Johnson Family Library Mission Statement

The Johnson Family Library is a place of academic focus and collaboration, and provides the students, faculty, staff and community of Sage Hill School with training in retrieval and access to diverse resources in both traditional and digital formats. The Johnson Family Library fosters multiple perspectives and diversity in all forms to promote the democratic role of information in our society.

Research Assistance

Library staff offers personalized research assistance, as well as training in resource access, evaluation and navigation, so that users may find what they are looking for—at Sage Hill School and in libraries across the nation. The library staff’s goal is to provide adequate information literacy (research) and education technology training to students, and prepare them for further education and a lifetime of learning.

The School Archive

The School Archive is also housed in the library as a living collection to safeguard and provide access to the school’s history. Library staff hopes to inspire Sage Hill School students to take active roles in the school and local community while nurturing their own personal interests, intellectual freedom and the school’s mission of diverse understanding and social responsibility.

Collection Development Policy

In the development of the Sage Hill Library’s physical and digital collection, the library staff acquires materials to expand and enhance available resources to support the academic goals of the faculty and reflect various points of view. The staff endeavors to find balance in diversity and retain materials of academic value while reflecting current interest. All materials are selected based on their content as a whole, rather than small portions of text. The inherent value of the resource, its place in the diverse collection, and the interests of the community are all taken into account in collection development, regardless of author, format, purchase or donation. Faculty recommendations for materials that reflect class topics are given the highest priority, but the library staff also wishes to promote literacy and a love of learning in students. Suggestions from students are welcomed!

Resource Requests

Members of the Sage Hill School community may request the acquisition of items using the “Request Resources Form” or by emailing library@sagehillschool.org.

Donations

Collection donations are accepted at all times, and greatly appreciated. Collection donations will be evaluated for community use, and there is no guarantee donated materials will be added to the collection. Donated materials that are not included in the collection will be passed on to other organizations, or recycling when they are not accepted.
Archival donations are generally produced by staff and faculty, with occasional additions from students and community. While the library staff seeks to actively collect materials of historical value for the archive, limitations of space and scope are considered in all acquisitions.

The library protects the privacy of its patrons and their use of library materials wherever possible, and does not share information except when safety or well-being is threatened, by direct request of a minor’s guardian, or at the majority request of the Honor Council and Honor Committee during a dispute.

Resource Evaluation

Concerns about a specific resource may be communicated by completing the “Request for Resource Evaluation Form,” which may be requested from the library staff at any time. Upon submission of the Request for Resource Evaluation Form, the library staff will evaluate the resource in question and, based on the Mission Statement of the library and also Sage Hill School, make a recommendation to the Library Research Committee. The committee, made up of school faculty and staff, will then evaluate the resource and, by majority vote, retain or remove the resource from the Sage Hill School Library collection.