Library News

All students and staff, return your library books to the library! 

• Return library books inside the library.  
• Return textbooks outside the library building on wood carts.
• Check out summer books! Students may check out an unlimitted number of books.

As reported in April, CVUSD is preparing a Collection Development and Reconsideration Policy for its libraries. A top priority for our school libraries, the policy is being developed by CVUSD library staff and Education Services.  

Using research conducted this year on best practices for school libraries at the local, state and national levels, library staff and Education Services officers will work together to draft a policy for CVUSD Libraries. The policy will guide the ongoing development of the libraries' print and digital collections across the district. A collection development policy is a foundational policy that all libraries have and which guides the healthy development of library collections over time. CVUSD Libraries have been operating without one for some time.

The draft policy will be submitted to the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent for Education Services for review. It will be submitted to the Board for approval. 

In August, all library staff will be trained on the draft policy in anticipation of its approval, in some form.  Further training will be provided to all appropriate school personnel in 2025-2026.

Questions can be directed to Emily Stambaugh, District Librarian of Record.

On May 15 after school, a dozen students from all grade levels volunteered for the last Love My Library cleanup event of the year. They made the library sparkle!

Book shelves in non-fiction and biography were emptied, cleaned and reshelved.  All library tables were cleaned and readied for the summer. Vacuuming and dusting helped the library sparkle!

Thank you, CVHS students! It takes a village to keep this valuable community asset in top shape. 

The Love My Library program has been a pilot program during academic year 2024-2025 to experiment with allowing food in the library, like a cafe, while also providing avenues for students to give back and clean up through structured, library-coordinated events.  

Part of the library's positive behavior strategies, the Love My Library program has shifted the library-student relationship to a constructive approach to addressing the health and vitality of their community learning space.

Next year, the library will continue the program and add a Library Volunteer Program, which will include some aspects of the Love My Library events.

May 12: Library TA Interviews

May 13: Library TA Interviews

May 14: Library TA Interviews

May 15: Library Closed for Inventory and Love My Library Cleanup event after school. Last day to volunteer!

May 16: Library Closed for Inventory

The Library will reopen May 19th for summer reading check outs and instructional services.

Yesterday evening, President Trump abruptly fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, leaving our nation, our Congress and the thousands of librarians across our country reeling. Dr. Hayden is a trailblazing leader and consummate professional. As our 14th Librarian of Congress, she has led the Library of Congress with wisdom, integrity and extraordinary competence. 

The Library of Congress is an icon of our nation's culture and history. It serves all of our congressional leaders and their staff to research all matters of import to our nation. 

Our country is the poorer for it.

Read more about Carla Hayden's firing:

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-library-of-congress-carla-hayden-20a1862ce6d2e0d51a84a37b264ce2ef?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share

All students and staff that use the library are encouraged to participate in the Library Deep Cleaning event May 15th after school.

Wear your grungies. Gloves and cleaning supplies are provided.

Enjoy some treats and music in the library and the spirit of community service!

Help get the library in tip top shape before it closes down for the summer. The books will thank you for clean shelves and reward you with dust free reads next year! Let's make our library sparkle!

Freecycle weeks outside the library begin this week. This week is Needs Aware Freecycle week. Stop by the library to take any items that you can use!

5/5 - 5/9.    Needs Aware Freecycle

Lower income students may visit the library and take any items from the lost and found they can use. If you have your Student Aid Index on the FAFSA, present a screenshot of it to library staff.

5/12 - 5/16  Free for All! Freecycle

Anyone (student or staff) may stop by the library and take items from the lost and found they can use.

5/27 - 5/30. Shutdown

All items are shipped to recycling / reuse agencies.

* The approach to handling Lost and Found at the end of year was designed by Library Teaching Assistants as part of their work on Student-Lead Library Services. Lessons learned will be passed on to future Library TAs for process improvements. Your feedback is welcome.

The Library student printers will be unavailable 1 more week (April 29-May 2) while the library connects the new printers, secured USBs and prepares student training materials.

