Library & Innovation

School libraries teach students to Inquire, Include, Collaborate, Curate, Explore and Engage"  -- AASL (2018). National School Library Standards. Chicago, Illinois: American Library Association of School Librarians.

Wellesley High School’s Wilbury A. Crockett Library is a unique and essential part of the WHS learning community. It is a physical space filled with books and materials, a virtual space filled with electronic and online resources, and a social-emotional learning environment where students can collaborate. 

The current media landscape has made the ability to know how to access, evaluate, and use information responsibly critically important for our students. The school library teachers instruct students in these key skills. 

The school library teachers also:

• collaboratively plan units and lessons with content area teachers to integrate research and information literacy with the work in the classroom, 

• provide relevant resources for teachers and students that align with school curricula to support teaching and learning. 

• regularly develop online Research Guides to curate targeted resources for research projects

• provide training and instruction on makerspace technologies such 3D Printers, Laser cutters, etc.

• teach AP Capstone which includes a year-long AP Seminar course to be followed by a  year-long AP Research course

• teach the Makerspace and Design Thinking course

The Wellesley High School Library subscribes to numerous databases of academic articles and content that students use to complete research projects. Some of the databases available are ABC-CLIO, Academic One File, Biography in Context, Gale Business Insights, Gale Environmental Studies and Policy Collection, Gale General Science Collection, Gale Global Issues in Context, JSTOR, Gale US and World History in Context. 

In addition, the Wellesley High School Library has several subscription eBook collections including Gale Ebooks, Ebook Central by ProQuest, and Sora. Through these subscriptions, the library can provide access to the books most needed by students at any time during the school day and beyond, both in school and remotely.

The Wellesley High School Library also maintains an excellent print book collection carefully chosen to address the course requirements and reflect the diversity of our students. The library staff promotes and encourages students and the school community to read for pleasure by organizing reading challenges, book clubs, and book fairs. 

The Library Makerspace, an initiative funded with the help of the Wellesley Education Foundation, is a collection of technologies, creativite tools and games available to students and teachers in the library or in class. The purpose of these offerings is to provide students with opportunities for exploration, experimentation and hands-on experiential learning, and to align more closely with the skills of the Wellesley School District’s Profile of a Graduate.

Students and teachers are able to use the library before, during, and after school. The Wellesley High School Library is staffed by school library teachers who are licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. In addition, the library has instructional library assistants who help to manage the facility on a day-to-day basis. The school library teachers and the Director of Libraries K-12 work closely with the school administration and the academic departments to meet the information access and reading needs of the entire school population.

Please visit the library and experience the opportunities that it provides to the Wellesley High School community.