Library News

This week, CVHS first year students will visit the library on August 28 or 29 with their English classes to complete their Passport to the Next Level library orientations. 

Students will visit stations set up around the library. My Time, Our Space and Extra Help stations launch first year students toward resources for self-directed learning, accessibility, reading and writing support, civic responsibility and volunteer opportunities. 

All students will take an intake assessment of their research and information literacy skills at a fourth station such that CVHS can begin to build a longitudinal analysis of student outcomes. 

The library will be closed August 28 and 29 to all other students during the school day. 

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.

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 Come take a look at our withdrawn books.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. 

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!
 

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.

Students and parents, update your bookmarks! 

Teachers, update Google classrooms!

The six (6) month transition time between the old and new library websites ends December 31st. If you have not already updated bookmarks, please do so now!

New CVHS Library website: https://library.cv.k12.ca.us/home 

Old CVHS Library website: https://sites.google.com/cv.k12.ca.us/cvhslibrary/home

The old Google Sites website will be deleted December 31st. 

Visiten la biblioteca para observar la ofrenda dedicado a nuestros queridos ya difuntos. Celebramos su presencia viva y su recorrido a Mictlán. 

La exhibición fue realizada por los alumnos de CVHS de las clases de Español Avanzado y Cerámica. Los estudiantes investigaron la historia y el significado cultural de este día. A través de presentaciones, los alumnos de Español Avanzado inspiraron a los estudiantes de Artes Cerámicas para crear calaveritas, papel picado, velas y flores de cempasúchil.

Agradecemos a las profesoras Christensen y Bittner por su dedicación y liderazgo. 

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. 

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!

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.