Northside ISD’s Valley Hi Elementary School Library was granted $5,000 from the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Liberties. This program encourages young students to develop a love of reading and learning by targeting school libraries with the greatest needs. This year, they only distributed grants to 300 schools nationally. Their purpose? To update and diversify the collections of the dedicated libraries, including one of our very own.
Additionally, the library grant’s funding allows Valley Hi to add books on multiculturalism, technology applications, and the biographies of various role models and community leaders. Jennifer Grimes, the Woodchucks’ resident librarian, chose the book selections and thanked the foundation for helping the library toward its mission. She looks forward to providing "students access to high-quality educational materials and diverse learning opportunities.”
Furthermore, Valley Hi isn’t the only part of NISD to improve upon its library resources. Out of the ISD’s 116 campus libraries, and $47,938 awarded in grants and prizes to system members, Northside itself has served 920,550+ patrons and checked out over a million books, at 1,799,449 titles. NISD has a strong investment in the education it provides and large part of that is done through its libraries. Now, it has more books, money to spend, and opportunity to diversify children's’ learning experiences.
You can see more about NISD’s library resources at visit library services page at: https://www.nisd.net/district/library-services
Sources: Northside ISD Website
Blog By: Tatum Owens, Intern, UT Austin