Celebrating Iron County School Libraries During School Library Month

I was one of those kids. I was one of those in school that would get sent down to the library to help put checked out books back on the shelves. I was also that kid who got sent to set up audio visual equipment for other classrooms. I think my teachers like it better when I was out of the classroom. 

Anyway, I found myself liking my service in the library and enjoyed putting books away and learning the filing system. Dewey Decimal back in my day. April is National School Library month, and we had some guests with us on the radio this morning to talk about it.

If you have never heard about National School Library Month, here is a little background. National School Library Month is a time to celebrate the vital role that school libraries play in education and student development. Observed every April, this month-long celebration highlights the importance of school libraries in fostering literacy, promoting learning, and providing access to a wide range of resources for students and educators.

Chris Haight is with the Southwest Educational Development Center, and she works with school libraries throughout the region. Crystal Hopkins is the Library Specialist at Three Peaks Elementary School. 

Haight explained that libraries are not always called libraries these days, but no matter the name, they serve a vital function saying, “in different areas (they)are called different things. Some media specialists, teacher librarians, different names. But no matter what you call them, they are the heart and soul of most schools.”

Hopkins let us know that libraries are molded individually based on the needs of a schools student body explaining, “All of us are different. Every school has different kids that like different things. Some schools like North are close to SUU, they have more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), but all of us try to incorporate STEM in our schools also. So we're not just reading books and teaching them the core of library. We're getting them excited about reading and we're doing makerspace, and many things in the library.” 

Haight explained to us that libraries now go beyond simply being a collection of books calling them “information resources.” And explaining what that “librarians are often the connectors with kids, so they help kids. If their kids are excited about learning about dinosaurs, they can help them find resources. Those can be books. Those can be the databases in our Utah's online school library. Those can be ebooks. Those can be any type of information. Like you said, we had you had globes when you were younger. Well, now it may be an interactive monitor that they can actually look at Google Earth.”

In the Iron County School District, libraries, or media centers are an important part of every school with Hopkins telling us, “we're lucky here in Iron County, we have great support, and we have libraries in all the schools.” Hopkins also indicated that libraries can give a child a sense of independence by telling us, “they have a freedom of choice. You know, during learning, they learn great things from their teachers. But when they come into a library, they can pick a book on their own. They can research what they want to learn on their own. Like Chris was saying, you know some wanted to learn about dinosaurs and they might not learn that in class and they have that freedom, and they get to see themselves in books also.” 

Haight and Hopkins also explained the process of how materials are placed in and removed from local school libraries, and you can hear that as you listen to our entire segment podcast below. 

During National School Library Month, schools and communities come together to recognize the contributions of school libraries and librarians.