Upper School Library Resources and Services

Carolina Day School

Print resources:  

• Over 10,000 books in the Upper School library, plus access to 10,000 books in the Lower and Middle School Libraries

• Maps, videos, DVDs, and CD-Roms  

• Subscriptions to over thirty hard copy magazines and newspapers

Online resources (available from school and home):  

• The CDS Library Web Page (http://www.cdschool.org/library/LibraryHome.htm) has links to class assignment research help, online resources (some listed below), the CDS library catalogue and local library catalogues, online homework helpers, and more.  

• The LexisNexis Scholastic Edition database, updated several times daily, has material in four categories: 
  • News ( over 200 US and foreign newspapers, broadcast transcripts, wire service reports, 40+ leading magazines, and foreign new sources in Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Dutch);
  • Legal Research ( U.S. Supreme Court cases from 1789 to today, State High Court cases and state law digests from all 50 states, law review articles from over 500 publications, and all federal laws from 1988 to the present);
  • Legislation ( U.S. and state bill tracking reports, U.S. and state bill texts, profiles of members of Congress and Congressional voting reports , Congressional Record with debates from the House and Senate floors, State legislative calendars); and
  • Statistics ( 40,000+ indexed tables drawn from federal, state, private, and international sources, including the Bureau of the Census, Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the World Bank, the National Science Foundation, and the Small Business Administration).

• The Student Resource Center is a “fully integrated database containing thousands of curriculum-targeted primary documents, biographies, topical essays, background information, critical analyses, full-text coverage of 800 magazines, over 10,000 photographs and illustrations, and more than 8 hours of audio and video clips.”    

• Opposing Viewpoints “draws on the acclaimed social issues series published by Greenhaven Press, as well as core reference content from other Gale and Macmillan Reference USA sources to provide a complete one-stop source for information on social issues. Contains access to viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles.”

• The Biography Resource Center "contains over 400,000 biographies from 130 respected Gale Group reference resources and also includes full-text articles from hundreds of periodicals and more than 23,000 images. Search for people based on one or more personal facts such as birth and death year, nationality, ethnicity, occupation or gender, or combine criteria to create a highly-targeted custom search."   . .

• The Web MARC Library Collection consists of annotated links to educational and reliable web sites evaluated by librarians and is integrated into the library's online catalogue.

Classes:

• A unit of ninth grade English is taught by the librarian and devoted to research and information skills:   finding, evaluating, using, and citing reliable information in print and online resources.  

• The librarian teaches effective use of library resources, both print and electronic, for specific class assignments. “Library Resources” handouts with research resources and strategies are created for each class research assignment.

• General library guides offer assistance on conducting research, determining online information reliability, constructing proper citations, and other topics.

• Seniors may choose to research a topic of their choice independently and in depth.  They present their findings in a paper and an oral defense.