Crisp said this is her 11th year in the role, and everything revolves around the mission statement to improve access to books and other materials to “increase literacy, empower students, support teachers, and foster a lifelong love of reading.”
In looking at the culture of libraries, she said it’s a free and neutral third space in a school building that’s available to everyone. “Where do you go and hang out with people? Not home or not work – but every building has a school library,” she said. The PLT Libraries culture is one of student choice, personal inquiry, and intellectual freedom.
As the district and staff continues to invest in this mission and library culture, circulation continues to steadily increase. For the 2024-2025 school year – August to May – there were 20,499 checkouts, including 20,096 physical books, 222 audio books, and 181 e-books. The shipment program courier even told her that the district is the top location on his route that borrows the most books.
She said TES is full of “voracious readers,” and the 6-12 campus went from 2,000 to 4,000 to around 6,000 books circulating on campus in the past few years. One anomaly on the PES circulation chart was due to the library flood and repairs in the 2021-2022 school year, which ultimately allowed them to build back the space to utilize it better and regrow the library culture.
Library staff are aiming to support students and encourage reading by providing the books that students want, supporting student choice, and providing a place to be, even if they’re not checking out books. “The library feels like a place to be seen and belong,” she said of their mission. At age 9, 42% of kids say they read for fun but by age 13, this drops to 13%. She sees the “peak” of reading for fun at 2nd grade, while 8th graders reading for fun is more of a rarity. But even if kids don’t read or check out books while in the school libraries, they’re welcomed and encouraged to keep coming back.
To support student browsing, staff have been enhancing the developmentally appropriate shelving and layout at each library, allowing the older kids to “browse like a record store” and offering dynamic shelving and “genrefication” for elementary and middle schoolers. For the 6-12 Campus, she discussed the layout of books, and said graphic novels and Manga (Japanese style, right to left) are the most popular cehck-outs.
Crisp said 2022-2023 was the first year the district had a library book budget; prior to that, they relied on the Ed Foundation, grants, GoFundMe, and donor’s choice for new acquisitions. They now have $8,000 in an annual budget to cover books, processing supplies, book covers, and labels. In 2011, the American Library Association recommended investing $12-$15 per student, and PLT was at $11.22 in 2024.
In 2024-2025, that $8,000 was split amongst the four school libraries and used to purchase 594 books, with a priority on award nominees, high demand titles, and new books while also replacing old, lost or worn books. She provided a breakdown of numbers of the children’s titles, young adult titles, and trade paperback acquisitions.
She also provided some information on digital readers and publications, saying e-books are by lease, the subscription costs add up, and digital books are only accessible to one student at a time. She compared the cost of a Dog Man hardcover book at $14.73 to an e-book at $14.99. There was a district-wide increase in e-book usage during Covid, but it continues to decline. “Digital publishing is killing libraries, but our kids don’t want to read digital books,” she summarized.
With the district switching to attendance centers this year, there were some changes that included shifting chapter books to TES and picture books to PES, maintaining the early reader chapter series at PES, providing all hardback at TES, and adjusting the space. The most frequently checked out books at the school libraries are Naruto, One Piece (Manga series), and Dog Man. She mentioned TES students eagerly learning about DB Cooper, saying that “Tampico was all in on that for a few weeks.”
As for the biggest library challenge, she said it’s book wear and tear and replacement costs, with some paperbacks in bad shape after going out a couple times. The library does have a book-binding machine they now use for repairs and to cut down on those costs.
In summary, there were 753 students served in the 2024-2025 school year. There were 20,499 books checked out, 330 classroom visits, 1,825 interlibrary loan holds placed, 1,374 interlibrary loan holds filed, 271 Chromebooks patched up, 594 books added to the collection, as well as 222 audiobooks and 181 e-books. Library staff consists of one certified librarian, three paraprofessionals, and two Sierra licenses, which “integrates library functions such as circulation, cataloging and acquisitions into one package so these functions can seamlessly communicate with one another.”
“Our district is distinctive in that we’ve maintained a commitment to literacy and students,” said Dr. Crisp, with the board thanking the library staff for their continued enthusiasm and excellence in education.
