Libraries | American School of Dubai

The vision of ASD Libraries is to inspire and guide students on their personal learning pathways, to provide students with ubiquitous access to relevant information through dynamic virtual and physical spaces, and to be a model and center for collaboration, communication, and innovation.

Philosophy

The library offers a variety of resources for research and recreational reading to all students currently enrolled at ASD, to their parents, and to ASD stakeholders. The library staff seeks to encourage students to become lifelong learners by promoting a love of reading and by teaching the skills necessary to effectively access and evaluate resources in order to meet academic and personal needs.

Elementary Library

The Elementary Library is a learning hub that serves to inspire and guide learners on their personal learning pathways. As a result of this, student voice and choice are prevalent through our practices and library lessons and routines. We believe that students have the right and responsibility to check out materials that will best fit those learning pathways. Elementary students visit the library on a regular schedule to find books and attend lessons on independent book choice, research and inquiry practices, and other activities to support literacy growth.

The ES Library team includes one teacher-librarian and two library instructional assistants. The Elementary Library offers a wide variety of resources for research and recreational reading for students, parents, and staff. The collection includes books, ebooks, audiobooks, electronic databases, and monthly student magazines.

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Past Highlights

Visiting Author: William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. William's workshops gave students the opportunity to build side-by-side with him. Students were asked to consider a local problem in the UAE and to design a prototype to help solve the problem. Some of the students ideas included litter management, stray pet solutions, water conservation, and ocean cleaning. Many students also wanted to build prototypes of windmills, just like William.

Visiting Author: Laura Vaccaro Seeger. With Laura, many students created cut-out books inspired by the books The Hidden Alphabet and First the Egg. Laura challenged our students to think differently, to think about the "empty space" and design a letter hidden within a picture. Some students drew portraits using the letters in their names just like Laura did in her book Walter Was Worried. Students were all thrilled to learn more about Laura's creative process, intentional design and the meaning behind many of her beautiful picture books.

Reading Dog Program. ASD’s Elementary School Library organized the first Reading Dogs sessions in partnership with The Animal Agency in January. Students welcomed reading dogs Tess, Millie, and Ginger that are specially chosen, child-friendly, and extremely calm reading companions. Research supports that reading to a dog helps children relax into reading, open up, try harder, and have fun.

Middle School / High School Library

The MS/HS Library is a spacious, two-level, bright, and inviting space in the center of campus architecturally designed to meet a variety of learning needs. Students have access to group study rooms as well as spaces for collaboration and reflective reading. Students can visit the library throughout the day and with their classes on a flexible schedule. The library team (two teacher-librarians and 3 instructional assistants) supports student learning by helping students find books to read for pleasure, assisting in individual inquiry projects, and teaching information literacy lessons to classes as they conduct research. The library collection includes print and digital books, magazines, audiobooks, databases, games, and maker materials.

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Learn More (HS)