The March Sgraffito Gallery Walks at CVHS Library were a resounding success, attracting more than 400 CVHS students from 12 class sections in 6 different disciplines. 

Ms. Bittner's Ceramics classes put together a lovely display of their Sgraffito works along with an artist's description. 

Visiting classes learned new art critique and design vocabulary and enjoyed a museum-like experience with music and browsing. 

Exit tickets provided assessment information about learning outcomes that Ms. Stambaugh and Ms. Bitter are still digesting. Ms. Stambaugh will use this pilot experience and our learning from it to create a template for future walks with any teacher interested in collaborating to combine students' research and inquiry, with creative work and cross-disciplinary engagement.

April is an eventful month! Join us at the library for:

• National Poetry Month. Enjoy a poem of the week selected by library TAs and library staff. Poems will be on display around the library for your enjoyment!

   

• Earth Day. Explore eco-activism, climate change and environmental science titles on display at the library. 

   

• Youth Voter Registration Day @ CVHS Library Friday April 18th. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters will be at CVHS Library to register students and answer questions. We may have a guest speaker and DJ, not yet confirmed. Stay tuned in to the library for more information. Flyers will be distributed to teachers about class visits. Save the date!

   

• Love My Library Cleanup Event. Sign up for the April 29 event on the library events calendar. Teachers, paras, students, administrators - all are invited!

The Library's printers for student use remain offline, and IT is looking into multiple solutions.

Teachers, please accommodate your students' printing needs or encourage printing at home for those students who are able. 

If students bring a USB key from home and save their document to it, they can print from the library's printers. 

CVHS Library got two new student printers recently, however the drivers have not yet been included in the students' Google for Education suite. District IT has submitted a ticket to Canon to push drivers to our G-Suite. Until then and as a backup, IT is looking into a tethered USB solution for the library printers.

SBAC Testing happens in April and the library will have a modified schedule during testing days.

CVHS Library will proctor up to 25 SBAC tests each period during the school day for students who forget their school laptops. 

The library will be closed during the school day to administer SBAC tests.

Closed for Proctored Tests

• Tuesday, April 15 (7:30 AM - 3:36 PM)
• Wednesday, April 16 (7:30 AM - 3:36 PM)
• Tuesday, April 22 (7:30 AM - 3:36 PM)
• Wednesday, April 23 (7:30 AM - 3:36 PM)

After School Seating

The library will open for study hall after school with limited seating (25 seats) in the quiet zone and book aisles. The classroom proctoring area will be unavailable after school use, including the library bathroom. Please plan accordingly.

• Tuesday, April 15 (after school limited seating)
• Tuesday, April 22 (after school limited seating)

Visit the Library Hours for daily and weekly schedules. 

CVHS Library celebrates Women's History Month with book displays that invite students to explore women's equality. 

Do women have equal rights today?

 How do we make the case today for equality? What would be the benefits to society if women had equal rights? How does not having them hold everyone back?

Great titles encourage and challenge students to explore these questions and formulate strong arguments. 

For more resources:

• About Women’s History Month
• Library of Congress Resources
• National Committee on Pay Equity
• National Women’s History Museum
• National Women’s History Alliance
• Smithsonian Institution: American Women's History Museum

Castro Valley High School Library closed out Black History Month with a bang! 

Six advanced Spanish classes did a gallery walk through the library to explore student-created posters about influential Afro-Latinos in the United States. Students read, listened to and commented on biographical information, interviews, recordings and other multimedia.

Thank you, to Ms. Christensen's students and classes for a successful and inspiring cross-cultural and intersectional event.

Thank you to all who completed the annual Library Quality Survey. Your input is invaluable to the library! 

This was the first year the quality survey was conducted at CVHS. The responses will be analyzed in the upcoming weeks to form a baseline for future changes to library services.

Raffle Winners! $25 gift cards.

• Keedar G
• Kaitlyn C

The quality survey has been adapted for K12 from the LibQual in Higher Education survey. It will be conducted once yearly in the spring. Stakeholder feedback provides important data to help libraries continually improve services.  

