This past year I received a “Vision to Reality” Grant from AISL to create a YA section for
my Junior High students. I am the Research Center Coordinator at Lake Country School, a pk-8 Montessori School in South Minneapolis serving roughly 300 students. We have a single library for the school, and curating a collection in one space to span that age range has always been a challenge.
When I took the job 5 years ago, I began to see a need for a more robust and
appropriate selection of books for our oldest students. The English teacher had novels on her shelves, but they were rather dated and tended to reflect her tastes rather than what students might want to read in their spare time. I began to dream of a space where I could feature current novels, graphic novels and nonfiction titles that actually appealed to 13 and 14 year olds.
Luckily, our Junior High space has a common area with beautiful floor to ceiling oak
bookshelves. However, they were filled with a random collection of encyclopedias and attractive but unused sets of books. I got permission to take over part of the space, and with a combination of internal funds and the AISL grant, began the project. Last summer I stocked the shelves with books that I had chosen – award winners, JLG selections, books with starred reviews, and books that I knew would appeal to specific students. I also moved a few titles from the main library that belonged in the new section. Response from students has been great, though due to an unwieldy checkout system, I don’t have the circulation data I’d like – something to work on.
With the AISL grant, I was able to involve the students in a more direct way in collection
development. I asked each student (as well as the teachers) to suggest a book OR a genre that they would like to see on the shelves (vetted by me, of course!) As might be expected, some choices were not entirely age-appropriate, and in those cases, I asked for alternate titles. With my library apprentices, I made a spreadsheet of the suggestions coded by genre, and was surprised and delighted to discover that the categories were roughly balanced. I added some selections from my own “to purchase” list and worked with a local independent bookstore to fill the order.
As the books arrived, I placed a bookplate in each with that student’s name and the year.
I plan to mention the donor’s name when doing book talks next year, and hope to find some way to continue a tradition of students adding a book to the library – maybe when they graduate?
Many thanks to AISL for supporting this endeavor!