The Haines School library got a boost thanks to a nationally known author.
The library will buy new iPads and video equipment with a $3,000 grant from author James Patterson’s School Library Campaign. Scholastic Read Club will also match that donation with “bonus points” that teachers can use to purchase books and classroom materials.
“The school library doesn’t have much of an equipment budget,” said librarian Leigh Horner. School libraries don’t qualify for money from the Rasmuson Foundation, and other grants through state programs are often small.
“There’s just not a lot of grants out there for school libraries,” Horner said.
This is the second time Horner applied for this grant. She plans to buy a portable green screen – in addition to one larger green screen donated to the school – four of five new iPads, small microphones, an iPad stand and a green screen body suit.
The library often gets hand-me-down technology from the classrooms, Horner said. The eight iPads students currently use are outdated, which makes video downloads and storage difficult. Students use a music stand and a tissue box as a makeshift stand.
Horner said students can use the new equipment after school to create book bites – short digital book reviews – using green screen technology. Students can scan a code on the back of a book to watch a fellow classmate’s book review before checking it out of the library.
“They’re so into it,” Horner said about the students using green screen technology. “It’s really great to watch them.” She said it seems like students eat their lunches in five minutes so they have time to play and experiment with making videos.
“Truly my motive was to channel that energy and have it be a little more productive,” Horner said.
Horner hopes to have the new equipment by the start of the semester in 2017.
Haines is one of 363 schools across the country to receive between $1,000 and $10,000 in Patterson’s most recent donation of $1.75 million. Patterson has donated a total of $3.5 million to school libraries nationwide since 2015, according to a press release.