When public library and district library staff engage in collaboration, our students reap the benefits. The Corvallis-Benton County Public Library provides a number of important resources for our students to enhance and enrich their educational journey. District librarian Dana Zachary has been working with library staff to explore ways to continue to grow this partnership, with ideas like Library Field Trips and ways to increase resource sharing. “I am so grateful for our partnership,” said Ms. Zachary. “It is collaborative, responsive, and generous.”
Examples of resources provided by the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library are:
- Book Boxes – The library curates and lends thematic sets of books for classroom curricular and project needs.
- Classroom Cards – All CSD staff can sign up for special lending accounts so they can use public library print and virtual resources with students. They don’t have to use personal accounts, and the parameters in terms of overdue fines and loss responsibility are lenient.
- Maker Box – The library offers the school libraries indefinite loan of over 14 Maker Tools and Tech so the libraries can offer programs/experiences with coding, circuitry, creative problem solving, and robotics.
- Participation in/support for special events – For example: librarians bring STEM equipment, button/sticker maker, library info, they issue library cards, etc. to Wilson’s annual Family Reading Night.
- OBOB support – The library lends additional resources in the high schools.
- Spanish language collection development collaboration – The library and district worked with the same vendor and partnered at the International Book Fair in Mexico in November.
Additionally, in the secondary schools the library provides learning experiences for middle and high school students. The teen librarian hosts “Book Talks” where 12-20 books are highlighted with brief summaries during lunches at CHS and CV. Once each month at Linus Pauling Middle School, the teen librarian leads a lunch time book discussion and at Cheldelin and Franklin, the teen librarian leads a “Library Lab” STEM activity. The library also sponsors author visits including this year’s visit from Portland author Vera Brosgol at the middle schools.
Thank you to the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library!