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.