All Teachers, Students, Staff and Administrators

Please take the annual Library Service Quality survey to help the library improve! 

It's quick. It's anonymous.

$25 Raffle Prizes!

The survey closes January 30th. Our goal is to have ALL teachers, students, staff and administrators complete the survey so that we get actionable data to make improvements for everyone and focus our energies on new services. 

CVHS Library celebrates Black History Month this year focussed on the 2025 ASALH's national heritage theme: African Americans and Labor. 

Visit the library to learn more about the many contributions black and African Americans make in our historical and modern day workforce. 

Afro-Latino Authors

CVHS Library also celebrates Afro-Latino Authors with an intersectional book display, created in collaboration with Ms. Christensen's Advanced Spanish for Heritage Speakers course. In preparation for the display, which will appear mid-February and remain in the library until the end of the month, students research an Afro-Latino author or changemaker, read one of their books, and create a bilingual book display to encourage more students to explore titles and authors that bring a unique perspective to literature and our world. Titles and authors are selected in many genres representative of the scope of contributions Afro-Latinos make to our literary heritage and country. 

Stop by the Library on Monday for free books! Bring your book bags! The library is making space for new books. Come take a look at our withdrawn books. Take as many as you'd like. 

This year has been a year of putting infrastructure in place for a modern library media center, with significant improvements to the library's teaching and learning environment. 

CVHS Library programs engaged students in civil society and heritage celebrations:

• Get out the Vote. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters and Library partnered to provide first-time voters trusted, non-partisan information.
• Hispanic American Heritage Month. A cross-disciplinary collaboration between the library, Advanced Spanish classes and Ceramics classes resulted in a lovely Day of the Dead Altar at the library. Inspired by student research , created by student artists.
• Native American, Indigenous, First Nations Heritage Month. An informative display of the Klamath River Dam demolition in Northern California and Southern Oregon inspired students to learn about the power of youth activism and benefits of devolution of land administration to native american communities.

The new Friends of the Library program invites volunteers and donors to support the library.

Districtwide professional development for all library staff included training in Collection Development Policies, Freedom to Read, and the American Library Association's Bill of Rights. Staff became familiar with National and State Standards for school libraries and identified priorities for districtwide action. A top priority for library staff is exploring a Collection Development Policy for all libraries to guide selection and deselection. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the California Freedom to Read Act into law, providing greater impetus for our libraries to develop a Collection Development Policy.

New Books and Grants for non-Fiction Books made important improvements to the library's fiction and non-fiction collections. The library will continue to improve its STEAM collections in 2025 and refresh our contemporary fiction including authentic literature in English, Spanish, Mandarin and other languages.

The High School Library Assistant Course has been aligned with CTE and NACE standards. Curriculum Development for Student Lead Library Services places greater ownership of the library, its operations and success in the hands of students. Students learn real-world transferable skills to secure future college and career jobs in information management, businesses and cultural heritage institutions.

Digital subject guides are under development for all high school subjects. Library guides provide teachers and students access to excellent information resources to expand their knowledge.

Digital library infrastructure improvements have stabilized and improved student and teacher access to content. Library databases, the NoodleTools Citation manager and the Destiny Library Management System (LMS) have transitioned to Google Single-Sign On. A self-checkout station was enabled for high school students. CVHS Library acquired industry-standard Springshare software over the summer to support the integration of publisher content, the Library Management System, scheduling and blog software to provide the foundation for a public-facing 24/7 digital library. An A-Z list of databases provides clear, predictable access to databases. In the new year, continued work with IT and library staff district wide will improve student and teacher access to the library catalogs and communication infrastructure.

CVHS Library wishes all students, teachers, staff, volunteers and families a peaceful winter break! 

