Libraries
Mary Jane Simpson Library
The Mary Jane Simpson Library, centrally located in the Lower School, currently maintains a print collection of over 8,000 volumes. Library programs and resources support the interest, informational, and educational needs of over 250 students in kindergarten through fourth grade. The Mary Jane Simpson Library also maintains networked computers that provide students and teachers access to a variety of web-based materials including those to which the school subscribes.
The Mary Jane Simpson Library is a vital source of information and knowledge that reflects the diversity and dynamics of the Lower School program. It is the goal of the library program to provide resources that will stimulate young people to be critical thinkers, to enjoy the sound of rich language, and to become life-long readers. The aim of the Library curriculum is to help children feel at home in any library and to be able to locate information in a variety of formats on whatever topic they seek.
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Mary Welham Knopf Library
Second only to a topnotch faculty, Miss Cochran, headmistress of St. Anne's School in 1944, considered an ample library crucial to all academic study. Although the actual library space has been moved several times since the days when the library was housed in the reception area in what is now Lee-DuVal, the school's determination to provide students with access to an exemplary library collection has not changed. Of course, the scope and variety of library materials is a bit different than that of Miss Cochran tenure. The library of 1943 consisted of 1400 volumes augmented by 13 magazines and 4 newspapers. Today's collection of over 13,000 items including books, magazines, videos, and DVDs reflects only a portion of the material available to our students.
The Mary Welham Knopf Library has become a virtual resource center providing our school community access to a broad selection of material both print and digital. The Mary Welham Knopf Library provides access to over a dozen subscription databases, the World Wide Web, e-books, and an array of production tools. From the JSTOR historical digital collection of periodic literature some of which dates back to the 1600s to ProQuest, a collection of contemporary periodic literature, updated daily and including the complete archives of the New York Times, the St. Anne's-Belfield student has the world of information available at their fingertips.