Libraries as a social hub - by Miranda DeArmond

 I look forward to Wednesday.  It’s my favorite day, it’s the middle of the week, I don’t have a lot of classes, and the library is open.  So you may or may not know that I work in a school library. When I started, it was during COVID and there were some issues with opening the library at lunchtime.  However, when the restrictions were gone my principal has allowed me to open 1 day a week and that’s, you guessed it, Wednesday.  I have spent the last few years acquiring legos, coloring pages, puzzles, bean bags, brain teasers etc because I want the library to be more than a library.  I want it to be a place the kids want to come.  Yes, we all know that they should come for the books, but this generation is different.  I am competing with youtube and tick tok.  So while I continue to cultivate a collection that represents and interests our community, I am also just trying to get kids in the door. So, they may come to draw and I can recommend art books.  Or as they trade pokemon cards with me I show them the section with all the pokemon books (I usually get a few books checked out like that).  

At times, it feels like tricking the kids, but would they have looked at the book otherwise? Unfortunately, many would not.  Like I said kids are so distracted these days.  I guess at the end of they day my idea is to make the library a social hub. That gets kids hanging out there and the hope is that eventually they will get interested in the books.  I may be grasping at straws with this idea, but I’m going to keep on doing whatever I need to so that I can get books in kids hands. 

If you want some more information about setting up your school library to be a welcoming space for students check out these sites

Setting up Libraries to be the Best Space in School

School Libraries: Creating the Campus Hub

Tutt, Paige. “Setting up Libraries to Be the Best Space in School.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 8 Aug. 2023, www.edutopia.org/article/setting-up-libraries-to-be-the-best-space-in-school/. 

“School Libraries: Creating the Campus Hub.” California Teachers Association, 22 Mar. 2018, www.cta.org/educator/posts/creating-the-campus-hub#:~:text=School%20libraries%20have%20also%20become,soul%20of%20schools%2C%20say%20librarians.