Sterling school librarian secures literary grants to enhance 2 district libraries

Two Sterling school libraries have received an upgrade thanks to librarian Heather Johnson of Sterling Public Schools.

Franklin Elementary and Challand Middle schools were recently awarded a Readers’ Choice Grant from the Association of Illinois School Library Educators/LBSS Endowment Fund. Every year, the competitive, statewide grant is available to school and public libraries that have registered for one of four reading programs: Monarch (Pre-K-2), Bluestem (3-5), Caudill (6-8) or Lincoln (9-12).

Franklin School’s library received a full set of Monarch Award books, while CMS received a full set of Caudill Award books for its library. The schools were part of 59 libraries throughout the state to receive the grant. Students from both schools will vote for their favorite book, with those results being submitted for the statewide award winner.

This was Johnson’s first time pursuing the grant.

“Our funding for books, in particular, for our K-8 buildings, has been pretty slim post-COVID,” Johnson said. “We did get an influx of some ESSER funds. But beyond that, the purse straps have been a little tight, and so I wanted to be proactive and try to seek out alternate places for funding.”

The reading programs are run through the Association of Illinois School Librarians and cost the schools $10 to participate. Johnson said librarians can run the programs how they see fit so long as students at each level read a required number of books from the program, making them eligible to vote on the Reader’s Choice program. Those winners are announced in March.

“I’ve run a program at the high school every year that I’ve been a librarian, which is super fun, but I have the funding for that,” Johnson said. ”However, we haven’t done that at our other buildings, so it kind of looks different depending on the librarian and how she wants to run it.”

Johnson said each program is designed to meet the needs of the specific school community. Each school receives a set of 20 eligible books in a variety of genres, such as fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels and others. The students are then encouraged to read as many as they can.

“At our middle school, she has a good, better, best rating, and then it culminates in a pizza bash for the winner. The kids are entered into this drawing for every one of those books they read, but then they’re also incentivized to share with their peers what they read,” Johnson said. ”She’s got that system down, but this is the first time we’ve formalized that program, which is super cool in our K-2 building.”

For younger students who cannot read independently, Johnson said that her fellow librarians are also inviting community members, such as the mayor, police and firefighters, to read to the younger students who cannot do so independently during their regularly scheduled library time.

“That one’s called the Monarch program,” Johnson said. ”She’s got some fun monarch butterfly-themed decorations and stuff to do that. And there are little trinket prizes that the kids can win for those.”

Johnson has been a member of the Association of Illinois School Librarians since becoming district librarian eight years ago, and has been attending their yearly conferences ever since.

“I listened to what other librarians were doing across the state, stole some of their great ideas, and brought them back to my school,” Johnson said. “We decided we needed to expand that. Some of my librarians were already running similar contests or reading out loud. We wanted to formalize that and see if we could get a set of the books for free. And so that’s kind of where this was born out of.”

This is not Johnson’s only grant-writing effort. She is pursuing another grant for nonfiction books that is due next spring. But with six schools throughout SPS to consider, she is evaluating what parts of the schools’ library collections need the most updating.

“Two years ago, I wrote a grant, and I was able to secure money for mental health books for high school students,” Johnson said. ”I picked a focus – all of our mental health books were dated. So I pitched those, post-COVID, and came up with new ones that were more relevant and timely for our students’ needs.”

As for the new Monarch and Caudill books, Johnson said the schools should receive those by the second week of August. She said these programs can be run annually and tailored to the student body’s needs.

“My middle school librarian has been running a contest for the past three years, very similar to this, but she’s modified it over the years because what the kids have wanted has been different,” Johnson said. ”We need to toot the horn of those building librarians who know their kids and know the staff and who make sure they meet those kids where they are, because they’re so excited to help them become leaders.”