Libraries must be such a common facility in schools, that they get overlooked or taken for granted sometimes. To devout users, the library is more than just a place to borrow and return books – it is a haven for quality me-time, and a strong support for teachers and learners. GESS is proud to have three dedicated libraries on-campus, for preschool, primary and secondary. We put the spotlight on David Veinot and his team, creators of the GESS Library Experience.
Tell us about yourself, your team and what makes you proud to be working with them, David.
The library is staffed by our team of seven, including myself. We have two Teacher-Librarians, two Library Officers and three Library Assistants.
- David Veinot, Head of Libraries & Teacher Librarian – at GESS since 2019
- Sharifah Nooraizah, Library Officer – at GESS since 2007 (longest serving!)
- Jessica Bretthauer, Library Officer – at GESS since 2016; proud parent of two children studying in GESS
- Martina Winkler, Library Assistant – at GESS since 2008; proud parent of two GESS alumni
- Manuela Kinscher, Library Assistant – at GESS since 2020; proud parent of two children studying in GESS
- Priscilla Sawntharajan, Preschool Teacher Librarian – at GESS for two years; regrettably, she just left our team to pursue a master’s degree at New York University. Succeeding Priscilla in the role is Kate London – welcome Kate!
- Lily Teo, Library Assistant – at GESS for one year; bidding her farewell as she will be leaving to lead the Hwa Chong Singapore School library (a remarkable progression, no doubt!)
What’s a typical day like for all of you? And the vibes and energy in a GESS Library?
We each have different roles, but on any given day, you may find one of us at the circulation desk helping patrons, scanning books in, unjamming a photocopier, helping a student locate a mystery novel, or supplying a German class with their next set text.
In my role, it is no different. A typical day at GESS sees me helping students with their research projects, sending an email to Singapore’s National Arts Council, thanking a donor for a book donation, discussing policy with GESS management, ordering new books for our shelves, preparing a budget proposal, “fixing” a public-access iMac, or helping a chemistry class with their Modern Language Association (MLA) citations.
Library staff have a wide and varied skill set, ranging from ordering and processing materials, handling finances, guiding students and staff, distributing and collecting thousands of textbooks, and coordinating whole-school programmes.
Each of us brings a combination of professional expertise, life experience and personal touch to the team, and each is more than adept at recommending books, responding to an innumerable request and cheering on students and staff alike.
What does the GESS Library team endeavour to offer our school community?
We would basically nail the library programme down to four main goals.
One, help students become enthusiastic readers.
Jessica Bretthauer:
A big part of what we do is getting to know the students, learning their names, and noticing the types of books they like when they can choose freely. This helps us make tailored recommendations when they’re not sure what to read next, or need something quickly for class, or get stuck on a bit of code in the Python computer game they’re designing and didn’t realise we have a book in the library containing the solution for that exact problem! One of the best feelings in this job is uniting a reader with the perfect book or resource and seeing their face light up!
David Veinot:
It’s important to take the library’s role seriously. Cultivating readers at every level involves active encouragement. Each of us is a reader. Like all educators, we’re always ‘selling’ the reading experience to our students, to motivate them to reach for more books on the shelf. In the classroom, teachers set a specific list of books which students must read and study together. However, in a library, children can freely explore a range of books. They have complete freedom to find their own tastes and discover literature at their own pace.
We are always mindful to avoid becoming mere “book wardens”, expressing book snobbery and mentally confining kids to only borrow ‘just right’ titles. Or looking skeptically at funny, edgy or ‘forbidden’ topics – let’s face it, this is what many teenagers want to read! It boils down to their own personal choice. Over at the Preschool library, the focus is more on introducing the kids to books at an early age. This helps them establish a love for the language, supports their inborn creativity and develops an awareness of the world around them.
Two, to help students become skilful researchers, support inquiry-based learning from early-childhood to Grade 12 and beyond, and serve as a resource for both the English-speaking International Baccalaureate (IB) programme and the German Curriculum.
David:
During library time in the Preschool, many important lessons are being taught. For example, children start to appreciate the categorization of books – why the German fairy tales are kept here while the animal books are shelved over there. Students learn proper book handling behaviour, like how to turn the pages properly to avoid ripping them or why a bookmark is useful.
