North Adams libraries: from reading to weeding

A glowing and growing report about the three libraries within North Adams Community Schools was offered to the school board at its February session by the first-year library director, Laura Christner.

She said her start as the library leader “has definitely been a learning experience,” although she worked at the library in the former Monmouth Elementary School and made use of the libraries during her student time here.

“It’s been a great year,” Christner said, as she thanked “the great people around me” on the staff.

Among her actions in 2022-23 was taking inventory of everythingthe libraries have. The high school has a library and the middle school and elementary school libraries are in separate areas of a large room.

She also spoke about the “weeding”process that removes books which are in worn-out or damaged conditions so newer books can be added in a continual updating system. Some outdated and poor-condition books are thrown away, but staffer Mindy Fuelling and her education profession students receive books so they can put them in their personal collections to use when they begin their careers as teachers.

Christner also lauded the work of Decatur artist Shelby Nower, who is painting murals in the middle school/elementary school location.

In regard to books available in the middle and elementary libraries, Christner said many are in the Young Hoosier section, which offers 20 books in each of numerous categories. For those students who read the most, there will be a pizza party at the end of the school year.

While books on the printed page are harder to get, e-books and audio books are much easier to obtain and are highly used here. She said more than 1,200 e-books and audio books were checked out of those two libraries in January, for example.

The high school has a similar Young Hoosier setup and the best readers get gift cards as rewards and free books, said

Christner.

There’s also a book club at BHS, with about 12 members this year. Christner said she greatly enjoys working with the book clubbers because “it’s neat to get to know the kids at that level.”

At the end of the meeting, school board member Dave Hill said about the act of regular reading, “It’s a new adventure every day.”