Bring Out Your Dead! (books.....)

Do you have any books you'd be willing to sacrifice for art?

That means your books might be cut up, re-purposed, and used to make furniture, displays, art, or anything anyone can imagine?

We are looking for books to be used physical materials for creation.

Choosing books to be sacrificed can be hard.  In fact, as a librarian I agonize over such decisions.  I hope -- beyond reason -- that a book might have its perfect reader just waiting to pick it up.  Which is why the Design and Technology Department are exasperated with me.  I can't easily consign a book to be cut up -- even though I am the instigator of a project dependent upon dead books.  Yes, students are making me a circulation desk front out of the spines of books.  It will be beautiful when finished.  Yet I am being slow in finding them enough books that can be cut up.  And more recently the Art Dept has told me they are looking for books for students to use as raw material.  I said I would help them get such stuff.

So give us your books!  Especially if you don't mind (in your heart of hearts) that we will be cutting them up.

Click here to see a gallery of images of books being repurposed for art....

Oct. 9: Marie Curie biographies - coming up at the PA Book Club

The October offering from the PA Book Club is the story of Marie Curie's life -- with several biographies on offer.  Read one or all.

Come at noon with a finger-food lunch and socialize in the First Class Lounge on the upper level of the secondary library.  The book discussion proper starts at 1pm.  All are welcome whether you've finished a book or not.

NOTE:  The 1937 biography written by her daughter Eve is freely available on the internet.  To download, go to:

bit.ly/freemariecurie 

Sep. 17: "The Dinner" by Herman Koch will be discussed at the PA Book Club

Next Tuesday, September 17, the PA Book Club will be discussing The Dinner by Herman Koch.

Come at 12 noon with your lunch - and socialize -- if you want.

The book discussion starts at 1 pm and goes until about 3 pm.  All are welcome -- whether you've read the book or not.  In the First Class Lounge room on the upper level of the secondary library.

Contact Sabine Veron (veron_sabine@yahoo.co.in) for more information.

Our own JSTOR...

JSTOR is an online database of scholarly journals & books -- with a definite academic focus. So probably mainly of interest to Grade 11 and 12 students.

We used to have free access to it via the National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore, but their membership rules have changed. Now we are getting our own subscription.  While the paperwork is being processed, they have given us a trial account.

The user name and password can be found in bit.ly/accessuwc -- which is the Google Doc containing all the login information for digital subscriptions at UWCSEA. Note: that document can only be opened by people logged into a @gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg account.

Once you are in the document, use Ctrl-F to "find" the word "JSTOR" and see the user name and password.

If you need help searching the database, just stop by the library desk.

Posters re the most common printing problem

Many of you use the library printers - and many of you have problems.

Below are two trouble-shooting posters which I have pinned above each printer.

As other departments with printers might find them useful, I have uploaded them to Google Docs.

Google Doc link to PDF

Google Doc link to PDF

NB:  If you accidentally entered the wrong username and password AND you clicked the "Remember" box, then go to IT Support and they will clear the wrong username and password from your Keychain.

Useful URLs relating to the library

General information

eastlib.uwcsea.edu.sg

Digital resources

research.uwcsea.edu.sg

Logins / passwords
(only accessible to people with
a @gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg account)  

bit.ly/accessuwc

Search the catalog

catalog.uwcsea.edu.sg

Mobile catalog apps

bit.ly/eastlibapps

Calendar / bookings / events

bit.ly/eastlibrarycalendar

Send calendar invites and general queries to 

libraryeast@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

Twitter: 

@eastlib

Katie Day, Teacher-Librarian

kda@uwcsea.edu.sg / (+65) 8233-2922

3 Research Tools for Middle School Humanities

Did a session this morning with three grade 8 Humanities classes at once - as a kick-off to them starting to research authoritarian regimes and dictators.

Began with my old favorite - water as information - metaphor, highlighting the quantity and quality problem of internet research.  Then showed them Culturegrams and ABC-Clio World History as two alternatives to Google and Wikipedia.  Finished with the "Google Doc - Tools - Research" feature (a smart Google search box inside a Google Doc) -- which luckily most of them had seen before.

Yes, parents can borrow books!

Parents are welcome to borrow books from both the Primary and Secondary libraries at UWCSEA East.

