Library Program

The Marriott Library strives to provide access to information for all students, encouraging them to become independent, lifelong learners. An extensive collection of curricular, co-curricular, and recreational materials, as well as state-of-the-art technology, is available to students and teachers to implement this goal.

The objectives of the library program include:

1. Instructing the students in the use of the library and its resources: print, non-print, and electronic;

2. Developing the students’ research skills in accessing information;

3. Developing the students’ information literacy (i.e. not only accessing information but also learning how to evaluate the type, quantity, and quality of information needed and how to make best use of it);

4. Stimulating the students’ interest in reading fiction and nonfiction as sources of pleasure and enrichment.

The library program is integrated into the curriculum at all grade levels and in all subject areas. The librarians work with students individually and in scheduled classes to help them acquire research skills, develop information literacy, and master the variety of changing information sources including books, e-books, online databases, web materials, and multimedia sources. Basic skills introduced in the third grade develop in complexity each year. Specialized reference sources, services, and search strategies for each discipline are introduced as needed. Please see our Scope and Sequence for more detail regarding research skills.

Reading Programs

The librarians, in conjunction with classroom teachers, encourage the students to develop a lifelong interest in the pleasures of reading through a variety of formal and informal programs. These include presenting regularly scheduled reading activities, hosting book clubs, preparing book talks, bibliographies, and annotated reading lists as requested by teachers, maintaining displays of new and timely materials, providing individual reader guidance, and developing reading advisory pages for the library website. Students have access to not only traditional print books but also a collection of e-books and audiobooks that can be downloaded to a variety of electronic devices.

Summer Reading

Lower School

In Lower School, one of the highlights of the library year takes place right at the start of school – with the Lower School Summer Reading Celebration, a celebration of the book chosen for all the Lower School girls to read over the summer. During the first few weeks of the new fall term, the Lower School spends a whole school day celebrating our Summer Read with mixed-grade book discussions led by the 6th graders, an art activity related to the book, and an all-school free read, aka D.E.A.R (Drop Everything And Read). The title will be announced before the end of school in June and copies of the book will be distributed to current students and mailed to new students.

Middle and Upper School

Over the summer, students will be asked to read five (5) books total.

  • One (1) title per grade will be selected by the English teachers for an all-grade read to be discussed in class at the beginning on the school year.
  • One (1) additional required read is decided with some student choice. A Choice Read Group book will comprise the second required book for the summer. The purpose of this is to demonstrate to students that we are a reading community who values the written word, to model casual discussion of books, and to provide some guidance in selecting their own free-choice reads moving forward. See below for a full description of the program.
  • Three (3) other books will be required, but are to be decided by the students for interest and reading level. A list of suggested titles will be available, but these additional books need not be from it.

Choice Read Groups

In the Spring, Faculty and students will suggest possible books for group discussion. The Summer Reading Committee then compiles a list of approximately 20 books of varying genre for each level (grades 7-8, 9-10, 11-12) and students are asked to rank their top 5 choices. Every effort is made to give students their preferred books as groups of students are created from the results. Once specific book groups are formed, faculty and staff are invited to host the groups. In the fall, a time is set aside for a casual discussion group of students and adults.