The Mason Library
LIBRARY OPENING HOURS
8.15am - 5.00pm Monday to Friday in term time
10.00am to 2.00pm during School holidays (please telephone first to confirm)
Contact the Library
Telephone: 020 8783 4045
E-mail: librarian@hamptonschool.org.uk
Search the Library catalogue
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Library Staff
Head Librarian: Mr K Hemsley BA
Assistant Librarian: Mrs JS Axton MA
Assistant Librarian: Miss J Iredale BA Dip IM
The Mason Library
The Mason Library is a spacious, light and user-friendly area which was opened in October 2006 by author N.M. Browne.
Aims of the Library
We aim to provide a range of resources to support the curricular, co-curricular and leisure needs of the School community; to provide the opportunity to develop information skills; and to foster a life-long delight in reading for pleasure.
Accommodation and resources
The Mason Library comprises three areas:
A quiet reading room with bean bags and comfortable seating for twenty-four.
An IT area where twenty specially-designed workstations and printing facilities are available throughout the day.
A quiet study area with places for forty-four students.
The service and enquiry desk is manned throughout the School day by experienced
Library staff. The library catalogue (OPAC) is available via the VLE and can be searched from any networked computer within School, or from home by clicking the Heritage logo to the right. A photocopying service is also available.
The Library resources include a collection of over 19,000 fiction, non-fiction and reference books, over eighty journals and periodicals, five daily newspapers and a collection of videos and DVDs. The Library also subscribes to a range of on-line information resources.
All boys may borrow up to four items from the Library at one time, with extra loans for the Sixth Form at the Librarian’s discretion.Boys are welcome to suggest books which they would like the Library to acquire or which they feel others would enjoy.
New boys joining the School in the First and Third Years are introduced to the Library at the earliest opportunity. A Library induction session is also held at the start of the Lower Sixth year, when the students are introduced to a wider range of information sources. Also in the Lower Sixth, Library staff provide instruction on avoiding plagiarism, referencing, and constructing a bibliography, skills which are required by the Extended Project Qualification, and which will be essential when the boys leave School for University.
Shadowing the Carnegie Medal
The Carnegie Medal is a prestigious award made annually to the author of an outstanding book for young people.
Although the winner is chosen by a panel of librarians, young readers are encouraged to form groups to read the short-listed books and vote for their own winner.
Hampton’s shadowing group of lower school readers is run by the Library in conjunction with the English Department and the Lady Eleanor Holles School and Hampton Community College.
It is always a lively affair, encouraging children to read for pleasure, to extend their reading to genres they may not otherwise explore, and to form and communicate opinions about the books they read.