Welcome to the WCS Library! We are extremely excited to have a library media center that employs a certified school librarian, boasts an up-to-date collection, and hosts a technologically advanced learning center. Additionally, most of our library classes are co-taught between the librarian and the classroom teacher, integrating what is happening in the classroom with the information literacy skills needed for the 21st century.
Our library’s unique curricular approach has been featured in several articles in Knowledge Quest, the journal of the American Association of School Librarians. In 2006, we were awarded a large federal grant from the Improving Literacy through School Libraries initiative. This grant allowed us (among other things) to have one of the most up-to-date collections in the area, specifically tailored to the needs of our school.
What does all this mean? If you stop by the WCS library, you are likely to see a class in the middle of an exciting project-based unit, groups of students enjoying brand new books during our Read and Relax club, peers helping each other choose a “just right book” from the thousands in our stacks, staff browsing our extensive audio book and guided reading collections, middle school students choosing which Playaway (a pre-loaded digital audio book complete with headphones) they would like to borrow for the bus ride home, or small groups huddled around laptops from our 12 unit laptop lab.
Our goal is to continue to grow, including opening a middle school satellite library created around the needs of our dynamic middle school curriculum as well as our needs for increased interaction with technology. Maintaining a current collection is also hard work as new information quickly makes many non-fiction books obsolete, and amazing new fiction is published daily. Reading for information as well as enjoyment has always been a key goal of our library program, and we hope to continue this tradition in years to come!