Library Media Center

Mission and Philosophy

The mission of the San Francisco Day School library program is to ensure that our students are effective users of ideas and information. This mission is accomplished by offering students intellectual and physical access to materials in multiple formats, by providing instruction to foster competence and stimulate interest in reading, viewing, and using information and ideas, and by working with other educators to design learning strategies that meet the needs of individual students. The mission focuses on programs and services that are centered on information literacy and creating active, authentic student learning.

The Library Media Center, or LMC, houses a collection of nearly 21,000 titles for children. One pride of the LMC is the vast multicultural children's collection. During library class, students may check out two books and are always encouraged to get as many books as they need during open hours.

LMC in Lower School

In kindergarten through fourth grade, students meet once a week with Ms. Otero for 45 minutes to explore the following areas:

Research and Information Literacy

Develop an understanding of how information is organized, identify the best sources of information for a given need, locate those sources, evaluate the sources critically, and share that information with peers.

Media Literacy

Media Literacy, one of three main tenents of the library's curricula, addresses the need for students to be discerning users of media. Grades K-4 critically deconstruct and creatively construct various aspects of mass media to build an understanding of how media is used to inform, entertain, educate, and sell. The enduring understand for the media literacy unit is "Because media is a prevalent part of our world, we engage purposefully and think deeply about our use."

Each grade focuses on a different aspect of the media:

Kindergarten - Packaging: What Makes Us Want It?

1 - Movies: Lights, Camera, Action

2 - Gender in the Media

3 - Advertising and Consumerism

4 - Cultural Representation in the Media

Literature

Reading literature is one of the first ways children appreciate the variety and depth of perspectives outside one's own experience. At SF Day, students learn how to choose, evaluate, and select varieties of literature to inform, illuminate, and inspire themselves.