Faculty guide to the Fay School Library

 

* Mission * Library Program * Scheduling * Resources * Professional Collection * Professional Periodicals * Services * Staff * Hours * NoodleBib Guide for Teachers * Library FAQs *

 

Mission

 

The library functions at the heart of the learning experience, supporting the school’s mission, “To educate the whole child to his/her fullest potential in preparation for a productive and fulfilled life.” The library provides students and faculty with resources for study, research and pleasure reading. The library program:

·        Encourages a love of reading and an appreciation of quality literature;

·        Ensures that students are effective and responsible users of information and ideas;

·        Equips students with the skills to construct meaningful knowledge and understanding.

 

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THE LIBRARY PROGRAM

 

Lower School students have a weekly Library class focusing on literature appreciation, library use and research skills. Grades 3, 4 and 5 have additional scheduled time in the library for independent study, research or reading.

 

Upper School students may visit the library individually or with a class to use library resources. The library staff is always eager to help students with research or book recommendations. Librarians can help you teach! The library staff collaborates with both Upper and Lower School faculty to teach information literacy skills within the context of research assignments. An information literate person knows how to:

·        Access information efficiently and effectively;

·        Evaluate information critically and competently;

·        Use information effectively, creatively and responsibly.

 

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SCHEDULING

 

 

Bring your Class to the Library

If you would like to bring your class to the library for research, please schedule as far in advance as possible. Talk to a librarian—you’ll be glad you did! The librarians specialize, so you will have your own contact person to help meet your curriculum needs. You may telephone, email or just stop by the library.

·        For all Lower School classes – Laura Beals D’Elia, x230

·        For all Upper School classes – Suzanne Levasseur, x229

 

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RESOURCES

Print

·        Books – 16,000 items

·        Reference books

·        Newspapers/Magazines – 73 titles

·        Professional collection – books and periodicals

 

Audio/Visual

·        Videos – 1,000 titles

·        Spoken Word (Audiobooks) – 225 volumes

 

Faculty Borrowing Privileges

·        Books – 2 months

·        Periodicals – 1 week

·        Videos – 1 week

§         Only faculty may borrow videos.

§         Please return all library items when they are due.

§         You may email or telephone any library staff member if you would like to renew items.

 

Electronic Resources

The Fay School Library web site, has a wealth or resources for students and faculty. It provides access to the library catalog, online subscription databases, and links to many useful web sites, organized by subject and indexed. The link FOR TEACHERS has creative ideas for lesson plans, tools, professional development ideas, plus an educator’s page for each major academic department. For information about subscription databases, see our E-Research at the Fay School Library brochure or check out Online Subscriptions & Databases.

 

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PROFESSIONAL COLLECTION

 

As you enter the library, the Professional Collection is on the right. It includes over 400 books on a variety of subjects. Professional periodical subscriptions include:

·        Book Links                                               

·        Education Week (register for free access)  

·        Educational Leadership                  

·        Edutopia                                        

·        Harvard Educational Review (Email Suzanne Levasseur for user name and password)                                                     

·        Horn Book                                    

·        Independent School

·        Mailbox (Intermediate) (Email Suzanne Levasseur for user name and password)

·        MultiMedia & Internet@Schools

·        Reading Teacher

·        Reading Today

·        Teaching Tolerance

·        Voices from the Middle                 

                                                                       

Electronic Resources of Special Interest to Faculty:

·        Educator's Reference Complete: Full-text periodicals for teachers and school administrators.

·        Teacher Resources: A collection of annotated links to web sites useful for teachers, including some great resources for lesson plans! NEW! You’ll see special pages for:

o       English Teachers

o       History Teachers

o       World Language Teachers

o       Science Teachers

o       ISP Teachers

o       Research Process

o       Lesson Plans

o       Teaching Tools

o       Teaching for Understanding

o       Professional Development

·        The Research Road: Check out Fay’s own online research tutorial!

·        NoodleBib: creating a bibliography has never been easier!

 

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LIBRARY & INFORMATION SERVICES

 

Librarians collaborate with teachers in order to assist students in finding and using information for specific assignments. Librarians help students analyze learning and information needs, locate and use resources to meet those needs, and understand and communicate the information these resources provide.

 

After meeting with you to determine your curriculum needs, a librarian might do any of the following for you and your class:

 

·        Create/update a web page with annotated links to electronic resources. Check out Upper School Links and Lower School Links to see examples of web pages that have been created for particular subjects or teachers.

·        Teach the Research Road process. We will show your students strategies for finding authoritative information for a specific assignment and help them cite their sources. Online research databases are our specialty! Librarians can teach your students to:

o       Begin the research process

o       Define their research needs

o       Use online research databases

o       Evaluate web sites (Check out our new WEB SITE EVALUATION tool!)

o       Improve online searching skills

o       Recognize and avoid plagiarism

o       Cite their sources using NoodleBib

·        Read/tell a story to introduce a topic or theme. A picture book is often a perfect introduction to an area of study, setting the scene or providing background information in just a few minutes.

·        Prepare a bibliography of library books on a certain subject, or a specialized reading list (e.g. historical fiction set in the Middle Ages).

·        Gather books to the reserve shelf for students to use in the library.

