Under the leadership of parents Mery Montgomery and Fanghua Jiang, our second Edge for Excellence annual fund raised nearly $150,000 from some 190 donors. The purpose of this campaign was to provide additional library resources—beyond those already budgeted—to enhance the education of every SAS student. Equally important, the campaign sought to promote the importance of philanthropic giving from the whole community as an essential element of a world-class school.

By its mission, the SAS six-library system serving every division seeks to provide learning spaces and resources to help students and teachers become “discriminating users and creators of information,” and to develop “patterns of lifelong learning” and a “love of literature in print and digital-media formats.”

Accordingly, the librarians are using the funds raised this year to acquire digital resources that will stimulate the creation of new media, promote cooperative learning in small library spaces, encourage the development of multi-media presentations and demonstrations, and offer ready access to alternative information sources such as audiobooks and eBooks.

Digital learning also means that our SAS libraries never close. Our online databases and research guides make it possible for students to continue their learning, and teachers their teaching, outside of school.

Here is a summary of library acquisitions made with this year’s Edge for Excellence gifts:

Basic technical supplies
Televisions, scanners, docking stations, search stations—these are the workhorses of today’s libraries, in constant daily use by students and teachers. Gifts permitted the upgrade of these important pieces of equipment.

Conference and presentation support
Collaborative learning in a digital environment requires more than a table and chairs. Campaign gifts have allowed the libraries to purchase whiteboards, sound systems,  
projectors and screens so that digitally created information can be made into sophisticated multi-media presentations for groups of learners.

Digital media tools
SAS seeks to make every student not just a consumer of information, but an actual creator of it. The cameras, computers and keyboards, hard drives, LED displays, headsets and microphones acquired with Edge for Excellence gifts will place the right technology in the hands of students so that they may press the boundaries of the expression of knowledge in today’s world.

Digital reference tools
Our libraries never close. Next year, our libraries will test a new online reference service, accessible day or night, in or out of the library, to assist students with research questions and provide on-demand information whenever learning takes place.

Foreign-language tools
Language learning has been revolutionized by the advent of digital technology. Campaign gifts are making possible the addition of listening and practice stations that will permit students to reinforce skills gained in the classroom.

New media formats
SAS is poised to enhance its print media collections through the thoughtful adoption of new electronic text formats: audiobooks, eBooks, iPads, Kindles and Playaways. Here, as in every area of digitally assisted learning, our librarians will serve not just as keepers of these resources, but as guides to their most effective and appropriate use in and out of the classroom.

Shanghai American School is grateful to every one of this year’s donors for making possible these significant enhancements to our library system. The libraries are one of the few facilities on campus that touch every student every day of the school year. This year’s campaign is an investment that will be repaid many times over in the growing ability of our students to use technology wisely to become better students, better teachers of each other, and better people.

By J. Frederick ROGERS, Director of Advancement