1. Library Highlights of 2012/2013
Digital Citizenship
2012/2013 was a year focused on technology integration across the Divisions and disciplines of the school.
As a result the library program focused on new partnerships with the entire Library Faculty involved in
leading professional development workshops about Animoto, Google Docs and Online Searching, curation of
digital information sources through the enhanced use of Libguides, and looking at the future of the library
space as a hybrid/blended learning/digital commons. Coupled with the Library mission statement: to provide
a safe and nurturing environment for students, faculty, and staff, to take leadership in the academic program,
and to ensure that students develop the essential skills needed to navigate the rapidly evolving information
landscape of the 21st century, our new mantra for Digital Citizenship is twofold, be true to your future digital
self and KNOW YOUR SOURCE.
Services
Students visited all Division libraries in impressive numbers as the Middle School Library (with it’s small
footprint in the shared space ) hosted 506 classes. The Upper School Library number of class visits was
around 300 with a record high of 90 classes in May and the Lower School Library continued to provide
access not only during heavily scheduled class time for Nursery through 5th grade with 900+ but as a busy
hive of activity before 8AM, during lunch recess and after school with book circulations over 8000.
Students come to the the Libraries both formally and informally to engage in inquiry based learning projects,
work in groups, participate in activities write traditional research papers search scholarly journal databases,
discover real­time search tools, learn to be ethical users of information in all formats and to correctly and
consistently cite their sources, while collaborating using cloud based applications (Google Drive!)
Information and inquiry based projects and borrow books, Kindles and iPads for reading. The Middle/Upper
School Library currently provides access to 20 Kindles which are circulated to faculty and students and 10
iPads
Collections
Our collections continue to grow and change in new and interesting directions as we provide Kindles ( 6
rolled out in the Lower School Library this year with Rhode Island Children’s Book Award Titles) and iPads
for individual reader access checked out through our circulation system(). With the advent of Bring Your
Own Device (BYOD) in the Upper School for the next school year the library recently signed a contract
with Overdrive, an e­book service provider which is compatible with Kindles, Nooks, iPads, other e­readers,
iPhones and tablets. As Kate takes the technology lead on this endeavor, we are hoping to have a soft
roll­out over the summer encouraging past e­book borrowers to help work out glitches before school year
2013/2014. The print collections were refined through, enthusiastic weeding and adding well reviewed,
professionally selected and recommended titles to provide information and meet reading interests at all
levels through all formats. Still we have decreased the book collection from nearly 19,000 to 17,500 in one
year in the Middle/Upper School Library.
As our print collection becomes leaner and more efficient in the MS/US Library, print is still the most
important and accessible literacy delivery system for the Lower School Library. Still, our virtual presence
characterized by the ongoing development and use of Libguides at each Division level and across all
disciplines is robust and allows for student access to information and guidance from librarians throughout

2. the entire research and information gathering process 24/7. The students took full advantage of this virtual
library service with 112 guides and 25056 views with a highpoint of 2605 views of all guides in April 2013.
Libguides provide a space for content curation ensuring access to academic online sites, databases,
creative commons and copyright compliant collections of images, along with online tutorials for creating
powerpoints, citing sources, starting the research process and related research questions that may arise
through the process.
Love of Reading
Fostering a love of reading produced some fine opportunities for students and faculty to engage with the
library collections and the librarians. The Lower School Library staff did outstanding work through the
Rooster Games, a monumental task of coordinating time, space, collections of books, booktalks and adult
help with a culminating morning of literature related activities. Battle of the Books reached the 25 year mark
with the leadership of the Lower School Librarians, working with their colleagues at Gordon, Lincoln, and St.
Michaels.The Literary Lunches continue to be very popular with both adult readers and student listeners! The
Middle School added an independent reading initiative sponsoring a Reading Room activity for 3 quarters of
the year and the first voting participation for Wheeler in the Rhode Island Teen Book Awards 2013. 6th grade
book club in January produced a faculty “virtual book club” with Middle School faculty reading, evaluating
and commenting on books to be selected for January 2014 all done through Google Docs. The Upper School
independent reading initiatives produced many interesting and provocative displays, with the most popular
being the graduating seniors’ recommended books drawing a record participation among seniors and
thoughtful browsing of their choices by students and faculty alike.
Facilities
The 2010 facilities upgrade proposed by Library Consultant Rolf Erikson has undergone review by the Ed
Wojick Architectural firm to update them and bring them in line with current programming initiatives in the
school including the BYOD plan and technology integration efforts. Plans are nearly complete for the Lower
School Library which will be the first area to be upgraded. Stakeholders in the Middle/Upper School Library
will be reviewing architects suggestions and plans before the end of the school year looking at SY
2015/2016 to bring the 25 year old facilities in line with current technology and information usage and trends.
Staffing
The Library Aide position was reinstated this year. Two women who volunteered their time for the previous
three years, Chris Murphy and Andrea Clancy accepted the positions in each library at 12 hours per week.
Andrea will be leaving at the end of the school year to seek full time employment and we thank her for all of
her hard work, we truly could not have managed without her help. Chris Murphy will be taking on Andrea’s
hours working in both libraries. We look forward to having her in the MS/US space. As always, Laura Brady
continues to volunteer her skills as an Art Historian and Librarian and Wildlife enthusiast during critical
research projects and with collection management bringing her practiced and knowledgeable eye to the Art
books collection. Thank you!