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I had the absolute pleasure and honor of presenting at KATE's Annual Fall Conference on this very topic–why librarians and teachers should be besties. Before I get any further I should introduce myself. My name’s Amanda, and I’m a former high school ELA teacher turned librarian (sort-of). While I don’t hold a library sciences degree, after 10 years in the classroom I transitioned into my current role, serving our community’s youth and educators. I was inspired to present this topic because of a statement I hear almost daily: “Wow! I didn’t know the library does/has [insert epiphany here]!” I wanted to remind my colleagues that libraries are here to serve their communities to the best of their abilities. And while I can’t speak for every library when it comes to specific materials or services they offer, I know that our mission includes serving our educators. So here’s the rundown of why we should be best friends! The Public Library Is Essential for Great CommunitiesI feel like I’m preaching to the choir here, but I want to make sure that you understand we librarians don’t just say this for fun. Public libraries are one of the–if not the–last truly democratic institutions. It is one of the only places that a person can come and just exist without being expected to spend any money. One group worked to study the economic impact of libraries on communities. While they struggled to quantify it directly, they did find that, “the impact of public libraries is even greater for [disadvantaged and young users]. Public libraries and all that they offer are free, regardless of a user’s social status. As a free institution, a library can impact a wide range of people through important skill-development opportunities” (Igarashi, Koizumi, & Wake, 2022). And while we can’t measure the specific impact, we can look at the return on investment. Many libraries, mine included, provide an annual value calculation of materials and services. In 2024, my library had a budget of nearly three million dollars with an estimated value calculation of more than thirteen million dollars–roughly a 300% ROI for our community tax dollars. Furthermore, Sipilä (2015) argues that “strong libraries that can meet the information, recreational, cultural, educational, and social needs of their users can promote and support participation and involvement in a democratic society. Active citizenship forms the basis for a democratic society and therefore information and knowledge are the modern tools of citizenship—universal availability through libraries is essential.” Simply put, strong libraries mean strong communities, and strong communities mean better lives for its citizens. But again, I’m sure you knew that already. What you may not know is that when libraries partner with schools, the impact on education has the potential to increase exponentially. Campana, et al (2022) documented an experiment in which a local library partnered with a preschool. They found that the impacts on student learning had the potential to engage families as well. And many other libraries–my library included–work to support educators with the hopes of those very same impacts. Books Are Just the Beginning For most public libraries, books are only the beginning. For example, in addition to books, the Salina Public Library manages and circulates DVDs, CDs, and video games for multiple consoles. Nevermind all of the digital resources and databases we have available. Then there’s our Library of Things–nontraditional items–that include things like gardening tools, knitting needles, cake pans, 3D pens, learning toys for children, an acoustic guitar, an electric keyboard, and so much more. The library also manages our seed library from February through June and offers a spice of the month, which includes a sample of the spice and recipes to try it out. The community puzzle exchange is incredibly popular. In addition to our materials, we also offer services. In 2024 we clocked more than 175,000 hours of wifi access, served more than 29,000 patrons at over 2,000 events, and hosted more than 10,000 meeting room reservations.
And that’s just what we offer the general public. Our library also offers the following to educators in our community:
If you are not in our community, I would encourage you to look into your local community or county public library because many of them offer this and more. Become besties with your local librarian and you will find they serve you and your students well. If they don’t, then you may just be the spark that gets them started. References Campana, K., Martens, M., Filippi, A., & Clunis, J. (2022). A “Library School:” Building a Collaborative Preschool-Library Partnership to Support Whole Family Engagement. Early Childhood Education Journal, 50(1), 71–82. https://doi-org.research.salinapublic.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01127-4 Igarashi, T., Koizumi, M., & Wake, N. (2022). In Proceedings of CoLIS, the 11th. International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science, Oslo, Norway, May29 - June 1, 2022. Information Research, 27(Special issue), paper colis2225. Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/27-SpIssue/CoLIS2022/colis2225.html https://doi.org/10.47989/colis2225 Sipilä, Sinikka (2015). “Strong libraries, strong societies”. El profesional de la información, v. 24, n. 2, pp. 95-101. http://dx.doi.org/10.3145/epi.2015.mar.02 Amanda Little is the Head of Youth Services at the Salina Public Library. She taught high school ELA, drama, forensics, and speech for 10 years before transitioning into her new role. She has lived in Salina her entire life and absolutely loves her community. She's served on the KATE Board for several years, most recently as the library liaison, since she is passionate about serving her colleagues. When she isn't with her husband and two boys, she is serving at her church, writing and reading poetry, and crocheting beautiful things
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