As we look forward to the new year, please join us for renewed fun in the library with:

• Volunteer and Donation opportunities for parents and families. Help us build our collections and services for our students!
• Help us support your child's academic skills by having them register for an Alameda County Public Library eCard. We will teach them in classes how to use the electronic resources (databases) to do research.
• Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Lunar New Year, Black History Month, Blind Date with a Book and more. 
• Teacher lunches hosted by the Wellness Center
• Athena's Cooperative Cafe. Hot tea, coffee and chocolate with contributions from our community. Bring a reusable mug with lid.
• Word Wise Vocabulary builder. Students can build their academic vocabulary with short practice exercises and then self-test their knowledge. No grades. No stress. Just words.
• Research and writing support as students write research papers in the next semester.
• New policies: a districtwide task force is preparing a Collection Development Policy for our school libraries in compliance with the California Freedom to Read Act which becomes law in January 2025. Read more in our previous announcement.
• New books. Book purchasing for the library (also known as Collection Development) happens over the winter and new books arrive in February/March.

CVHS Library student assistants and staff completed the inventory of Non-Fiction collections the week before finals. 

CVHS Library holds more than 5,700 non-fiction titles valued at $190K and has kept its loss rate down to well below 1% (36 titles.) 

Students in the Library Assistant Course learned real-world work skills as they scanned the library collections, reviewed inventory reports and prepare post-inventory valuation reports. They learned about the theory and practice of “taking inventory” in a business or cultural heritage institution and put that into action at the library. The Library Assistant Course is an elective course where students learn transferable work skills beyond the library.

Also this year, in terms of inventory management, the library is experimenting with conducting two, partial inventories, rather than one week-long inventory, to minimize disruption during finals and reduce closure time during the school year from five days to four.  The library also continues to pilot a no-fines policy consistent with others in the state and is monitoring loss/returns, management overhead, and improved student readership.

All staff, please collaborate with the library to ensure it remains an open, vibrant, safe and welcoming environment. Please send students with paper passes during class periods. Students without a paper pass will be sent back. Please also instruct students to sign in on paper and electronically via QR code.  

The paper sign-in coupled with teachers' paper passes provide administrators the records they need, while the electronic sign-in provides counselors and administrators real-time data about a student's location on campus. Minimal student data is collected: ID, name, time/date and purpose (limited to: CVVA, ROP, printing, book check-out, other.)

During any given period, the library can have multiple students from multiple programs and departments from any of our population of 3,000 students, in undifferentiated spaces. The library and administration have been exploring policy and low cost technology solutions including library-specific lanyards for teachers or Teachmore library passes to balance the need for 

• real-time data for counselors about a student's location on campus 
• easily distinguishable and visually identifiable ROP and CVVA students 
• student privacy 
• appropriately assigned teacher & librarian accountability
• lowest cost solutions 

This is a work in process. We appreciate your collaboration!

If you need to send more than five students to the library during a period, please schedule an instruction appointment with Ms. Stambaugh and schedule instruction sessions so that your students can have undivided attention and learn information skills. Scheduling options are available on the library website under “Teacher” services in the hamburger menu.

Any single student sent to the library for more than 20 minutes should come with assigned work prepared by a teacher or counselor. Students will be returned to their classes if not using the library as a privilege, for research, study, free reading or class projects.

On September 29, 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the “California Freedom To Read Act” into law which provides greater protections for all public and school libraries, librarians, and library staff when books are challenged. The law also requires that all public and school libraries adopt a collection development policy and reconsideration policy by January 2026. 

The California Freedom to Read Act goes into effect in January 2025 and provides a one-year window of time to prepare and adopt policy. 

For more information, Assembly Bill 1825 includes the new provisions that will be written into the California Education Code pertaining to libraries.

CVUSD librarians and Education Services have started the planning process for creating a collection development policy with broad engagement. More news will be posted throughout the year.  CVHS high school staff and stakeholders will be included in the process.

Questions may be directed to the district Teacher-Librarian, Emily Stambaugh.

CVHS Library will close Thursday, December 12 and Friday, December 13 for partial inventory. Check the library website for updated hours. 

All library staff and TAs will inventory the Non-Fiction collections in December. 

Taking inventory annually is essential to maintaining a healthy, vibrant library.

The library strives to minimize disruption during the academic year, and is grateful for your patience as we complete this essential task. 

