The mission of the Garry Campbell House Library is to promote lifelong recreational reading while teaching students skills and strategies to source and use information and ideas across a wide variety of media.
The library program collaborates with classroom teachers with the express goal of maximizing their use of the many research tools available throughout campus. At the Lower School level, classes are scheduled on a weekly basis for formal library time; the curriculum covers topics ranging from literary genres to research techniques. Older students are given the opportunity to use the library on a project basis accompanied by classroom teachers. In addition, all members of the Rocky Hill School community are encouraged to use the library for research and recreational reading.
With Ocean State Library cards, students are able to extend their sources beyond the School. Wireless networking and as well as wired workstations provide Internet access for all students.
Lower School Program
The Lower School library program is designed to
foster a life-long love of reading and to help students find and use
information resources effectively. Students visit the library on a weekly basis for literature-enriched experiences that focus
on the joy of reading and for the selection and use of books for
research and pleasure. In the library, students listen to stories and
participate in storytelling, bookmaking, art projects, and age-
appropriate crafts and dramatizations in connection to the literature,
social studies or science curriculum. The library program fosters an
appreciation of traditional and current literature, as students are
exposed to the best fiction and non-fiction books including the Rhode
Island Children’s Award Nominations, Caldecott Award books and Newbery
Award books, as well as in-depth author and illustrator studies. As a
part of the library program, students participate in Reading Buddies and
the Poem of the Week. The library promotes “special” weeks such as
Children’s Book Week, National Library Week and Rocky Hill's Arts Week.
The library welcomes guest authors, illustrators, and storytellers.
In
the library program, students learn skills that help them understand the
organization of libraries. They discover how to use the online catalog,
and how to conduct research and evaluate research resources utilizing
reference materials such as encyclopedias, atlases, and dictionaries.
The program builds skills incrementally over the years, giving students
the ability to use and enjoy library resources independently. While the
ability to use the library independently is encouraged, support from the
librarian is always available.