine and periodical circulation doubled to about 50 documented uses. I hope next year I’ll be able to coordinate with a few more of the classes that visited last month, as I would be happy to make some resource-oriented activities for students exploring current developments in their subjects.

As always, you may see more detailed statistics on the wiki.

Library Environment: Finals

The week of finals, beginning with December 13, Reading Day, the entire library will be a quiet, individual study environment. I plan on making announcement Monday the 6^th, and with the help of facilities, Khara and I hope to make the downstairs library space a good spot for students to focus on reviewing on their own, rather than in rowdy groups. Please note the upstairs library will be closed all day December 14-16 as students with accommodations test there.

Databases & Magazines

Last month I asked some members of our Athletics & Wellness Program and members of the Library & Research Committee to evaluate a potential addition to our database collection, Teen Health & Wellness. The database offered a free subscription for a short time to evaluate the material. After some discussion, the committee is on the lookout for a more advanced database as the tone of some material is aimed for younger teens. However, I would love any additional opinion on the matter, and if you would like to visit www.teenhealthandwellness.com , the trial subscription is live until December 15.  Ask me for the connection info!

• Many of our databases are exploring options to make information mobile. ARTstor has recently released a beta (test) version of iPad, iPhone and iTouch software for image exploring, and Gale (Opposing Viewpoints & eBooks) already has a mobile application. I am exploring ways to promote these options while still respecting school cell phone policy on campus.
• Stay on the lookout for an updated Oxford English Dictionary layout, as it has recently been revamped. To see it now, go to http://www.oed.com/ and ask me for the password! The timeline of the English language is particularly interesting.
• There have been some updates and additions to our JSTOR academic database, and I will feature just a couple of them here in the hopes they might be of interest to you in your classes.

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=filmquarterly

“Film Quarterly, published since 1958, provides readers with insightful analyses of film, the film industry, and international cinemas. More than a glimpse behind the scenes, Film Quarterly offers serious film lovers in-depth articles, reviews, and interviews that examine all aspects of film history, film theory, and the impact of film, video, and television on culture and society.”

JSTOR only offers issues of this periodical three years older and previous, however the historical commentary might be of use to serious film, theatre, and art students.

For more current info, the library subscribes to Backstage West, a weekly bulletin for actors, and American Theatre, a magazine with reviews, previews, production schedules and articles. Both of these periodicals may be found on the downstairs shelves.

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=amerjmath

“The oldest mathematics journal in the Western Hemisphere in continuous publication, the American Journal of Mathematics ranks as one of the most respected and celebrated journals in its field. Published since 1878, the Journal has earned and maintained its reputation by presenting pioneering mathematical papers. It does not specialize, but instead publishes articles of broad appeal covering the major areas of contemporary mathematics. The American Journal of Mathematics is used as a basic reference work in academic libraries, both in the United States and abroad.”

JSTOR offers content from 2005-2010. In this field, the library also receives monthly issues of Math Horizons and The College Mathematics Journal.

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=anthquar

“Anthropological Quarterly, also known as AQ, is a peer-reviewed journal published by the George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research. AQ was founded in 1921 by the Catholic University of America and was published from 1921 to 1953 under the name Primitive Man. While continuing to publish outstanding, original, data-driven articles that advance ethnography and anthropological theory, AQ also asks intellectuals to contribute to on-going public debates relevant to contemporary experiences and public debates. Topics include: war, racism, poverty, nationalism, globalization, human rights, and the social, legal, and ethical implications of new genetic technologies. Essays on such timely topics are published in our ‘Social Thought and Commentary’ section.”

The library also receives Policy Review, New Republic, The Economist, Atlantic Monthly and Foreign Affairs, all of which discuss current issues in depth. Read these and other current periodicals in the downstairs library.

Good luck to you all as finals season begins, and I wish you a very happy holiday as it draws near.

State of the Library: October Edition

Welcome to the (slightly late) edition of the State of the Library, which reviews the month previous. It was a busy month for all of us with our wonderful Service Learning launch, Conferences, and grades, and I hope it went well for all of you.

Usage

In-house circulation is steady at just over 150 checkouts, but our database usage saw a big jump after Ninth Grade Library Orientations and the beginning of National History Day research, coming in several hundred over last month at 633 full-text articles retrieved in October. I’m pleased to see that our students found our new Opposing Viewpoints Database helpful, as statistics show a strong 75 retrievals (great for a new resource!).

Check the Wiki “About the Library” spot for more specifics on library resource usage.

In non-academic events, the Admission Office made great use of library facilities with a Parent Coffee and their (wildly successful) Open House.

New Additions

75 titles have been added to the collection, including popular fiction like the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, which is about to hit theatres at the end of the month. (I can’t help but admire a single-mom working as a teacher that found the time to write a best-selling children’s series, especially one that matured so well over the years it was written.) We have also added books on scholarships, service learning, and the English Department’s chosen short story collections: This I Believe I and II are available for checkout.

For a full list of the new additions last month, visit the wiki’s front page or click here.

Events

Last month I saw every ninth grader for the annual Ninth Grade Orientation. We tried a new twist this year to get students more involved in learning to use the library, and the activity included a lecture but also a worksheet that helped students choose a topic that interested them and practice searching and finding resources. The choice of topic rather than a closely guided scavenger hunt made this year’s orientation more engaging than ever before, and I hope to keep improving it! I would love any tips or recommendations you may have.

To see the resources used in Orientation, visit the Orientation page at the website.

In November I hope to get a few kids excited about National Novel Writing Month, headed by a non-profit organization that encourages writers to reach 50,000 words at the end of the month. The event encourages free writing and expression, and many students need to shut down that “inner editor.” I partnered with the teen services librarian, Mara Cota, of the Newport Beach Public Library, and there are “write-in” events being held at the Central Branch.

This is a busy month for our students with studying and college essays, however, so I don’t push this event too hard.

Recent Articles on Colleges, Education, Service and School Life

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State of the Library: September Edition

Hello all, I hope your first full month of the year went well. See below for some resource updates and some food for thought articles if you’re of the inclination. Thank you for your enthusiasm for Banned Books Week! The displays will remain for another week before our October horror displays replace them. Happy Fall! - Nikki

Usage

The Library is off to a running start this year thanks to promotions from Student Council and the Ninth Grade Service Learning research portion, clocking in with about 150 print check-outs and 160 database articles. (Check the Wiki “About the Library” spot for more specifics.) Usage is typically modest the first month of the year and statistics don’t reflect the sheer number of students who use library facilities during the day (ask Khara!)—but we still fared well against last September, thanks to the English department’s quiet reading program and some service learning research by the ninth graders.

Ninth Graders will hopefully receive their library orientation by the end of October. Let me know if you would like to schedule library time or if you’d like me to introduce any resources to your students, whether during class or after school individually. In non-academic news, this month the library hosts a Head of School luncheon and the PSAT test.

New Additions to the Print-Collection

Our first order of the year has gone through, and it contained requested resources for Chinese language, Spanish research projects, and Visual Arts, as well as replacements for last year’s lost texts. Stay tuned for actual lists next edition, or check out http://library.sagehillschool.org > Catalog > Resource Lists (on the left) > Public Lists (on the right) for books as they’re cataloged.

New Database

“Opposing Viewpoints in Context” is a living database inspired by the successful Opposing Viewpoints print series. Far from just a data archive, it aggregates news media content as well as opinion essays for educational research. Due to the popular circulation in our print-library of this series and several research projects that delve into opinion essays and contemporary controversies, I hope this database sees a lot of use! It’s already been popular with Mr. Rice’s Psychology classes this month.

Recent News & Articles in Education and Reading

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