This year, to reduce the amount of time we must close for inventory in May, the library will survey the entire collection in two parts: Non-Fiction in December and Fiction in May. We aim to complete the inventory in a total of 4 days in 2024-2025. By contrast, inventory required 5 days in 2023-2024. 

The new approach requires training and preparation for all staff on new methods. Training commences next week. The library will remain open during staff training.

Cozy up this winter with a great book! Check out a book for the winter break.

CVHS Library has a great selection of winter reads on display. See if you can figure out the common theme when you visit the library!

The third Love My Library Cleanup event will take place after school on November 14. Students, library volunteers, club advisors, and administrators who use the library after hours are all encouraged to register. Register on the library events calendar. 

The Love My Library and Take the Pledge Program are pilot programs to enable a food in the library policy while also improving the preservation of library collections. 

Our last two events are in November and December and will focus on completing the fiction collections bookshelves and some study spaces. In December the program will be assessed for participation and progress toward collection preservation. 

Let's keep our library sparkling! Thank you for registering.

This month, CVHS Library celebrates the history and contemporary works of Native American, Indigenous and First Nations authors and activists. A special exhibit documents the historic Klamath River Dam removals and Yurok youth eco-activists. CVHS environmentalists can gain inspiration from this decades-long effort to restore the natural flow of the Klamath River.

Biography

Fiction

Activism, Agency and Resistance

Yurok Youth EcoActivism and the Klamath Dam Removals

History

CVHS Teachers can now place immediate holds or place holds for future dates on multiple copies of the same title using Destiny Back Office. With new faculty privileges, teachers can see real-time inventory and availability, including for Book Club titles. Teachers can also place holds for longer periods of time than typical circulation periods. 

This applies only to library holdings, and it includes Book Club titles. (Textbooks must still be coordinated with Ms. Oliver.)

For more information and how-to videos, visit Teacher Services: Reserve Books on the library website. For step by step instructions, visit our FAQ How can I reserve books in advance for a class? 

As part of ongoing improvements to the Library Management System (LMS) and in a collaborative effort between the CVHS Library and CVUSD IT, all CVUSD teachers now have accounts in Destiny with faculty privileges. 

As vital partners in educating students of all ages in 21st century media and information literacy skills, teachers require access to their school library and its systems. Teachers are often the first people to introduce students to the world of information (print and digital) that is at their fingertips through the library. 

All other CVUSD staff will be given library accounts over the next few weeks as will general cleanup of accounts. In addition, other authentication methods are being explored by the Library and IT to facilitate access for all district users. 

More information about teachers' accounts in Destiny can be found on the Teacher Services: Library Cards and Privileges Page. 

Open Trojan Time at CVHS Library for the week of September 9 is Study Hall for Juniors and Seniors. 

Students must register in advance. Register on Teachmore with Ms. Stambaugh and the Library Events Calendar. 

Study Hall is a time for Juniors and Seniors to do homework and work on group projects. 

CVHS Library launched Athena's Cooperative Cafe in August 2024. The cooperative cafe supports teachers, students, and the environment. 

What is a cooperative cafe?

A cooperative service is one that is sustained by a community. Athena's Cooperative Cafe is sustained by CVHS students, teachers and staff for the benefit of all. Contributions in-kind (that is, non-monetary contributions) are managed by trained library student assistants as part of their service learning assignments at the library. Teachers, staff, students and parents can make contributions (see below.) Student clubs and staff can make use of the coffee grounds for gardening projects.

What is service learning?

Service learning connects academic study with community service to help students solve real world problems and learn through critical reflection. 

Athena's Cooperative Cafe provides an opportunity for students to support our teachers, staff and fellow students with a warm beverage to brighten their day! 

Certain project challenges provide learning opportunities in several areas:

• Sustainability and Marketing: How to reduce waste by encouraging use of reusable cups? What level and pace of marketing and communications is required to effectively achieve behavioral change in a community?
• Ecology and Environmental Science: How to reuse coffee grounds and tea bags in compost and school plantings? What ecological benefits do coffee grounds actually provide (or not)? 
• Social service: How to portion and extend sometimes limited supplies to a community? 

