Regina's library currently receives 29 magazine and newspaper subscriptions.

The book collection, currently some 6000 volumes, is dynamic and ever changing.  Acquisitions occur through both purchase and donation.  Regular weeding contributes to maintaining a collection relevant to the curriculum.  While the book catalog is all electronic and fully searchable, the librarians are delighted to help by suggesting avenues of searching or assisting student searches.

Periodically selections from the print collection are gathered and displayed to highlight a curriculum focus or just items of interest.  A special cart houses our Read for a Lifetime collection each year.  Recreational reading is available for lighter moments.  A multipurpose display board augments our communications tools.

Electronic resources enjoy an increasingly significant role in library services.  Aided by our participation in Illinois library services through membership in the North Suburban Library System, we are eligible for some free or reduced-price electronic resources.  OCLC FirstSearch is one such major research tool making 14 major databases accessible to the entire Regina community through our networked computers which include wireless laptops which can be used in any classroom.  FirstSearch includes a database of Illinois libraries’ holdings with links to local libraries, book reviews, summaries, cover images and publication information.  FirstSearch facilitates searching in several languages in addition to English.

We recommend that students maintain an active public library card in order to facilitate maximum access to available resources.    Public libraries have vast electronic resources, homework help, and, in most cases, special teen sections both in-house and on-line.  A local library card is also the gateway to reciprocal borrowing privileges at neighboring libraries.

Additional subscription electronic resources include ProQuest’s BigChalk Electric Library, Bibliomania, NetLibrary, and Ask a Librarian.  Through digital resources, students and staff can read electronic books, poems or short stories; access literature reviews; view and acquire photographs of famous people; have a live on-line interview with a subject-specialist librarian; locate books in libraries throughout Illinois; acquire full text articles from journals, newspapers, or interviews;  utilize on-line dictionaries (English and foreign language), thesaurus, and writing aids;  access innumerable reference items from statistics to phone numbers, to math formulas, to conversion units, to facts on numerous subjects and much more.

Easy access to electronic resources is facilitated through our Regina learning resources web page.

Our documents can be viewed at:

http://teacherweb.com/IL/ReginaDominicanHighSchool/TechHelp/photo1.stm