Library News

Register for a lunchtime teacher training on Beanstack, CVHS Library's reading challenge software. Boost student reading and vocabulary development in all academic subjects through reading gamification. Students sign in, log their reading and earn badges. 

CVHS Library offers lunchtime trainings on these dates. Registration is required. Register on the Library Events calendar (Quickstart Menu on the Library home page).

• Thursday, September 4
• Friday, September 5
• Monday, September 8
• Thursday, September 11
• Friday, September 12

In this training, teachers will learn to:

• Set up a reading challenge or participate in a challenge that is already offered by the library. 
• Monitor student reading
• Best practices for reading gamification for high school students
• Districtwide goals, competition and pilot sites

English teachers may bring their classes to the library on special SSR days.  The following SSR days are reservable in ~20 minute increments, such that multiple classes can visit the library within a period to check out books.

Reserve in advance on the library instruction calendar! 

Please try to schedule all SSR appointments on these dates so that we can best serve your students and additional departments.

• Monday, August 18
• Thursday, August 21
• Friday, August 22
• Monday, September 15
• Thursday, October 2
• Friday, October 3
• Thursday, October 16
• Friday, October 17
• Monday, October 20
• Monday, November 17
• Monday, December 1
• Monday, December 15
• Thursday, January 8
• Friday, January 9
• Monday, January 12
• Monday, January 26
• Monday, February 2
• Monday, February 9
• Monday, February 23
• Monday, March 9
• Monday, March 23
• Monday, April 13
• Monday, May 4

CVHS Library is making way for new books. Science fiction, fantasy and Historical Fiction titles are available. 

Teachers, visit the library conference room Monday and Tuesday to take any deaccessioned books for your class libraries. Students and all other staff are invited to take the remainder of the books on Wednesday through Friday. 

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.

CVHS Library seeks teachers in multiple disciplines to be early adopters with BookCreator as part of next year's CVUSD Writes & Creates! Program.

For more information, please 

• read the CVUSD Writes & Creates! program description including early adopter teacher expectations
• sign up for two required lunchtime PD sessions  for teachers and onboarding onto the library's license (May 1 and May 8). Register now

CVUSD is adding new e-resources to support teachers and students. CVHS will gain access to several of them. 

CVHS teachers will find access to the following e-resources on the Library's Database A-Z list in the upcoming weeks:

• JSTOR Secondary Schools Collection (CVHS sitewide)
• Gale in Context: Biography (CVHS sitewide)
• Oxford English Dictionary (CVHS sitewide)
• BookCreator (CVHS, 1 license)

The following resources will become available for other sites:

• BeanStack (4 pilot sites, TBD)
• Pebble & Go

Ms. Stambaugh is currently working with each publisher/vendor to finalize licenses and establish 24/7 access. Whenever possible, Google Single Sign-on will be enabled. 

Once access is enabled with Google SSO, each resource will gradually be included in library subject guides and instructional offerings for all teachers and classes.

CVHS students, teachers and staff now have access to current editions of the New York Times while on the high school campus, compliments of CVHS Library. 

Visit the library website for access to the New York Times (Current Edition) via the Databases A-Z or News Resources.

Knowledge for class. Knowledge for life.

Whether you are prepping course materials or planning for the weekend ahead, discover original, quality journalism that helps you
understand the world — and make the most of every part of life. 

• Connect to school Wifi and begin reading today.
• No user names. No passwords.

About our institutional subscription

All CVHS users have access to 

• New York Times U.S., Spanish, Canadian, Chinese and International editions.
• Current issues via direct institutional subscription with New York Times
• World, Business, Arts, LifeStyle and Opinion sections, NY Times Magazine and Interactive articles
• Does not include Games or Cooking

For older issues, citation management tools, and to download articles, use Proquest. Links to the New York Times via Proquest are on the library website.

Seek the truth. Find new perspectives. Inform your conversations on current topics!
 

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.

Students and teachers can now access the library's subscription citation manager, NoodleTools, through their Google accounts. 

Visit the academic writing guide on the library website to get started (or click on MLA Citation & Paper Format). 

Detailed account setup instructions are on the database page for NoodleTools. 

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.