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!

Summer 2013: Lots of new things to be excited about!

Inventory

The Library conducted an inventory of the entire collection this summer. Out of our collection of 15,000+ print resources, we were missing roughly 100 books. We reviewed these missing materials and decided to replace the ones with medium to high usage. The Library will make an effort to remind our students to check out their books in the following school year.

Collection Development

We’ve added some new Young Adult and popular bestselling fiction books to our collection. These new titles will be on display for the first semester in the lower library. If you’re interested in reading something new, please visit the lower library and check out a book! Some popular additions include: The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, and We are All Completely Besides Ourselves by Joy Karen Fowler.

New databases, new periodicals

The Library has subscribed to some new EBSCO databases, including Academic Search Premier, Consumer Health Complete, Literary Reference Center, and a bunch more. We are planning on integrating all of our resources—print and digital—into a unifying searchable index. This means that our students and faculty will no longer need to hunt down links to a database they want to use. The Library has also subscribed to some new magazines, including Cooks Illustrated, Harvard Business Review, and Yoga. Swing through the lower library and browse our newly updated periodicals!

More mobile shelving units

Our plan to move the entire fiction collection downstairs continues this summer as the Library received approval for adding four new mobile shelving units. The next step in the phase is to continue moving through the alphabet. We expect three-quarters of our fiction collection to be house downstairs by the end of the year.

Kindles and requests for eBooks

The Library purchased two new Kindles for student and faculty use. We are currently building a small collection of books in the curriculum. The Library plans to use these Kindles to meet resource requests on-the-spot. This means that if you have a request that is in the Amazon marketplace, we can purchase it on-the-spot and lend you a Kindle.

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.