Reading & Literacy

Want Kids to Read in the Summer? School Librarians Can Help

By Elizabeth Heubeck — July 21, 2023 5 min read
Photo of a caucasian, elementary or middle school aged boy browsing and reading a book in the library.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Ask teachers what kind of learning kids should be doing in the summer, and the response almost always includes “reading for pleasure.” Usually it’s the first activity teachers suggest kids do. Sometimes it’s the only one.

But the “what” to do is often an easier answer than the “how”—how to get kids to read for pleasure, that is.

Research confirms what common sense suggests: Having regular access to books appears to increase the likelihood that children will choose to read for pleasure, a factor that’s been tied to improved reading achievement, which tends to correlate to overall academic gains. Libraries, both those in schools and in the community, play a big role, say stalwart advocates of reading as a primary pastime: school librarians.

“Summer reading should be fun. It should bring that joy of reading back into students’ hearts, where they can take it up or abandon as they would like,” said longtime school librarian Courtney Pentland, president of the American Association of School Librarians, a division of the American Library Association.

Pentland, an advocate and expert on both school and public libraries, shares key factors that impact the likelihood that students will pursue summer pleasure reading.

Access to school libraries during summer break

Families might assume that when school is closed for summer, so, too, are its libraries. Pentland pointed out that this isn’t necessarily the case.

“It just kind of depends,” she said. “There could be no access, or limited access. It’s very rare that school libraries are open all day, every day.”

Whether school libraries stay open in the summer depends mostly on funding, Pentland explained, who once worked in a school district that kept its libraries open in the summer with support from a grant-funded program. When the funding ended, families no longer had access to the school libraries during summer.

It’s worth noting, Pentland said, because for countless families, getting to school libraries is much easier than getting to a public library. This is particularly for students from impoverished households, many of whom do not have access to public libraries within their communities and, when they do, are likely to encounter reduced operating hours and limited funding for book collections, according to educational researchers.

“Many families don’t have the mobility, or the parents are working multiple jobs, and aren’t able to get to the library when it’s open,” she said. “It does really all come down to funding.”

Families’ awareness of available library resources

Summertime library resources are only useful to families if they’re aware of them. Communicating this information to families is an integral role of all librarians, explains Pentland.

“This is one of the things we look at—how to communicate with our stakeholders about available resources,” she said, adding that school librarians share this information in multiple ways, including social media, parent newsletters, and announcements at school.

Librarians share not only when libraries are open, but what resources they offer. Today, that extends beyond print books. “There’s a bunch of different platforms for eBooks and audiobooks,” Pentland said.

This is an attractive option for families who otherwise shy away from return fees, which don’t apply to eBooks because they are automatically returned at their due date. Further, some districts that issue devices to students during the school year allow them to keep them in the summer.

Library-generated apps also are available for borrowing digital materials: Hoopla and Libby are popular apps that require only a card from a public library to use. Many school libraries make digital books available to students via the app Sora, Pentland said.

Partnerships between school and local public libraries

When a community’s school and public libraries engage in a strong partnership, they can more readily share resources that benefit families—from events to availability of reading resources and beyond.

Limitlesslibraries.org is an example of one such partnership. An initiative of the Nashville Public Library and Metro Nashville Public Schools, limitlesslibraries.org provides extensive online resources to area families that promote things like fun literacy programs for kids, grade-specific book recommendations, and more. It encourages ease of accessibility to library books by allowing students to do things like pick up books from their school libraries that they request from a participating public library.

“Conversations and relationships built between public and school libraries are at the heart of our supportive literacy for all students,” Pentland said.

Availability of certified school librarians

These partnerships are more likely to form and strengthen if schools employ certified school librarians.

And that’s not a guarantee. “Not all schools have certified librarians on staff,” said Pentland. “It’s not a requirement in every district or state.”

A recent report found that, between the 2016-17 and 2018-19 school years, districts lost more than 1,000 librarians. Such losses grew during the pandemic. By the 2020-21 school year, more than 10 percent of the country’s public K-12 students attended school districts that don’t employ librarians.

Are the declining numbers of school librarians due to funding decreases or shifting educational priorities? An exploratory project at Antioch University Seattle is probing that question. The researchers have been collecting data on personnel trends in 50 schools since September 2020, said Debra E. Kachel, the project director. The research so far has found that school librarians’ numbers are dropping at the same time that numbers of administrators and instructional coaches/coordinators are rising. Kachel, for one, thinks those trends signal schools’ shifting priorities.

When budgets tighten, evidence shows that the position of certified librarian is sometimes eyed for elimination, a decision Pentland cautions against. Eliminating certified school librarians, she said, “does have long-reaching effects.”

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Mathematics Webinar
Pave the Path to Excellence in Math
Empower your students' math journey with Sue O'Connell, author of “Math in Practice” and “Navigating Numeracy.”
Content provided by hand2mind
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Recruitment & Retention Webinar
Combatting Teacher Shortages: Strategies for Classroom Balance and Learning Success
Learn from leaders in education as they share insights and strategies to support teachers and students.
Content provided by DreamBox Learning
Classroom Technology K-12 Essentials Forum Reading Instruction and AI: New Strategies for the Big Education Challenges of Our Time
Join the conversation as experts in the field explore these instructional pain points and offer game-changing guidance for K-12 leaders and educators.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Reading & Literacy Opinion What Should We Really Make of Book Bans?
Opinions are divided on the significance of recent (and not-so-recent) efforts to remove certain books from schools.
5 min read
Manipulated image of old hardcover books flying on white background
Liudmila Chernetska/iStock + Education Week
Reading & Literacy Opinion Tired of the Reading Wars? Become a Conscientious Objector
Teachers' obligation is to their students. The research combined with the knowledge of individual students should be the guide.
14 min read
Images shows colorful speech bubbles that say "Q," "&," and "A."
iStock/Getty
Reading & Literacy 'I Literally Cried': Teachers Describe Their Transition to Science-Based Reading Instruction
Teachers describe their journeys as they navigated the changing landscape of literacy instruction.
6 min read
First grade teacher Tammy Satterfield of Mountain View Elementary uses her fingers to break up a word into its separate sounds with phoneme segmentation.
First grade teacher Tammy Satterfield of Mountain View Elementary uses her fingers to segment phonemes—or break up a word into its separate sounds.
Kitty Clark Fritz for Education Week-File
Reading & Literacy Opinion Don’t Worry About 'Book Bans'
So-called “book bans” are a lot rarer—and more reasonable—than you might think, argue Max Eden and Jay P. Greene.
Max Eden & Jay P. Greene
5 min read
Tidy vector hand drawn background with Books, Vintage cozy elements, printed publications, volumes of literature, retro library flying objects, decor textile, wrapping paper, wallpaper,  textured pattern
Olga Kurbatova/iStock