It’s also important to have meaningful collaborations with students and teachers in the library. This has many faces. A couple of examples. In the Preschool, the teacher-librarian collaborates with classroom teachers to ensure that the collection in the library supports the units of inquiry – often supplemented by hundreds of additional titles borrowed from the National Library Board (NLB). GESS has a membership with NLB which enables us to borrow books on specific topics in bulk. Really an amazing service!
Inquiry skills are also introduced to the students in Preschool library. The librarian will begin a class explaining a theme, then read a related picture book with the class, and finally have a conversation about each child’s experience of the topic and story.
In the Secondary library, I’m on hand to work directly with teachers who often have heavier research-based assignments, like the science and humanities subjects. Or it could be assisting Personal Project students or Extended Essay students find articles or specific books to support their individual topics. Or it could be offering help with gnarly Works Cited pages or in-text citations.
Dr Frankenstein on Book Character Dress-Up Day
Three, host exciting library programmes
Besides orientation sessions at the beginning of each school year, our libraries also organise special events to encourage everyone at GESS to celebrate and enjoy all things book related. The enjoyment of reading and the excitement of discovering knowledge and works of the imagination particularly come alive during Reading Festival.
Some of our notable campus events include:
Reading Festival (usually in April-May)
- Blind Date with a Book – “don’t judge a book by its cover”. With the book wrapped in paper to hide its identity, and just a plot teaser for a hint, students borrow books and unwrap them to read later
- Book Character Dress-Up Day
- Book Face Photo Booth – a creative and fun way to promote books and reading
- “Drop Everything and Read” across the school
- Book quizzes
- Mystery readers
Words-Go-Round (usually in March)
We collaborate with Singapore’s National Arts Council to bring local authors to GESS to interact with students, often directly supporting units in the classroom. Some authors we have hosted in the past are:
- Quek Hong Shin (Travel back in Time)
- Remy Lai (Drawing From Your Experience)
- Naomi Shihab Nye (Poetry is the Language of Magic)
And Visiting Authors from 2019 to 2021, in conjunction with the German department:
- Suffian Hakim
- Khuê Pham
- Rachel van Kooij
Four, to be the go-to “community space” between GESS classrooms and home
Before school, during break and lunch, and after classes, the GESS Library is the place that helps foster broader, more creative interactions across sections and grade-levels.
Cultivating a welcoming space – a student’s “third space” anytime it’s needed – is an important part of our job.
The GESS library spaces are designed to look different from traditional libraries of the past. Gone are endless rows of shelves packed full of books, row upon row of wooden tables, and BE QUIET signs all over the place .
GESS libraries are spacious and filled with natural light, containing colourful furniture, curved shelving for easy access, enormous screens for video presentations, and a wooden stage for author visits or school events. It’s often described as the ‘heart of the school’ on campus visits – especially during break time when the library is buzzing with activity.
The Primary library’s design injects a lot of fun into its space; this is a place to explore, find a book, or cuddle up in round book holes.
Besides the weekly library lessons, the Primary library is also a venue for student drawing during recess, CCA activities like Film Club, and visiting author talks.
We also have parents coming in to borrow books in different languages. It is very important to support mother-tongue language development for those students whose first language is not German or English. Our collections feature books in 12 different languages: Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Danish, Turkish, Russian, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese and Italian.
The Secondary library has collaborative spaces where students can sit around Webex monitors to brainstorm in smaller, more private break-out rooms. If students need a quiet refuge to study, there are individual desk areas with acoustic panels to reduce noise and visual distractions.
Secondary students are encouraged to be independent library users by using the touchscreen self-checkout machines to borrow and return their books. Another common sight here – some days we are super busy printing for students. Through careful collection development, “genre-fication” and highlighting particular themes each month, we strive to make our library and its resources current, user-friendly, and representative of our diverse GESS community.
Top (from left): David Veinot | Manuela Kinscher | Jessica Bretthauer | Martina Winkler
Bottom (from left): Priscilla Sawntharajan | Lily Teo | Sharifah Nooraizah
