A common characteristic of every educational environment is its library. In LMSD, students are fortunate to have libraries in all eleven of our school buildings. Each features shelves of books ranging across a multitude of genres, spaces to work productively, and computer databases for research. In the elementary schools, students have designated library days where they can routinely check out books and keep up with new authors’ works. However, this same schedule does not exist as students get older. In middle school, students are periodically taken to the library for lessons on how to research efficiently and take advantage of the library’s resources. In high school, some students visit the library with their English teachers—but that is not a guarantee. To better understand student usage of the library at the high school level, The Merionite conducted a survey.
When asked how often they visited the library over the course of a week, 39.6 percent of students answered zero times. That means almost forty percent of students are missing out on everything that the library has to offer. A mere 3.8 percent of students visit the library 7-9 times a week. One solution to this underutilization is to create designated library visits for students during class. This would ensure that they are gradually exposed to the variety of resources that LMSD has worked hard to offer.
According to the survey, those who do go to the library primarily use the space during free periods. In contrast, only 8.4 percent of surveyed students use the library to complete research. Many students may be completely unaware of the vast databases and other online resources that they have access to. Taking the time to ask a librarian how to access the sites can enhance a student’s academic work. For example, the website CultureGrams presents cultural and historical information for countries. This service can certainly aid a student working on an essay for a history class.
Perhaps the most significant result from the poll is the number of books that students have checked out during the ‘23-’24 school year. It turns out that 60.5 percent of surveyed students have checked out zero books this year. While it is still early in the school year, teachers have assigned multiple projects, essays, and tests to students across all four grades. Utilizing the library’s accessible resources in preparation for these assignments could have been significantly helpful. Gideon Wolf ’24 has only checked out a library book once when he was asked to by a teacher. When asked why he hasn’t returned to check out more books, Wolf said, “I just never think about it. I don’t really think of our library as a place to find books that I’m interested in.”
Admittedly, with the ever growing reliance on the Internet to complete assignments, there has been decline in library utilization in schools. Nonetheless, it is a valuable resource that will remain available to all LM students, whether that means coming in for a free or checking out a book.
Stats are based on 265 responses from a survey that was sent out to the entire LM student body.
