How the Pandemic is Changing the School Library Experience

At New Canaan High School in Connecticut, the beginning of every new quarter means a blitz of students rushing through the library doors in search for new books. This year, when the campus reopened in mid-October, the familiar dash of students was replaced by an online portal where students instead selected their books electronically.

“We can’t have kids pluck books off the shelves,” says Michelle Luhtala, the library department chair and expert in emerging library technology at New Canaan High School. “Typically droves of kids come down and get fresh books, and it’s a whole time for exchange and fun and conversation about what they read, and having to do that virtually is not nearly as fun as it is in person.”

Librarians for the most part have stated that limitations cause by COVID-19 have not fundamentally changed their roles, but how they execute their vision has.  They must rethink how to create a culture where children are excited to read, when they can’t browse the stacks or even visit the library itself.

Susan Gauthier, Library Services Director for the East Baton Rouge Parish School District, recalls a memory from six years ago where she instructed librarians across the districts 80 plus schools to spend no more than 10% of their budget on eBooks. This is a memory that makes her laugh now as her library is going to be heavily relying on eBooks delivered through MackinVIA since the pandemic has forced remote-learning and social distancing.

“2020 has sent more students to our eBooks, it’s made me rethink collection development and those are things that are not going to change moving forward,” Gauthier says.  Susan, who also added that her district is buying eBooks in bulk to be shared among the elementary schools continues, “I don’t want to be in the situation where I was panicking because I didn’t know if I was going to have access for all of our students.”

Much to her surprise, Gauthier stated that high school students have thus far put up the most resistance to eBooks. She thinks one reason for this is that the district focused more on purchasing books that the library can access forever, as opposed to buying more popular titles that may interest the students more.

Luhtala says that the purchasing model major publishers are using is a massive problem for schools. Most publishers are licensing their books for one to three years at a time, which means when the license is up the school has to pay full price again to continue to offer that specific title to their students.

This model makes even less sense considering when you consider that library’s tailor their catalog to the curricula the teachers create. This means books are only in-demand for certain periods of time - while the students are actually learning about the topics.

“While we are trying to buy books for the eBook collection, we can’t buy the eBooks we want because they’re published by the vendors that don’t offer a license that works in a K-12 space,” she says. “It shows they either don’t get what schools do or they don’t care that they can’t sell to K-12 schools. Neither of those are really great scenarios”.

Gauthier notes that another challenge school libraries face is one of students who want to just check out a physical book.

“Changing that mindset and that reading culture has been a challenge. But what I’m excited to see is that the numbers are growing, and when they start growing in one school, they keep growing. So when we get that one school hooked on the digital content, I don’t think we’re going to go back.” She says.

Despite the pandemic presenting a series of obstacles, Luhtala says that technology has changed aspects of the school day for the better.

For instance, if students need help while remote learning, they can send a text or attend a virtual library, to get help from the circulation desk. Virtual classrooms have made co-teaching at her school more seamless than ever because it combines in-person instruction with breakout rooms via conferencing software.

“Next period, I’ll be virtual with my colleague who is physically going into the classroom, and she’s going to set me up in a breakout room with a couple of kids who she thinks will need a lot of support,” says Luhtala. “We can still do a library without a physical room, and that’s always been my claim. You don’t need a physical room to be a really effective librarian.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced libraries to reinvent the way they allow students to check-out books and offer services – but one thing that is on hold are makerspaces.

Diana Rendina operates a library at Tampa Preparatory School in Tampa, Fla., and is a staple in the K-12 makerspace community. Rendina runs Renovated Learning, and website that offers makerspace related resources. She has also released 2 books on the topic.

At Rendina’s library, she would normally have activities planned for “Maker Monday” or “Techie Tuesday”. Students would experience VR apps, 3D printing, cardboard building challenges or taking apart old electronics.  Now, with social distancing and safety procedures in effect, these activities are on hold. However, Diana is hopeful that she can develop a plan to bring makerspaces back next semester.

“In addition to the fun of the activities, there’s also that social-emotional [component]. You’re interacting with other kids and you’re hanging out and working on projects together. I know there are some kids really missing that element. Part of me wanted to start it up right away, but there are so many things we’re having to adjust to, I didn’t want to throw that out right at the beginning.”

At the East Baton Rouge Parish, Gauthier says their librarians will have to constantly adapt as the new school year moves on. After a summer of ensuring their students had a Chromebook for remote learning, they now have to be ready for the possibility that they could be pulled into the classroom as a substitute teacher while others are teaching elementary core classes.

“I’m not sure it’s going to settle down any time soon, so I think they’re going to keep reinventing what they’re doing in the position,” she says.

The pandemic has created a series of challenges, and has certainly disrupted school systems across the country. However, Rendina and other educators and library professionals across the country are trying to cut themselves some slack.

“I’m the type of person who can sometimes be a little self-critical and feel like I’m not doing as much as I should be,” says Rendina. “I think that’s been a process for me since March – just recognizing that it’s OK that things aren’t exactly like they normally are. That doesn’t make me a bad librarian if we don’t have as many books checking out as we normally do. If we can just get the kids through this time period, do what we can, then I’m OK with that.”

Story via EdSurge