Mission

The mission of the Ashlawn Elementary School Library Program is to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information. This mission is accomplished:

• by providing intellectual and physical access to materials in all formats

• by providing instruction to foster competence and stimulate interest in reading, viewing, and using information and ideas

• by working with other educators to design learning strategies to meet the needs of individual students.

Staff

Erika McCoy Librarian erika.mccoy@apsva.us

Cindy May Library Assistant cindy.may@apsva.us

Loan Policies

All Ashlawn students, staff, and parents may check out materials from the library. Students are given the opportunity to check out books during their weekly library lessons and may also come to the library at any time to find materials. Library books have a loan period of two weeks but students in grades PreK - 2 are encouraged to return books weekly.

Maximum numbers of books that may be checked out at one time are:

• PreK, K and Montessori, and 1st Grade = 1
• 2nd grade = 2
• 3rd grade = 3
• 4th grade = 4
• 5th grade = 5

Overdue notices are sent home once a month. There are no fines for overdue materials.  Lost or damaged books must be paid for or replaced by the end of the school year.

The Library collection contains over 12,000 books, videos, audio books, magazines, and other resources. To browse the online library catalog from your home, please click on the ACORN link on the right. To search Ashlawn Library specifically, you will need to click on Branch Limit and mark only Ashlawn.

Areas of the collection are:

• Picture Books: Housed in the Everyone Room, our picture book collection is 2000 strong and growing. The collection includes a wide variety of topics, reading levels, authors, and illustrators including nearly all Caldecott winning titles.

• Easy Readers: Also found in the Everyone Room, the Easy Reader collection is an excellent place for emerging readers to find just the right book. The books are labeled by reading level so readers can easily be matched to books.
  

• Board Books: Located in the Nest, these sturdy books are perfect for Ashlawn's preschool population.

• Nonfiction: The largest segment of the library collection, Nonfiction includes 4400 items. The nonfiction collection supports Arlington and Ashlawn curriculum and is constantly growing and being updated.

• Biography: A subset of Nonfiction, the Biography collection contains 600+ titles and supports the Arlington curriculum and student interest.

• Reference: The reference collection includes encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauruses, almanacs, atlases and more. These materials support research in the library.

• Fiction: The fiction collection contains 2200 books for students in grades 3 - 5. Books in this collection are labeled by genre and include Newbery winners, popular series, and much more.

• Audio Books: Ashlawn owns 150 audio books of popular works from picture books, easy readers, fiction and nonfiction. Audio Books are available in both cassette tapes and CDs. Cassette players are available for students to checkout.

• Foreign Language: The Ashlawn library has a small collection of foreign language titles in Spanish, Chinese, French and other languages. The titles include fiction and nonfiction.

• Graphic Novels: Our growing collection of graphic novels (comic books) is a hit among students and accounts for a large percentage of circulation - while encouraging reluctant readers! Titles include Owly, Babymouse, Bone, Calvin and Hobbes and more. One series of great interest is the Graphic Library. These nonfiction and biography titles teach students about social studies and science in a comic book format.

• Professional Collection: This section of the library includes 190 titles on all areas of education. These is a balance of books focusing on educational theory and titles with instant practical application. Teachers and parents are encouraged to explore this collection.

• Videos: The library has an excellent collection of 200 videos, in VHS and DVD format, covering a wide range of curricular areas. Teachers are encouraged to check out the videos to support classroom instruction.
  

In addition, special stickers have been placed on the spines of books to better identify books with holiday themes, specific literary genres, and winners of literary awards such as the Caldecott and Newbery.

To recommend a new title for the collection, please email or speak with Ms. McCoy.

Students and teachers are encouraged to go beyond the Ashlawn collection in a number of ways.

• Library Databases: Arlington subscribes to a number of high quality library databases including online encyclopedias and magazine databases. The databases may be used in the library, at any computer in the school, or at home with passwords provided by the librarian.

• Interlibrary Loan: Teachers and students may borrow books from any library in the Arlington Public School System. Simply fill out an Interlibrary Loan Request form and the books will be delivered to Ashlawn within one week.

• Discovery Streaming, and Learn 360: These two sources of video content provide access to thousands of videos to support teaching in the classroom.

• Professional Library: An excellent source for the latest education titles and resources. Teachers may request materials from the library to be sent to their school.
  

Birthday Book Donation: This is a great way to celebrate your child's birthday and support reading for all students! Click on Birthday Book Donation on the left to learn more.

Library Night: Four times a year, Ms. McCoy, Ms. May and Mrs. Hawkins sponsor Library Night from 6:30 - 8:00. Library Night may feature seasonal stories and crafts or, for older students and parents, Internet safety, research, and other workshops. Check the Ashlawn Calendar for information on upcoming Library Night dates and content.

Morning Library Time: From 8:30 - 9:00 am Monday and Wednesday - Friday up to 20 students in grades 3 - 5 may use the library for check out, quiet reading, or to play board games.