School Library Musings: A Great School Library Is More than Just Books

The compact, light-filled library at Oak Grove Elementary — a TK (transitional kindergarten)  through fifth-grade school of approximately 425 students in a small town in northern California — is tucked away by itself at the back of the campus.

Inside, books line tall, wooden bookcases on every wall, with cheery signage marking subject areas, a cozy carpet with a child sprawled across it doing an alphabet puzzle, and low tables and nooks where other students of varying ages are doing art projects, chatting quietly, or simply reading books. It is a peaceful haven, worlds away from the lively chaos of a school campus at lunchtime, its open door a portal to another world.

Teacher-turned-librarian Samantha Stoughton shares some of the special aspects of the library that draw students in every day. “At the checkout desk, we have a ‘Little’ Little Free Library, a miniature model of the popular LFLs: Students make mini books to put inside, switching them out regularly. It also has mini bookmarks and a mini Waldo! They love to read those mini books.”

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She runs a Library Squad, whose members stop in regularly or occasionally, depending on the weather and social dynamics of recess. “Squad members can choose to create (make bookmarks, signage, miniature houses for felted animals, book reviews), organize (shelve books, finish puzzles, sharpen colored pencils, display favorite books), or educate (teach students how to look up a book on the catalog or find a book on the shelves),” says Ms. Stoughton.

There’s a regular-sized Where’s Waldo? cardboard cutout hidden somewhere in the stacks; students who find it hide it again and write a clue to help the next seeker. “Sometimes they scramble the clue or write it in code. A clue gets added each week that Waldo remains undiscovered, although sometimes students accidentally stumble on him when they are just browsing the books.” Certain students visit every day; a few come only on days too hot or cold to play outside. Whatever the weather, the portal to the library is always open.

Fifty miles south, Gigi Fairbanks, a fourth-grade student at Jefferson Elementary School in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset district, shares why she loves her school library.

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“It’s a really nice space to be in—it has a big rainbow rug and bean bag chairs, with drawings on the walls that kids have made, and when the sun shines in the big windows, it’s really warm and cozy. It feels like its own private place inside the main school. There are magazines you can’t check out but can read there, we can do Typing Club on the computers, or build with Kiva planks. A lot of kids bring their sticker collections and spread them all out on the tables to trade. Sometimes, it gets a little loud because so many kids like to go there.”

Gigi also participates in the Junior Librarian program, checking out books to her classmates during their weekly class visit. Clearly, she finds community and a sense of ownership inside that warm, inviting, private space that offers a retreat from the sometimes chaotic schoolyard activities or social challenges—a place where she belongs, whatever else is going on outside its walls.

Gigi’s sister, sixth grader Elle Fairbanks, is also very clear about why she loves the library at her middle school a few miles away. “It feels safe; it feels like home,” she says emphatically. She lists the things you can do in her school’s library in addition to reading books: “You can do sewing projects, build things with a hot glue gun, do jigsaw puzzles, make Shrinky Dinks, be in the Book of the Month club, listen to audiobooks. Next month, the librarian is doing a textile workshop at lunch!”

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There are no fines for late or lost books, a big plus for Elle, who is nearly always at her limit for checkouts and frequently forgets to return them on time. Not really a problem, she points out, because with her librarian, “There’s always redemption possible.” In fact, despite all the cool makerspace activities available and the amazing stories among the 5,000+ titles available for checkout, according to Elle, “It’s the librarian who makes the library.”

Of course, books are still pretty important. Elle, clearly a book lover and writer herself, offers this final advice to people feeling lost and alone: “Find the nearest library to make yourself feel better. You can always disappear into a different world by pulling any book off the shelf and reading it right then. And with a book always in your pocket, you carry the joy of the library with you always.”

These school libraries, and hundreds of others like them scattered across the country, offer powerful alternatives to the outdated, stereotyped notion of what school libraries are. Instead of always saying “Shhhhhh!!,” these twenty-first-century librarians have transformed them into centers for social engagement, art and science explorations, peer teaching and learning, and most importantly, welcoming spaces where students have a sense of ownership and belonging, places that they carry around joyfully in their emotional pockets as they struggle to fit in and make meaning in the world.

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