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player ready...Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias – who doubles as the state librarian – announced funding to public school libraries around the state, and Franklin Park area school leaders plan to use the money to further literacy efforts and programs.
In total, Giannoulias’s office awarded more than $1.4 million in grants, which is expected to benefit 2,713 school libraries throughout Illinois and 1.2 million students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade, according to a secretary of state office news release announcing the grants.
Louise Brueggemann, an Oak Park-River Forest High School librarian, looks forward to Oak Park-River Forest School District 200 applying its $2,886 grant to books that promote the Illinois Lincoln Award and more. OPRFHS is the lone school in the district.
“We are pleased that the state of Illinois values the benefits of access to a broad and diverse collection of books and other resources for students. We most often use grant funds to buy books to promote the Illinois Lincoln Award, a state reading program run by the Association of Illinois School Library Educators. Students vote for their favorite book from a list of nominees,” said Brueggemann.
She said the school library promotes the program in various ways, including author visits. Author Tiffany D. Jackson, who wrote “The Weight of Blood” and “The Assignment” author Liza Wiemer, whose books are on the 2024 list of nominees, are scheduled to visit the school this spring.
Leaders at River Forest School District 90 say the district will put its $1,135 grant towards books for the students.
“School libraries are a virtual hub for learning resources for children in River Forest Public schools. The libraries at Roosevelt Middle School, Lincoln Elementary, and Willard Elementary will use the grant funds to purchase new books and e-books that allow students to expand their knowledge and worldview,” said Connie Rogers, the SD90 library media specialist.
At Oak Park School Elementary School District 97, its $4,731 grant will go toward paying for access to databases such as Britannica, the oldest continuously published encyclopedia, for the district’s 10 schools, and Gale, an academic database that features scholarly journals and top journals in critical analysis and literature, for the district’s middle schools, officials told Pioneer Press.
“Learning about where to find reliable, trustworthy information is an important skill that students today must learn and these high-quality databases allow us to offer access to verified, unbiased information,” said Laurie Conley, a teacher librarian at Whittier Elementary School.
SD97 spokeswoman Amanda Siegfried further explained that grant funds will be used on “future-ready” science, technology, engineering, art and math tools like “child- friendly” robots and coding tools.
In addition to the Oak Park school districts, nearby River Forest School District 90 was awarded a $1,135 grant.
According to the secretary of state office’s news release, based on a statutory formula, school districts receive $0.885 per student for their enrollment at each school that has a qualified library. The money for the program comes from the state’s General Reserve Fund and is appropriated for this purpose by the Illinois General Assembly, the release explains.
A complete list of the school libraries that received funding is available online.
Kaitlin Mikrut is a freelancer.