School, Public Libraries Partner to Promote Reading

A “book tasting” event at Rocky River Middle School launched a partnership that now benefits Rocky River students.

RRMS Media Center Assistant Anji Marniella, and teachers Stacey Colbert and Janin Miller, organized the book tasting, which gave students an opportunity to browse books of various genres, at the middle school with Rocky River Public Library Teen and Children’s Librarians Megan Alabaugh and Heather Tuck-Macalla. That book tasting turned into a building loan program. The book tasting events were first organized by RRMS sixth grade English Language Arts teachers, as part of the school’s 40 Book Challenge, which invites students to read 40 books across different genres during the school year.

“Truly, we all just hit it off as bibliophiles and students advocates, and have since been looking for ways to work together to get students reading for information and pleasure,” Marniella said.

RRMS Media Center Assistant Michelle Gibson said the middle school library often has limited copies of popular books, so they partnered with RRPL to bring additional copies to the school for more students to check them out. The middle school library staff sends over a list of books or books relating to a theme, and Alabaugh and Tuck-Macalla provide those books, along with their own recommendations and new books students might be interested in reading.

“Right now Manga is super popular, and we have a whole shelf that the students are devouring,” said Gibson. “Students simply bring the books to our desk as they would one of our books, and we keep track of who has them.”

The book loan program recently expanded to Kensington intermediate School, and it will soon be available at Goldwood Primary School and Rocky River High School.

Kensington Library Assistant Lynne Kromer said 90 percent of the books the school received from RRPL are checked out.

“That says a lot because I circulate a tremendous amount of books from our own collection,” Kromer said.

“We are excited about the reciprocal relationships what we are forming with our gracious neighbor,” said Marniella. “We promote their programs, such as book clubs, summer reading programs, the new Three For Me Card, and community reads, and they help us keep kids reading by keeping our shelves stocked and giving student what they want, when they want it.”

RRMS media center staff work with RRPL, hosting Alabaugh and Tuck-Macalla, as well as Stacey Hayman, RRPL programming and digital services coordinator, during department meetings to bounce ideas around and keep updated on happenings in their overlapping realms.