~~Welcome to the Middle School Library Page~~

 Both Sacred Heart libraries – the Mother Soniat Library on the Rosary campus and the Pre and Lower School Library – are in the process of updating /upgrading to the Destiny library and information center software for the electronic catalogs and circulation systems. 

MARY McDONAGH MURPHY

VISITING AUTHOR TO PREPS AND ACADEMICS  

Mary McDonagh Murphy is an independent documentary film director and a writer.  Her work has appeared on PBS, and for twenty years she was a producer at CBS News, where she won six Emmy Awards.  She has written for Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Post, and Publishers Weekly.   A native of Rhode Island, she is a graduate of Wesleyan University and was a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University.  She lives in Scarborough, New York, with her husband Bob Minzesheimer, and their two children. 

Ms. Murphy will be speaking on her book which was published earlier this year by HarperCollins:  Scout, Atticus, and Boo:  A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird.  The book ties in with Ms. Murphy’s documentary film which consists of compelling interviews with a number of people on the impact of To Kill a Mockingbird on their individual lives and on our culture.  The documentary is not yet available for purchase; however, as expected, we have pre-ordered it and will have it in our library collection as soon as it is available, ready for all of us to enjoy.  Meanwhile, we have two copies of Ms. Murphy’s book in the library.  Ms. Murphy is a close family friend of the Laibes; she dedicated her book “To the memory of Constance Laibe Hays, a true friend and a good writer”.  Connie Laibe is the late aunt of Euxie and Margaux.  Ms. Murphy’s visit here will honor the memory of her friend.

From the blurb of her book:  To Kill a Mockingbird may well be our national novel.  It is the first adult novel that many people remember reading, one book that millions and millions of people have in common.  It sells nearly a million copies a year, more than any other twentieth-century American classic.  Harper Lee’s first and only novel, published in July 1960, is a touchstone in American literary and social history.  To mark the fiftieth anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird, Mary McDonagh Murphy reviews its history and examines how the novel has left its mark on a broad range of novelists, historians, journalists, and artists.  In compelling interviews, Tom Brokaw, James Patterson, Scott Turow, Andrew Young, Rick Bragg, Jon Mecham, Diane McWhorter, Oprah Winfrey and others reflect on what the novel means to them and how it has affected their lives and careers.  Harper Lee has not given an interview since 1964, but Ms. Murphy’s reporting, research, and rare interviews with Harper Lee’s sister and friends stitch together a history of how the novel, as well as the acclaimed 1962 movie, came to be.            

Breakfast with Books      

Breakfast with Books for the Preparatory Division is a special time for students to share their book recommendations and other insights regarding pleasure reading with each other.  One of the joys of the experience is the interaction among the Prep grade levels.

Our next Breakfast with Books will be at 7:30am in Sophie's Corner, Rosary Hall on the following dates:

October 14

November 18

January 13

March 9

April 20

“LOUISIANA MADE, LOUISIANA PROUD!”

A longstanding hallmark of Sacred Heart’s Third Preparatory (7th grade) curriculum is the Louisiana research paper and project, which crosses several academic disciplines, in particular Social Studies and Literature.  The Mother Louise Soniat Library – with about 34,000 cataloged print and non-print items, over fifty periodical subscriptions, and several online databases – provides the scaffolding for the students’ research and is usually at the heart of the papers and projects.  The longevity and rich history of the Rosary campus are reflected beautifully in the age and rich composition of our library’s collection.  In fact, the Soniat Library includes a Louisiana Collection of about 900 titles, many of which are out of print and, therefore, very valuable in the research world.  From time to time, the librarians receive requests from outside our learning community to use or borrow our rare materials.  After gently interrogating the callers, we find a way to allow these researchers to use our precious materials.  There is a wonderful tension between cherishing and protecting our beloved library materials and making certain they are used as much as possible!  That being said, the library is much more than a collection of materials for check-out and in-house use.  The library is an extension of every classroom and, at the same time, is actually the largest “classroom” in the school.                                                                                                     

