Teacher Resources

Cary Library provides a variety of services to support the curriculum needs of local teachers, homeschoolers, and their students in PreK – grade 12. Please feel free to request teacher services by completing the appropriate form for your needs. If you are looking for information about a specific item or have questions about your request, please contact the Children’s Room at 781-862-6288 x84430 or the Teen Services Desk at x84440.

Class Visits to Cary Library

NOTE: Class visits to Cary Library are suspended for the 2024 - 2025 school year due to our construction project.

To request a visit to the library by your class that requires in-depth interaction by library staff, such as a tour, a presentation, or library card registrations for your entire class, please complete the Class Visit Request form. Please note, we make every effort to accommodate your request for a class visit, however, we are not always able to do so depending upon room availability, the library’s program schedule, and staff availability for tours or presentations. We ask that requests for visits be submitted a minimum of two weeks ahead of the requested date.

Class visits to Cary Library may include:

• A library tour – of the entire library or a small portion of the library
• A presentation on using library resources, including online library resources and how to search the catalog
• A presentation on research skills – including, but not limited to, how to cite library sources and primary vs. secondary sources
• A special storytime just for your students
• Library card registration for your students
• A library-themed scavenger hunt
• Another fun activity we create in collaboration with you around your needs!

Librarian Visits to Your Class

To request a visit from a Youth Services staff member to your classroom, please complete the Class Visit Request form. Please note, we make every effort to accommodate the request contingent upon our staff availability. We ask that requests for visits be made a minimum of two weeks ahead of the requested date.

Librarians are available to visit your class to:

• Be a Guest reader
• Teach students about online resources
• Book talk titles (either of our choosing or around a theme that you provide)
• Talk about Librarianship as a career
• Other requests – talk to us about what you’d like!

Teacher Baskets

A collection of library materials can be compiled for classroom use. Teacher baskets include approximately 10 – 15 library resources which will be checked out to the library card of the requesting teacher for three week. Teacher baskets require a minimum of one week notice. To request a Teacher Basket , please complete the Teacher Basket Request form.

Teacher basket policy:

• Teachers must have a valid library card in good standing order to request a teacher basket
• You must have an email address on your library card
• Teacher baskets will be provided for any Lexington teacher, Lexington resident who teaches in another district, or a Lexington resident who homeschools
• There is a maximum of one (1) teacher basket request per week
• You will receive our standard email notification for holds pick up when your items are ready.
• Items pulled for teacher baskets must be picked up within one (1) week.
• A minimum of one (1) week notice is required to assemble a teacher basket, though they may be created faster.
• Baskets will contain a combination of 10 – 15 fiction and non-fiction titles around the topic requested (unless specific requests are made)

Assignment Alerts and Resource Lists

If a large number of students will be researching the same, or similar, topics the library can create a special collection of “in-library use only” materials that will be set aside for your students use and cannot be checked out of the library. The Youth Services Department is happy to provide research guides, booklists, and bibliographies to assist student research or other classroom needs. Please email caryteachers@minlib.net. We ask that you please give us a minimum of one week’s notice.

Reference Guidance and Readers’ Advisory Services

The Youth Services staff are available during library hours to assist students with finding material for research projects and answering general questions. The Youth Services Department will also provide reader’s advisory services to youth who need to read a specific type of fiction (or nonfiction) for class.

Curriculum Support

Cary Library purchases books that can be used by students in grades K – 12 to complete research papers and other assignments. If you find a title that you feel would be appropriate for use by your students, please notify a library staff member or complete the Suggestions form and we will consider adding it to our collection. Also, please indicate on the Suggest A Purchase form in the additional information box that you are a teacher, and this would meet the assignment needs for your students.

Please note, due to how our purchasing works, it does take time for us to add titles to our collection. If this is an immediate need of your students, please speak directly with a library staff member. 

Electronic Resources

Cary Library provides access to a variety of electronic resources. A valid Cary Library card is needed to most of these resources from outside of the Library. Please visit the eResources page to find a full list of all electronic resources for youth available at Cary Library, but of particular interest to you for your students.