We definitely believe in the "trickle down" effect.  Take out big beautiful books, small interesting books, graphic novels, poetry, history, biography, whatever - spread them around your house.  The passive exposure is positive.  You will be helping to expand your child's map of the literate world.

Most importantly, read the books you take out.   Then talk about them.

Your children need to see you reading.  In fact, I had one parent come in and say, much as he enjoyed his Kindle, he realized that when he was on it, his children were not perceiving him as reading.  So he wanted to switch to some physical books to visually reinforce his activity to his family.  Role modeling....

How do you sign up for the library?  Either come in and see Ms. Ernie or Mr. Haniff at the Information Desk on the upper level or fill out the form below.  Remember to press the SUBMIT button at the very end.

Do you have.... in the library?

Do we have a book?

You can always find out by going to our online catalog: http://catalog.uwcsea.edu.sg

Select "East Secondary Library" and start searching.

If you have an Apple or Android mobile device, you can have the library catalog instantly available for searching using the free  Destiny Quest app.

iTunes version

Android / Google Play version

After you install it, you need to tell it where to find our library catalog on the internet.

http://catalog.uwcsea.edu.sg

Select the East Secondary library and you're in!

To simply search, explore as a "guest".

To see your own account and books out on loan, log in.

Students/Teachers:   You can log into your account with your regular UWCSEA id (e.g., smith12345) and password to see what books you have out.  

Parents:  Your UWCSEA login/password is NOT automatically loaded into the library system (as there are so many of you).  Instead our library staff hand-create you a library account, so you can tell us what you want your library login/password to be.  Come into the library or email us at libraryeast@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg to set up login information.

For more information on using the app, see these YouTube videos made by Follett, the company that makes our library catalog software:

• Downloading and Configuring the Destiny Quest mobile app
• Learn the features of the Destiny Quest mobile app

Staying in Singapore this summer? Library access....

Summer borrowing of library books for pleasure reading has not been allowed in past years, however, many families who are staying in Singapore for the long holiday break have asked for the privilege.  

One issue has been books being taken out for 8 weeks, and taken out of the country, increasing the likelihood of them not returning.  The other has been access to the library itself, as our staff process books and do inventory (plus take their own holiday breaks), so are not necessarily available at their desks all the time.

We've decided to trial a new policy:  

Opening Time for Weekly Book Exchange: 9 to 11 am, every Wednesday during the holiday, in both the primary and secondary libraries for people to borrow and return.  

The loan period will be 2 weeks.

Please don't take out books if you are leaving the country or take more books than you can read in 2 weeks. 

Note: The libraries will not be open for general use -- only for book exchange.  We want to maximize access to books for the whole community (students, parents, staff), while minimizing disruption to the holiday work tasks in the library.

So come get your weekly selection of books Wednesday mornings, starting June 19th.

Summer Reading.... Where will the trail lead you?

This summer branch out and create your own reading trail.  

Start with any book and see how it can lead you to other books -- or films or articles or other interesting items.

See the Reading Trails below for each entering grade on the East Campus in August 2013.

• MS Reading Challenge-- student version
  -- parent/teacher version
• Grade 9
• Grade 10
• Grade 11

If you want some book suggestions, go to our Summer Reading page where there are both MS and HS booklists, created using Pinterest, for various genres.

No more free digital resources from the NLB of Singapore!

The National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore provides hundreds of digital resources free only to its citizens as of July 1, 2013.  

People with a FIN (Foreign Identification Number -- i.e., a green card holder) must now pay for an annual individual library card in order to get access. See the details above or on the NLB website (http://www.nlb.gov.sg).

This is a huge loss. Yes, forty-odd dollars a year for access isn't much to pay, but it's hard for us to guarantee every student will sign up. And, while we may purchase some of the digital resources ourselves (e.g., JSTOR), we will miss having access to some of the more esoteric ones.

If you want to recommend we get our own subscription to one of the NLB resources, please let me know.

Similarly, don't hesitate to contact me if you have a research need.....

-- Ms. Katie Day - kda@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

End-of-year returns / Summer borrowing

All secondary school library books are due back by Wednesday, June 12th.

But, wait!  you say, I'm a Grade 9 IGCSE or Grade 11 IB Diploma student in the middle of a two-year programme.  I need my texts!

Yes, Grade 9 and Grade 11 students can keep their textbooks over the summer, if they want.  (If you don't want responsibility for them, then just return them -- and get fresh copies in August.)

Grade 11 students writing their Extended Essay over the summer may also keep books out.

