The Kimberton Waldorf School library provides students and faculty with a wide range of resources and services.

The library hold several thousand books in all subject areas covered by the Waldorf curriculum. We also have a fiction collection of both classics and current literature. You can search the online catalog to discover what the library holds. The catalog includes the high school and middle school library holdings (the online catalog is still being created, so not all holdings are currently listed). There are also online databases which provide access to thousands of full-text journals and books, as well as information on current topics of debate.

The librarian is available for research appointments to help a student with a particular research project. Please contact librarian Effie Scott for further information.

Online Databases

Kimberton Waldorf School provides access to several online databases to help students with their research.

Gale Student Resources in Context: Explore topics ranging from science to literature to history using reference books, periodicals, and newspapers, as well as primary sources.

Gale U.S. History in Context: Research a topic in U.S. history using secondary and primary resources.

Gale World History in Context: Research a topic in world history using secondary and primary resources.

Power Library: A service through the state of Pennsylvania. It provides access to many databases, as well as, to the collections of libraries throughout the state for interlibrary loan.

Library of Congress Resources: The Library of Congress provides many digital resources on a variety of topics including American History and Religion.

Online Waldorf Library: This website provides information on recently published books concerning Waldorf education. It also has free access to articles from North American and international Waldorf education journals.

sparticl: Put together by Twin Cities Public Television and sponsored by 3M, this website connects students to articles, videos, and experiments that cover many topics in science.

Chester County Library System: The Chester County Library System has many databases that are free to use for research. You just need to enter the barcode from your Chester County Library card. If you do not live in Chester County, you may still get a card by filling out an application and putting down that you attend KWS (since it is in Chester County, you are permitted a card).

Search Engines

instaGrok: Use this innovative search engine for Internet research. InstaGrok organizes infornation in a visual format, providing key points about a topic, suggesting websites that you can evaulate for validity, and allowing you to create a file of notes about your research topic.

Google Scholar: Use this more specific form of Google to find scholarly literature on the Internet from resources such as universites and government agencies.

Citing and Evaluating Sources

MLA format – used for literature and history papers (from Penn State University) Or this one from Purdue.

NoodleTools MLA Lite – this a free version of software that helps with citations in MLA format. You will need to make you own login, but you can then save citations for each project’s bibliography.
Internet site evaluation:
You can find information on the internet about any topic you might assigned at school. It is important to evaluate the information to decide if it is reliable. You can do so by answering the following questions:

1. Authorship – Who is the author of the site? Are you able to determine if the author is an authority on the subject, and/or can you contact the author?
2. Currency – Is the information up to date?
3. Motive – Can you determine the purpose of the site? It is important to determine that the site’s purpose is for education and not other reasons (such as selling a product).

These are basic questions you need to ask before using information you find on the Internet. If you still have questions, check with your teacher or the librarian.