The SSIS Elementary Library Media Centre serves many purposes at the school: research hub, reading lounge, computer lab, meeting space, book fair site, and student artwork display space, among many other things.

Primarily, we encourage students to love books.  To foster the love of books, students visit the library every week with their teachers to select books to borrow.  As well, students are encouraged to come to the library whenever they need a new book.  Library passes, lunchtime Library Club, and opening hours that run from 8:15-4:25 (including break time) ensure that students have many chances throughout the day to use the library.  Parents are welcome to visit the library on their own throughout the day or with their children before and after school.

Our next priority is to support the needs of student learning within the Primary Years Program of the IB.  This is a dynamic program that requires a lot of flexibility on the part of teachers and the library.  To support student learning, the library has implemented a schedule that adapts to meet the needs of both ongoing research projects and spur-of-the-moment inquiry inspired by students’ questions.

	This year we are very proud to have added a new computer lab to our library which allows students to not only search our new library catalogue database, but also access online databases and encyclopedias while they continue to make use of other library resources.
Another addition to the expansion of the library is a room dedicated to the needs of our youngest students in Nursery, Pre-Kindergarten, and Kindergarten.  These students continue to enjoy the library alongside their older schoolmates, but their teachers have the opportunity to close the doors on their special room to create a quieter and cozier atmosphere for story time.
	Our library-media centre collection includes approximately 20,000 books, and we continue to develop and refine our resources to support student learning and the enjoyment of books.  We have a large selection of Chinese books, as well as books in Korean, German, French, and many other languages.  We purchase the majority of our books through Follett Library Resources in the United States.

At the SSIS Elementary Library, we have many things happening.  Here are just a few examples:

Visiting storytellers	Stories from around the world from parent volunteers

	Book Week		Book Fairs presented twice a year with vendors from Shanghai and Beijing		Scholastic Book Clubs with books delivered to the school at least three times a year