Student Book Selection Committee

Upon arrival at my new job as media specialist with a less than desirable media collection, I set out this past fall seeking and applying for grants that would help us purchase much needed library books. Midyear I was notified that we won two separate grants for our school-wide reading program called Just READ. With money to spend I asked teachers to nominate a few students to help select new library books for our school. In a matter of hours our student book selection committee was in place. I had previously arranged for a book vendor to bring book samples for the students to preview. They eagerly began previewing and sorting the books into three piles: Yes, No and Maybe. Our experts took their task very seriously in selecting titles they were interested in as well as titles they thought the other students at our school would want to read. In the end we were able to purchase 100% of the titles in the Yes pile and many of the titles in the Maybe pile. When the books came in our student book selection committee became walking advertisements for the new books. Excitement really is contagious!