With growing demands on teachers and schools, partnering with libraries can be too cumbersome to be helpful to educators. Through meeting with teachers and school officials, it became clear that for a school/library partnership to be successful the impetus must be on us. By aligning the needs of the school districts with ways in which the library can provide service and support, a symbiotic relationship was created that utilizes the tech tools of the school systems to provide direct access to librarians.

Based on the needs of each individual school, the following services were offered at various buildings: library card sign-up for students and staff; weekly book request, delivery and pickup at schools; training for staff including participation in district-wide in-service day and training for STEAM educators; classroom instructional visits upon request in addition to recurring visits; regular promotion of library events; monthly school-wide book talks and librarian led book club; and much more.

• Increased familiarity of students and educators with library resources and staff, which led to increased knowledge of the library as a community resource
• Increased cooperation between the school and library, which led to less doubling of efforts and subsequent wasted resources
• Increased opportunities for literacy-based activities including books clubs, programming and individual reading, and promoting a culture of readers in our respective communities
• Frequent communication with schools, which resulted in even more opportunities