If specific teachers give you permission to take out future textbooks, that is also okay.  Just have them contact us.

Otherwise we want all books returned to the library.  The summer is long and we want to minimize the loss of books.

Many thanks.

We appreciate your cooperation, just as we hope you appreciate the library books.

p.s.  See our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on the library website for general policy questions.

Trial of new database: PsychARTICLES from the APA

American Psychological Association - APA

Trial access from 9 May to 8 June 2013 to 

PsychARTICLES

This database offers full-text articles for journals published by the American Psychological Association, the APA Educational Publishing Foundation, the Canadian Psychological Association and Hogrefe & Huber. The database includes all material from the print journals. Many titles go back to volume 1, issue 1.

Trial access link good until 8 June 2013

This resource will be of major use to any IB Psychology students.

Join the Readers Cup team! Competition Wed May 22nd

On Wednesday, May 22, the annual Readers Cup competition will be held at SJI International School.

As you may remember, our primary school brought home a cup for the Younger Readers category (okay, tied three ways, but still....).  And we have won the Older Readers category in years past (yay, AMK!).

We'll be sending three teams to compete:  6 members for Younger Readers (Grades 2-4), 6 members for Older Readers (Grades 4-8), and 4 members for Mature Readers (Grades 8+).

The books the teams need to know to answer short-answer and multiple choice questions are subsets of the Red Dot Awards for this year.

The competition is against other international schools in Singapore, e.g., the Canadian school, the Australian school, Stamford American International School, SJI International, Chatsworth, ISS, OFS, and the Dover campus.

Mr. Miles Beasley has volunteered to coordinate getting MS and HS students for the Older and Mature teams.  NB:  The Older Readers team will be a combination of Primary and Secondary students.  Ms. Debbie Diaz, the primary school teacher-librarian, is coordinating the Primary students.  Ms. Katie Day, the secondary teacher-librarian, is part of the Readers Cup quiz management team, so cannot train members directly (for obvious reasons!).

Team members will leave right after school on Wednesday, May 22, on a school bus.  The competition starts at 4 pm and should be over by 6 pm.  Parents and any other students who want to watch and cheer our teams on are very welcome.  There will be light refreshments provided.

Anyone interested should meet Mr. Beasley in the secondary library Monday, May 13, at morning break (9:50am) -- on the ground floor level.  You should have read at least ONE of the books to be considered for the team.

Click on the title below to see sample questions for each book.

Younger Readers Category
1. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
2. Squish - Super Amoeba
3. Lulu and the Brontosaurus 
4. The little refugee
5. Won ton - a cat tale told in haiku.
Picture book - Chalk.

Older Readers Category
1. Wonder
2. Titanic - voices from the disaster.
3. Too small to fail.
4. The one and only Ivan.
5. Tall story.
Picture book - Stuck.

Mature Readers Category
1. The fault in our stars.
2. Erebos.
3. The future of us.
4. In the sea there are crocodiles.
Picture book - Phileas's fortune.

Bookrags: study guides for popular books

The school has an account with Bookrags, an online site with over 400 study guides to popular books.

Bookrags.com is a website with over 400 literature study resources for middle/high school students. Log in with the UWC username and password (see bit.ly/accessuwc).

Note, we have pre-downloaded some study guides which you can access via our Google Apps account.  Click here to access the complete UWCSEA Bookrags folder.

(This same information is available at  research.uwcsea.edu.sg/bookrags )

ebooks - especially academic ones

The NLB has hundreds of academic ebooks available, mainly through ProQuest's ebraryand EBSCO's Netlibrary.

Start on the SearchPlus page and use the Advanced Search box to search both at once.

Click here for a full list of the NLB databases of ebooks.  Three are highlighted below.

NB: for ebook access, you need to log in to an NLB (free) Digital Account. 
Click here for the NLB (free) Digital Account Registration page or go bit.ly/accessuwc for a temporary login/password (just search for "NLB" within the document) 

NLB:  ProQuest:  ebrary

The eBrary's collection of electronic books spans all academic subject areas such as arts and humanities, social sciences, physical sciences and technology, business and economics, computers and IT, fine arts, law, life sciences and medicine. Includes additional premium content such as maps, journals, and reports.

