With the new school year full of change, one that has hit home to many schools is the removal of classes held in the school library. Some schools have turned that space into classrooms, while others have just removed the visits due to lack of social distancing in the library itself. Two years ago, School Librarian Francie Goldberg looked around the classrooms and saw that the classroom libraries were filled with dated books that were in horrible condition, due to years of use; and because of lack of funding, those books have never been updated or replaced. Mrs. Goldberg kicked off a “Classroom Library Initiative” and raised over $10,000 so that every classroom in the school, from toddlers through sixth grade, received $1,000 in new materials to update their classroom libraries. Along with books of every genre, for teachers this included new shelving or book baskets to make the space more inviting. “I am really proud of the new classroom libraries. It took much longer than I expected to put them all together, but they are really amazing collections with something for every reader on every level in the classroom. It also means the students will have access to books at all times, even when the school library cannot lend out books, and some families are still not going to the local library,” said Mrs. Goldberg. Every classroom has a system in place for students to choose their books and have them in a designated quarantine area when they finish with it, before the next student enjoys it.
