John Gray Park Library

Right in the middle of campus, convenient and comfortable, is the John Gray Park '28 Library, the hub of study and research at Kent. It's a great place to get work done, with study spaces for every preference: large tables, individual study carrels, easy chairs and group study rooms.

You'll find your way around the three levels of the library quickly, in large part due to the helpful and friendly staff of librarians. They're always available to help you search for information and then to cite the sources correctly. (And, speaking of sources, if we don't own a title or periodical that you need, we can borrow it from another library.)

The library has open stacks too, so you have ready access to the 50,000 volumes, 6,000 of which are reference materials. Add to that microfilm and online databases and you really have an impressive source of all kinds of information. There's even a room for classes so you can get instruction on doing research for a specific project right here within the library.

With a subscription to over fifty major online databases, the John Gray Park Library at Kent provides students wireless access to thousands of magazines and scholarly journals, regional, national and international newspapers, reference resources, multimedia content and primary source materials. Our library is a forerunner among private schools in implementing a federated search platform that allows students to search across these databases with the help of a single interface.  Our vast electronic collection is comparable to that of a small college, familiarizing our students with college-level resources that they can incorporate into their research. To help guide students in the research process, our reference librarians conduct frequent instructional sessions and are available for individual assistance.

Thanks for all this has to go to Friends of the Kent School Library, as well as several endowed funds: the Sandy Campbell-Donald Windham Library Fund, the Braxton Book Fund, the Brodie Family Book Fund, the Furness Memorial Fund and the Elser Memorial Fund. There's also the Birthday Book Program, in which parents donate books to the library to honor special occasions.

Library Hours*:
Mon.-Fri: 8 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. – 11:30 p.m.
Sunday: 2 p.m. - 10 p.m.
* Hours are expanded during exams.

Online Reference Resources:

Advanced Placement Source
- contains over 6,000 full-text journals, designed specifically to meet the needs of students in AP courses
American Periodical Series
- a great primary source database of American publications as far back as 1740
Ancient & Medieval History Online
- contains a variety of resources, from reference materials and periodical articles to multi-media images and videos
Biography Resource Center
Business & Company Resource Center
Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry
- contains over 250,000 full-text poems as well as poetry periodicals
Daily Life Online
Health Source
Historical Newspapers
- full text of The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant and more going back to 1764
History Reference Center
Lectrix
- from Cambridge University Press, an integrated resource to assist students in their Greek & Latin studies
Lexis-Nexis Scholastic
- contains legal resources, statistical tables and foreign language press
Literature Resource Center
Modern World History Online
Naxos Music Library
- thousands of classical, jazz and world music pieces available to listen to
Oxford Reference Platinum
Oxford Art/Music Online
Reader’s Guide Retrospective
– indexes thousands of periodicals published from 1890-1982
Science Reference Center
Sport Discus
-a database specifically for sport and fitness