NLB:  EBSCO:  NetLibrary

Previously known as NetLibrary, eBooks (which include audiobooks) are now searchable on the EBSCOhost platform, providing a single source for discovering book content. It offers easy-to-use functionality with access to the latest content and best-selling titles from the world's leading publishers. Its new EBSCOhost interface supports useful features such as browsing by subject area and by latest titles added to a library's collection; viewing of table of contents; searching by specific terms with hyperlinked pages; navigation of chapters and sections; optional download capabilities and much more.

NLB:  Overdrive:  General books

A collection of popular ebooks, audio books, music and video titles including all kinds of genres and many general interest subjects.

A special player Overdrive Media Console is required to listen to the audio books from Overdrive. To check out ebooks/audio books, you are required to type in your username and NRIC or Membership no. or FIN that you first used, when you registered for an NLB Digital Library account. Available at all libraries and from home.

(The same information can be found at  research.uwcsea.edu.sg/ebooks )

How to search the NLB Databases

A new video -- created using Explain Everything -- shows you how to search the National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore digital resources.

I've also set up a Google Moderator space where anyone at UWCSEA can ask questions related to the research process.

See  UWCSEA Research Process Questions

So ask away!

And remember, for all your research needs, start at  research.uwcsea.edu.sg

Traveling in the region? Need a guide?

From Thursday March 21 to Thursday March 28, there are over 35 different travel guides on display on the lower level of the Kishore Mahbubani Library which you can order - at prices discounted 20% by APD Books.

All the guides are for cities and countries in the region - and the intended audience is Grade 11 - as these are the places where groups are going for Project Week this year.

Get your order forms in to any library staff member by next Thursday, March 28th -- and the books will be delivered  here by April 30th.

NB: The sale table will also be on display during the Family Fun Festival tomorrow.

And the Red Dot winners are....

The 2012-2013 Red Dot Book Awards - with almost 7,500 votes from 15 schools cast in total over the four categories

Go to the reddotawards.com website for more information, but here are the top prize winners in the four categories - for Singapore as a whole.

Early Years: Chalk - by Bill Thomson

Younger Readers:  The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore - by William Joyce

Older Readers: Wonder - by R.J. Palacio

Mature Readers: The Fault in our Stars - by John Green

The results for our particular campus were slightly different.

Red Dot Book Awards - One Week to Vote!

Download this UWC Red Dot poster (PDF) for printing here

Once a year for one week we vote for the best book in four categories:  Early Years, Younger Readers, Older Readers, and Mature Readers.  Any student is welcome to vote in any category - as long as they have read at least two of the books in that category (voting, after all, is about choosing).

In the Secondary School we mainly promote the Older Readers and Mature Readers books.  I'm sure you've noticed the big bookshelf devoted to them on the upper level.

Watch these 1-minute videos to remind yourself of the titles on offer this year.

Older Readers (aimed at grades 4 through 8):

Mature Readers (aimed at grades 8 through 12):

Ready to vote?

You can do it through a web browser - go to this webpage:  reddotawards.com/voting2013

Or use this QR code to go to a mobile website:  bit.ly/reddotvote

NB:  Our school voting code is UWCEAST.  The form will ask you for it.

Winners will be announced on Saturday, March 16th.

Afterwards, a subset of the Red Dot books will be selected as the quiz books for the Readers Cup, to be held in May.  Watch for details of how you can enter and compete.

Writers Fortnight 2013

Once again, Kate Levy has put together a fantastic two-week writing event for the Middle and High School.

Click here to see the full schedule and links to the authors coming in to school to meet with students.  The same information is on display as you walk into the Secondary Library.  NB:  Parents are welcome to attend the events.

Children's Literature Conference @SAS Feb 1-3

Four outstanding authors & illustrators are coming to Singapore for the weekend of February 1-3, 2013.  Come for the Saturday session and hear all four deliver keynote addresses, then opt to return on the Sunday for a workshop with just one of them.

Click here for more information about the Singapore American School Children's Literature Conference.

Chris Crutcher - YA author

Click here to see his books in our Library Catalog.


Kadir Nelson - illustrator & author

Click here to see his books in our Library Catalog.


Deborah Wiles - author

Click here to see her books in our Library Catalog.


Laura Vaccaro Seeger - picture book author & illustrator

Click here see her books in our Library Catalog. 


Sign up soon!  All are welcome.  

(If you are a teacher at our school, just submit a Professional Learning request - this is the kind of inexpensive one-day local event that is fully supported for staff.)