 

I DARE YOU TO READ!

This is the theme for our reading for pleasure program this year, coordinating with the school theme of COURAGE. Fill out an entry form in the library each time you read a book.

 

In the Faculty Room

Look for the ever-changing basket of new library books and the magazine rack with the newest issues of professional periodicals.

 

Fay School Citation Guide

This is a guide to citing sources, both print and electronic, and every Upper School student has a copy in their planner. If you would like extra copies, ask any library staff member. The Citation Guide is also on the library web site in an expanded version which includes footnotes or endnotes.

 

Let us hear from you!

We welcome your suggestions for all types of materials to add to the library collection: books, videos, music, recorded books and web links! Please email Suzanne Levasseur, who will be delighted to hear your suggestions.

 

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STAFF

 

Suzanne Levasseur, Library Director

Laura Beals D’Elia, Librarian

Haimin Luo, Library Assistant

 

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HOURS

 

Monday through Friday            8:00 am – 4:30 pm

Monday through Thursday        7:00 am – 9:00 pm (for boarding students)

Sunday afternoons                    several per term

 

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NOODLEBIB GUIDE for TEACHERS

 

What is NoodleBib?

NoodleBib is an online bibliography generator that takes care of punctuation and format for you! By providing prompts and asking questions, NoodleBib makes it easier to correctly cite the sources you use for your research.

 

Where Do I Begin?

·        When you click on the NoodleBib link at Fay School, you’ll see the following message:

You have been automatically authenticated into the Fay School subscription.

·        When you use NoodleBib for the first time, click the Create a Personal ID link. Be sure to choose I am a teacher or librarian. You will be prompted to choose a user name and password.

·        After you log in, click on Create a New List.

·        Now you see your personal folder which has two parts:

·        My Lists (your own bibliographies)

·        Lists Shared with Me (bibliographies your students have chosen to share with you)

·        Click on Add/Remove Class Names to add or remove classes. HINT: Use a unique name for the class that will be obvious to the students, like Spanish 6-01 or American History 7-03.

·        Remember that students in grades six through eight use NoodleBib starter and students in grade 9 use NoodleBib advanced. The default choice is starter, so you’ll need to remind your ninth grade students to choose advanced.

·        To learn more about NoodleBib, click Help to search the Knowledge Base for answers to your citation questions. Suzanne Levasseur also provides personalized step-by-step instruction!

·        New feature: Click the Analysis button to evaluate your sources!.

 

How Students Share Bibliographies with Teachers

·       While a student is on the page where they create citations, click on SHARE found in the left menu under OPTIONS.

·       Student types his/her name in the window that says “My Name:”

·       Student types the class name in the window that says “Class Name:” The teacher provides the Class Name. Only this name will work.

·       Click on SHARE MY LISTS.

·       Now teachers can look at student bibliographies and can even provide feedback and suggestions.

 

Using NoodleBib at Home

·       Cookies and JavaScript must be enabled in your Internet browser.

·        Click on any NoodleBib link on the Fay Library web site.

·        If you have difficulty, email LIBRARY, and the first member of the library staff who reads your email will help you.

 

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 

Q:      How can I find out what materials the library has that relate to my curriculum?

A:       Everything the library owns is in the online catalog, which you can access from any computer in the world with Internet access! You’ll be able to see if items are on the shelf or checked out. If you would like assistance using the catalog, or would like to browse the collection for your subject area, just stop by the library. If you think we should have additional materials to support your curriculum, let us know and we’ll be happy to order them.

 

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Q:      I’d like to show a video to my class that the Fay Library doesn’t own. What should I do?

A:       If you need an item we don’t have, we will either purchase it for the library or borrow it for you from another library. The Fay Library belongs to the Central Massachusetts Regional Library System (CMRLS) and can borrow from more than one hundred other libraries! Don’t forget to check United Streaming Videos for thousands of video clips plus full length movies.

 

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Q:      How can I make a group of books available to my entire class?

A:       Just let us know! We are happy to keep books on reserve in the library so that all your students will have access to them during their study periods.

 

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Q:      I’d like to begin a research project with my class. What should I do to ensure that my students find all the information they need?

A:       While you are planning this project is the best time to talk to a librarian. Suzanne (for Upper School classes) or Laura (for Lower School classes) will be happy to meet with you to discuss the project. We provide a variety of services and will give your class research instruction in the Library or Library Lab plus an overview of the materials which will best meet their needs.

 

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Q:        Is the library really necessary? Students seem to find everything they need using Google.

A:         Students do use Google as an all-purpose search tool until we, as educators, teach them that there are better and more effective ways to find good information for research. Students don’t consider whether they have found the best or most thorough information, but are often satisfied to find SOMETHING. Librarians love Google, too, but it is just one of the many research tools available online. If everything we needed could be found using Google, we wouldn’t need schools either, would we? It is a shared goal of teachers and librarians to teach students to find accurate information efficiently and effectively, to evaluate that information, and to use it effectively, creatively and responsibly. We evaluate the electronic resources on the Fay Library web site with the same criteria we use to evaluate books we purchase for the library. (Google does not evaluate web sites for accuracy!) We provide quality resources to meet student research needs. Let us show you what we can do for your students—bring us your next research project!

 

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