Over the course of this school year, many students and teachers have started to notice the library is being underused. With construction going on, the library has moved to a temporary location until the new library is done with renovations. Although we have a new library being built, the use of the temporary library has seemed to be trending down.
Library Media Specialist, Alison Tsuchiya Theiler, said the library is unutilized for reasons such as students aren’t checking out the many books the library provides.
“It’s underused in the way that students don’t check out books,” Tsuchiya Theiler said. “I literally buy books for students — the money I spend is just for books for students. They definitely are not taking advantage of that.”
Junior Sam Tolzin said the only time he uses the library is when his class is required to go down there for books or for work time.
“I only go to the library when my class that I’m in tells us to go down to do something,” Tolzin said. “Otherwise, I never go to the library.”
Junior Calvin Otos said another reason the library space is being wasted is because students just aren’t reading books anymore and the fact the classrooms aren’t forcing students to read.
“It’s underused because not a lot of students read books anymore,” Otos said. “Also, (some) classes don’t make it required to read books anymore either.”
Tolzin said even though he isn’t in the library often, there are still good resources offered there.
“It’s a good quiet space to work,” Tolzin said. “And it gives students an opportunity to read and have access to many books.”
Otos said one way the school can get the students to use the library is for teachers to require students to check out a book.
“Teachers should try to make it required for students to check out books at least once a month,” Otos said. ”This would help students utilize the space more and read more.”
Tsuchiya Theiler said she thinks for students to use the library more, English classes should have kids doing independent reading.
“If everyone in an English class had to do independent reading for like 10 minutes, that means every kid would have an independent reading book and that would mean they’re reading for 10 minutes in their English classrooms.” Tsuchiya Theiler said. “Most kids have an English class and that would be one way to get kids to check out books.”