Pokorny, Kym. “Used appropriately, coffee grounds improve soil and kill slugs.” Oregon State University Newsroom. 23 June 2023. [article link]

Find other articles like this in the library's Environmental Science and General research databases. 

Who are our Baristas?

Baristas are Juniors and Seniors taking the Library Assistant Course at CVHS Library. As part of the course, Library Assistants rotate assignments, including the ever-popular Barista assignment, at the library. Baristas rotate once per month. Please thank them for their work when you see them at the front desk!

Who else is learning? 

Student clubs interested in reusing the coffee grounds and tea bags to improve school gardens can partner with Athena's Cafe. Please inquire at the library front desk. This is a great opportunity for environmental science learning and sustainability practices!

Faculty and staff are also learning to interact more with our Library Assistants as vital contributors to our learning community.

How can you contribute?
Teachers, staff and students can contribute a box of tea, a bag of coarse ground coffee, or a box of pre-packaged hot chocolate mix at the front desk of the library anytime. Library Baristas will take care of restocking, apportioning supplies, preparing drinks and breaking down the cafe at the end of the day. 

Please contribute:

• Pre-ground dark or medium roast coffee. No whole beans, as we do not, and cannot, grind coffee at the library.
• Green or black tea bags. Individually wrapped. No loose leaf tea.
• Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate packets, or similar. A favorite among students!

Thank you for your contributions!

Visit our table in the 200 Wing. 

• Fill out a Volunteer Interest Form
• Donate
• Learn about how the library supports your child's learning

Did you miss the orientations to the library for teachers, staff and administrators? 

Register for our last make-up session on Wednesday, August 21, 3:30-4:00 pm.

https://cvhs.libcal.com/calendar/20306/teachersorientation10

Please attend if you use the library, if you book the library for any event, or if you need access to any published content in your (Google) classes, including resources with accessibility features. 

An important goal this year is to get all teachers and first year students signed up for an Alameda County Library eCard and to test access to the databases. You will learn how to do this in the orientation. The eCard will provide access to additional content for you and your students, save instructional minutes, and save our school significant subscription dollars.

https://library.cv.k12.ca.us/home 

Please update your links, bookmarks and redirects. 

CVHS Library has upgraded its website to provide students a pre-college and pre-career experience with information resources. 

Features: 

• Responsive design for all devices
• Access to the A-Z Subscription Databases and other digital resources
• Access to the library catalog
• How to do research videos
• Subject and Class Guides for teachers and students to support project-based or inquiry learning units
• Reservations and bookings for all instruction and events @ the the library
• Office hour appointments to work with the Teacher Librarian 
• Dynamic FAQ and Ask a Librarian function to ask questions remotely 

We invite you to explore, ask questions using the Ask a Librarian feature, and look for answers in the dynamic FAQ. 

Watch for new developments to support student engagement and curriculum throughout the year. We will continue to develop the site, in alignment with state and national information and media literacy standards.

Register to attend a library orientation for New and Returning Teachers and Staff to learn about upcoming changes to library services.

https://cvhs.libcal.com/

August 2, August 6 and August 9 at various times to accommodate your busy schedules! Check the Library Events calendar and register to attend.

Register in advance. (No registrations cancels.)

--Ms. Emily Stambaugh, Teacher-Librarian

Topics:

• What's new?
  • Library website and services for Teachers area
  • Databases A-Z
  • FAQ
  • Events and Instruction calendar, booking reservations for class visits
  • Requests for Subject and Class Guides 
  • Check out and place holds on books
  • Coffee and Tea in the library - Bring your own cup with lid, donations appreciated

• Student Services and Events to promote or be aware of
  • Alameda County Library eCard registration drive for all CVHS students
  • Student orientations to the library during open Trojan Time (August/September)
  • Library Cleanup Days and New Food Policy @ the Library
  • "Student Led-Services" by Library TAs. Pre-career service experience.