This is copied from an email sent to staff early in 2026-27!
Print Collection
The library collection is geared to both high-interest and high-quality books. There are well over 100 new books that have come in over the summer and are ready for you and your students to check out. On the library website, you’ll see many of these new books featured at the top. You and your students may also find helpful the lists of books by genre (eg. New Fantasy, New Historical Fiction, New Romance, etc.). You’ll see these linked from the library homepage as you scroll down.
Ebooks and Audiobooks
We continue to have access to Sora, a robust collection of ebooks and audiobooks. Access to Sora is available for all students and staff. Students should be able to login with their school email and password. Staff login instructions are here.
The New York Times and The Atlantic
We have school-wide subscriptions to both The New York Times and The Atlantic. Use this link to access/create your personal NYT subscription. Access to the latest Atlantic as well as their archive is available without needing to login, but only while in the building. However, you can also access it, along with hundreds of other magazines and newspapers from around the world, through the Boston Public Library. Here’s a guide to accessing the Atlantic as well as other titles through the BPL.
Research
Through the library website, you and your students have access to dozens of research databases. These include Gale Academic OneFile for peer-reviewed articles, Opposing Viewpoints, Britannica, and databases covering science, history, environmental studies, culinary arts, diversity studies, and more. You can also find Transparent Languages, a personalized way to develop and enhance language proficiency through interactive lessons, vocabulary, and progress monitoring. The latest edition is American Ancestors, for genealogy research. While it’s not as extensive as Ancestry.com, it is a collection of “10+ billion searchable names/records”. Go to “Research” on the library website to access these resources from school and at home.
Productivity Apps
The library continues to offer WeVideo for collaborative video creation. WeVideo has a way of allowing teachers to monitor students’ video editing progress. We have a limited number of ‘seats’ but should be able to accomodate any students who you’d like to give access to. Just let me know.
Did you know MVRHS has a Canva account? This gives you and your students “Pro” level Canva accounts. You can use this link to activate your education account. Feel free to share the link with your students.
Citing Sources and Ethical Use of Information
Thanks to the help of many of you last year, we now have a guide to citing sources and the ethical use of information. This includes infographics you may find useful for your students. These cover topics including “why cite sources”, “what to cite”, “using AI,” and “ethical use of information”.
Class Visits
If you’d like I’m more than happy to visit your class and help guide students in using any of these library resources, for booktalks, or for research instruction. Just let me know!
You are also more than welcome to bring your class to the library, whether to find books for choice reading, to research, work in groups, or on projects. Just please give me a heads up for what day and period.Custom Guides and Book Lists
Under “Guides” on the library website you’ll see a few research guides that were custom-made for past assignments. If you’d like something like that made for an assignment or lesson you have coming up, I’m glad to create one for you and/or your students. Please also let me know if you’d like a customized book list made from the library collection on any topic. There’s a collection of booklists on the website here. These can also be pulled onto a cart prior to your class visit.
Exhibit and Presentation Space
Lastly, as you may have noticed, the library has space for exhibition of student work. This could be in the form of showcasing projects and other work in 2D, 3D or digitally. You can also reserve the library for student presentations.