Our Libraries

Learning to Read & Reading to Learn
library hero

Libraries

 
St. Thomas Aquinas has two libraries specially designed to meet the needs of the students at each campus and engage them in a life-long love of reading.

Both are inviting places that stimulate learning and encourage the joy of reading. Each weekly visit to the Lower School Library provides students with the opportunity to explore and become life-long readers. At the Upper School, students develop the skills necessary to become researchers and independent learners. Both libraries host events throughout the year, including guest readers at the Lower School, virtual and actual author visits at the Upper School, the annual Scholastic book fair, and read-a-thons. Our students and teachers are supported by a librarian at both campuses and dedicated parent volunteers.

 

The mission of the St. Thomas Aquinas Libraries is to foster a love of reading and to provide activities and resources that will support students and staff in becoming effective and discriminating life-long users of information.
Madeline Schnurr, Upper School Teacher-Librarian

What's Happening in the Library

World Read Aloud Day

Students celebrated World Read Aloud Day on Thursday, February 1st at the Upper School by skyping with Jodi Kendall, author of The Unlikely Story of a Pig in the City, Dan Gemeinhart, author of The Honest Truth and Good Dog, and Stacy McAnulty, author of Excellent Ed and Beautiful

  • Library
  • Upper
Read More about World Read Aloud Day
Jeramey Kraatz visits STA

On Tuesday, November 14, author Jeramey Kraatz paid a visit to STA to talk to the students and teachers about his books, The Cloak Society Series and the Space Runners Series. Mr. Kraatz talked about his childhood and how he was a big fan of comic books, especially the X-Men Series.

  • Library
  • Upper
Read More about Jeramey Kraatz visits STA
logo icon

Welcome to the US Library!

Upcoming Events


Hours and Class Schedules


Library Hours
Monday7:30am-3:15pm
Tuesday7:30am-3:45pm
Wednesday7:30am-3:45pm
Thursday7:30am-3:45pm
Friday7:30am-3:15pm

Specific Class Times can be viewed here.

Students must sign in at the front desk and have a signed pass (by Mrs. Luckey or teacher on duty in cafeteria) in order to use the library before school. All students must be accompanied by a parent or guardian after school.

Check Out Policies

  • 3rd grade students may check out up to 2 books for personal use and anything additional that is needed for research or to meet an assignment deadline. (3 books during 2nd semester)

  • 4th-8th students may check out up to 4 books for personal use and anything additional that is needed for research or to meet an assignment deadline.

  • 3rd-8th – Books are checked out for 1 week with the option to renew twice.

  • All books are due by 3:15 on the assigned due date.

Late Books

Late fees (fines) are not charged for late books, however 3rd – 8th grade students may not check out additional books if they have materials out more than two weeks past the due date.

Damaged/Lost Materials

  • Students who take care of the library materials they borrow exhibit responsibility, civic mindedness, pride in themselves and pride in their community. The STA Upper Library seeks partnership with parents and teachers to teach our students how to take care of borrowed books and return them on time. Students who lose or damage library materials incur a fee of $20 for lost/damaged paperback books, and $25 for lost/damaged hardcover/library bound books, including hardcover picture books. Checks can be made out to STA and turned in to Ms. Schnurr. Damage may be caused by water bottle leaks, rain, food spill, scribbling & tearing by siblings and even dog chews, among other things. 

Library Computers

The library has 7 computers available for student use. All students are expected to observe all library and computer/Internet Acceptable Use policies.

Accelerated Reader (AR)

AR is a computer program that helps teachers and librarians manage and monitor children’s independent reading practice. Your child picks a book at his own level and reads it at his own pace. When finished, your child takes a short quiz on the computer. (Passing the quiz is an indication that your child understood what was read.) AR gives children, teachers, and librarians feedback based on the quiz results, which the teacher then uses to help your child set goals and direct ongoing reading practice.

AR Bookfinder

Parents' Guide to AR

Renaissance Home Connect is a tool that allows parents to log in to a Web site and view a snapshot of their child’s Accelerated Reader progress. That progress includes average percent correct on quizzes, number of points earned, and results on the last quiz. In addition, parents can view all the Accelerated Reader quizzes their child has taken, and can access an online search tool, AR Book Finder, to search for books using various criteria, including author, subject, or reading level. Parents also have the option to receive email notifications in English or Spanish when their child has completed an Accelerated Reader Quiz.

Access Homeconnect

Volunteer In the Library

Volunteers can help in many ways in the library, such as:

  • assisting with circulation, including shelving the books
  • helping students in the library
  • "reading the shelves" to keep them in order
  • maintaining the circulation desk and entering titles into the catalog database
  • covering books

Thank you for your interest in helping our students in the library!

Sign-up to volunteer here.

Suggest A Book

Suggest a Book

Looking for a book?

St. Thomas Aquinas Library Catalogue Search

Follow the US Library
https://www.staschool.org/academics/library
www.staschool.org
crawl=CC-MAIN-2018-47
66701
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:D2QB3JKMGKZ3YQ2TSDOUA5F7VP46QRGB
<urn:uuid:6b5a1e2d-bea7-4b2f-9f3b-3b54e2a6f498>
2018-11-21T12:20:51Z
162.248.250.62
text/html
sha1:C7GPSVW3QEB45EPOUAHW27MJH54SW757
<urn:uuid:d0fafcd0-4b30-4f10-a36c-576fd2ead97e>
https://www.staschool.org/academics/library
response
<urn:uuid:f575582f-104a-4e80-978d-a85108ae23b2>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-47
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for November 2018
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-168-131.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/