Mission Statement

      The Lang School library is truly one of a kind, reflecting the spirit of our twice exceptional students. Unlike the design of most schools, our library is not a single room housing books and desks and computers. Instead, we have shelves of books lining the entire academic hallway, and a librarian who travels from classroom to classroom bringing lessons from the library with her. By design, our library is an interactive space, naturally integrated into each day at Lang.

     We believe in student-centered learning, and our unique organization of the texts is a prime example of this, as it is the direct result of student input. For example, the fictional books in the middle and upper school section have labeled genres ranging from “realistic fiction” to “Earth, but there’s magic!” to “non-human POV” to “less realistic fiction.” Rest assured, as informal as this labeling may seem, all of our books are marked with the corresponding Fountas & Pinnell reading level letter, and the lower school shelves are solely organized by reading level. The result is an appropriate balance of quirky innovation and logical systemic organization. 

     While the organization of the library is reflective of our students’ input, the stories housed on our shelves represent not only the identities and experiences of our community, but provide a diverse lens into cultures and lived realities that our community members may be less familiar with - narratives and content spanning across the globe and throughout history. It is our mission to not only provide texts that act as “mirrors,” in which students see themselves and form a stronger sense of self, but “windows” in which students get insight into lives unlike their own in order to cultivate empathy and understanding among our young global citizens.

     Our mission is to not only foster a love of reading among our students, but to also support them in their journey to become responsible and confident users and creators of information. We do this by providing high quality resources (both physical copies and online databases), teaching research skills and information literacy classes to students of all grades, and always considering the unique and exceptional interests and talents of our Lang students when requesting new materials and individualizing lessons and projects.