This is a guest post from Karen Gfroerer K-5 Media Specialist at Prairie View Elementary Middle School in Otsego, MN. Read more about our Extended Mini Grant Program or fill out one of our applications. This program is only available during the FY21 school year.
*Note: scroll to the bottom to watch a fantastic video Karen put together to show her students the new books!!
To the Central MN Libraries Exchange,
I want to start off by saying THANK YOU! I received my nonfiction book order today and it was so much fun unpacking the books. With every book I pulled out, I knew exactly the group of students that was going to go crazy for them and that made me so anxious to get pictures and put together a video for them showcasing the books.
As stated in my grant application, the target for my purchase was balancing out a need for gaps in our nonfiction section, particularly for the younger readers. All of the books I purchased do just that while also being high interest. Knowing this I feel certain that all of the books will have a high circulation rate.
As we prepare for students to return to school in two weeks, we have had to rethink how we operate our library. Since I have to go to the classrooms for their media time it will prohibit students from browsing shelves. However, I have come up with a way for them to still get books THEY want. I have created a request slip where the students in K-2 can circle pictures of topics they like to read about and then our media assistant and I will pull their choices and deliver their orders to them, just as they would utilize a grab-n-go at a public library. The 3rd-5th graders will use our Destiny Discover catalog to put choices on hold. One of the nice features of Destiny Discover is it highlights new books at the top, with pictures of the covers too! Navigating our book checkout this way leaves me pretty confident that there will be no lull in circulation.
This grant gave me such hope this year when nearly all funding sources for purchasing new books were giving poor returns or none at all. The students at my school truly love choosing library books and I know they will be very excited to access the ones purchased from this grant opportunity.