Many members of the Trinity College School community know about Senior School library reading programs and initiatives but may not be aware of how we support students with course endeavours. The library team keeps a keen eye on what is happening across Grades 9-12, as well as skills necessary to succeed at the post-secondary level. To that end, a variety of software is available in support of student work:

Accessit
Launched last fall to provide a more engaging interface to our library catalogue (of physical and virtual holdings), Accessit is available to students and staff through Edsby, on an iPad kiosk located in the library, or using a phone app (which allows users to check out their own books!). Accessit is very flexible, allowing us to easily change up what appears on the website (for example, we are currently highlighting creative writing in Ms. Kristen Richardson’s Grade 12 English class), and to provide integrated connections to our subscription databases.

Databases
Student work is enriched when their research includes subscription database searches that provide content not freely available online. The School subscribes to 10 reference, journal and subject-specific databases providing access to scholarly and peer-reviewed articles, along with academic citations. Skills honed using these databases are vital for post-secondary study.

NoodleTools
Citation matters at TCS; we work hard to give credit where it is due, thereby honouring scholarly convention. While there are many free apps available online, our NoodleTools subscription allows students to track their sources centrally and produce properly formatted references quickly and accurately. Recently, students in Grade 11 English classes used this product for producing annotated bibliographies.

Overdrive
Both Junior and Senior School libraries offer Overdrive collections of ebooks and audiobooks. Students and staff may access and download titles 24/7 through the library website or the Sora app. Special emphasis is placed on books being read as part of the curriculum, to provide those students who access academic support services with high quality audio versions.

These resources are used by individual students and in class or grade groups. For instance, at this point in the year, we have worked with all Grade 9 students on a number of initiatives:

• Orientation of our physical and virtual space (Accessit)
• Learning seminars on basic source evaluation and citation (introduction to NoodleTools)
• Follow-up citation support in computer science classes (application of NoodleTools)
• In-library instruction and work periods for science research (Accessit, databases and NoodleTools)

Establishing this foundation with Grade 9 students is important to their growth as researchers and scholars, and this type of research-focused instruction is extended across all grades. By using resources available through their library, students develop skills that serve them well at TCS and beyond.

The Senior School library is open throughout the academic day until end of evening study Monday through Friday, as well as Sunday evenings; professional staff, teachers on duty and student library stewards are available to assist students.

- By Ms. Shelagh Straughan, librarian