Feature stories

Public libraries offer free delivery to some schools

Online service brings books to three boroughs

by Dorothy Callaci | published November 24, 2011

Miller Photography

School librarian Cheryl Wolf opens a box of books sent to PS 63 in the East Village from the New York Public Library as part of the new Biblio Schools project.

Manhattan librarian finds service ‘empowering’

Staff and students now each have a NYPL card. Grace Chang’s 3rd-graders at PS 63 in the East Village are becoming authorities on immigration because they are able to choose from a long list of books tailor-made to their reading level — thanks to the New York Public Library.

When librarian Cheryl Wolf discovered that the books on the topic in the school library were at too high a reading level for grade 3, she was able to reach out to the New York Public Library which is now sharing its immense catalog with 50 city schools through the new BiblioCommons project.

Michael Dodes, the librarian at Samuel Gompers HS, calls the new project a “powerful” innovation. In these hard times, he said, we need every resource to meet the needs and abilities of our diverse student population.

Noting that his library has already received a delivery of NYPL books earmarked for global studies students, he said, “The scope of this is impressive and will empower our schools.”

Miller PhotographyThird-graders and teacher Grace Chang get a lesson on how to use the NYPL catalog from Wolf.

In another online first, some lucky city schools will be able to borrow up to 100 books at a time from the New York Public Library and have them delivered directly to their libraries and classrooms.

A pilot program just announced by the New York Public Library will allow teachers at more than 50 schools in Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx to borrow books online, including sets for an entire class. Schools in Queens and Brooklyn are not included because those boroughs have separate library systems.

News of the new partnership is especially welcome this year to cash-strapped schools and to educators who often dip into their own pockets to pay for classroom resources, including books.

The partnership between the world’s largest circulating library and the nation’s largest public school system will provide students with library cards and give students and teachers access to resources far beyond what their own libraries can supply.

New York Public Library staffers have put together lists of recommended books on specific topics — reading lists on Africa for 3rd-graders and on colonial America for 4th- through 7th-graders, for example — that will be delivered by UPS at no cost to the schools.

Library officials said they would also help create electronic catalogs for school libraries currently using card catalogs.

Once school libraries are cataloged online, students and teachers will be able to search their own school libraries as well as the New York Public Library using an online catalog called BiblioCommons, which allows users to share book lists and to post reviews of books.

The collaboration aims to also help teachers meet new standards requiring that students read more nonfiction books, which are usually in short supply in school libraries.

While the program, called Biblio Schools, has been initiated at a time when more and more schools are failing to meet state-mandated requirements for school libraries and librarians, New York Public Library officials stress that the new project is not meant to replace school librarians.

State law requires middle and high schools to have a librarian or media specialist for every 700 to 1,000 students with an additional librarian for every 1,000 students. There are no requirements for elementary schools.

Anthony Marx, the president of the New York Public Library, said he hopes to expand the program to every city school within two years.

The $1 million pilot program has been funded through philanthropic grants.