Therefore, to capitalize on this marvelous asset – the Soniat Library – and to better facilitate the Louisiana research component of the 3rd Prep curriculum, several years ago a non-graded library/research class evolved to include these skills within the context of the curriculum.  Each section of about fifteen students meets in the library for about fifteen class periods during the school year.  These small groups accommodate the active, hands-on learning styles of middle school students.  Their research process is sort of a meandering journey that culminates in very interesting, beautiful projects and papers.  Sometimes the research process takes a student to another library or other setting for research, and on such an occasion, the student realizes sooner rather than later that library and research skills are transferable to other places and spaces.  And, of course, the Sacred Heart librarians scurry to order whatever the student needs that we somehow did or do not have in our collection!

Following the research process which has been defined as “searching and searching again”, the girls are guided by their classroom teachers through note taking, outlining, developing of thesis statements, and citing sources, including the differences between primary sources and secondary sources.  Then grammar, the writing process, and editing get a real “workout”!  Eventually enormous amounts of creativity, presentation of information to others, and public speaking come into play.   

So what are some of the fascinating topics the girls chose last year?  Architecture in New Orleans and elsewhere in Louisiana, the Napoleonic Code, the wetlands, the Mississippi River, Creoles and Cajuns, Pontchartrain Beach, Audubon Park, the arts and entertainment in New Orleans, the history of our streetcars, yellow fever, our immigrant population, our cemeteries, slavery, Lewis and Clark, jazz, the history of the Saints (football team), and biographies of some of our famous citizens such as the Baroness Pontalba, Louis Armstrong, and the Ochsner family.

As the deadlines for their papers and projects approached, the 3rd Preps, a few of their teachers, and Yours Truly, their librarian, enjoyed a culminating field trip designed to be a consummate experience for the class.  The “field trip day” was Monday of Holy Week, and we gathered in the chapel for a time of devotional prayer before departing on our excursion.  With grateful hearts, we thanked God for the special blessing of perfect weather for our day!  We traveled by motor coach across the River (Destrehan Bridge) and through both swampy and marshy terrain to Evergreen Plantation in Edgard and then to Laura Plantation in Vacherie.  The guides for both properties are award-winning professionals who shared the compelling history of the generations of Louisianans who have lived on these plantations.  Evergreen, whose history dates to 1790, is a privately owned, working sugar cane plantation and is the most intact plantation complex in the South, with 37 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, including 22 slave cabins.  Laura Plantation, also over 200 years old, has a uniquely female-dominant history.  Following the leisurely tours of these homes and grounds, we crossed the River (Gramercy Bridge) and picnicked at the St. James Welcome Center.  We were greeted by a charming citizen of St. James Parish, home of Zapp’s potato chips, who distributed little bags of those yummy treats to eager, smiling, ravenous girls (and teachers!) and then invited us to enjoy a stroll on the board walk surrounding the area, overlooking a swamp.  Besides enjoying the South Louisiana scenery and some socializing, the time on the bus flew by, thanks in part to a sing-along.  Of course, “You Are My Sunshine” and “Good-bye Joe” were among the tunes.  Between songs, the girls nibbled on fleur de lis shaped cookies, iced in soft “Easter egg” colors.                                                                                                                 

And, thus, having carefully rooted our field trip in our sacred Goals and Criteria, we shared a consummate day together – a great blessing in the midst of searching and searching again and an excellent “Louisiana roadmap” for being and becoming lifelong learners.  Subsequently, each of the girls produced a fabulous paper and a project worthy of display in Rosary Hall for scores of visitors to enjoy.  Equally important, the students participated in the “journey” – the research, writing, editing, and other creative processes – as well as in our actual day’s journey together, getting a hummingbird’s taste of Louisiana history, architecture, nature, and music, with a little lagniappe, too!

Libby Adams

Middle School Librarian