The Senior School library at Trinity College School continues to support students’ research needs and reading interests during this remarkable school year. While our library space has been modified to meet current health and safety protocols, the inclusion of online learning reminds us how many library programs and services are not constrained to its physical location.
Curated digital resources means that students can connect to the library 24/7. The Senior School library currently offers:
- Immediate access to a member of our library team during the academic day, either on campus or through a “Live Librarian” link on our webpage
- When on campus, our curated collection of over 7,000 print books; on or off campus, access to our dedicated Sora library of 1,375 ebooks & audiobooks selected for TCS
- Subscription access to seven academic & scholarly databases
- Subscription access to digital magazines through Flipster
In our library, however, we believe it is not enough to simply provide students with access to resources. Recent global events demonstrated the essential role information literacy plays in civil civic engagement and democracy. We aim to support students’ ability to critically evaluate information, investigate their sources, examine evidence and check their biases. How do we know if an article is credible? How do we find the best possible sources of information on a topic? How do we examine our own motivations for seeking information? These are questions we empower students to answer through our work one-on-one and in classes. So far this year, we have worked with all Grade 9 students (for library orientation as well as Grade 9 Science), and those in Grade 9/10 Learning Strategies, Grade 11 English, Grade 12 Politics and Advanced Placement Seminar. If you find this as fascinating as we do, see this great Canadian source for parent resources on the topic of authenticating information.
We continue to seek opportunities to connect with all readers on campus because we are fortunate to be part of a community that fervently believes that reading matters. To keep everyone safe while engaged, most of our reading-related programming has moved online, with great success:
- Weekly book club is an informal book-sharing session, and this term will incorporate our annual White Pine reading program
- Monthly book club focuses on a shared text selected by students (this month’s title was The Cousins, the newest book by popular young adult author Karen McManus)
- 30+ participants took part in BookIt, our annual reading marathon; we gathered online for 12 hours on Saturday, January 9th for dedicated reading punctuated by reading-related games and prizes
We are so fortunate to have students and staff who value their library, and we look forward to continued meaningful engagement with the TCS community this academic year.
- By Ms. Shelagh Straughan, Senior School librarian
