For the last seven years, books stagnantly lived on the shelves in Room 128. In the center of the first floor, our library was merely an extra classroom. Nothing was ever cataloged for student use, so the books went unborrowed. 

As I spent some of my lunch periods this school year in Room 128, I grew tired of watching the books continue to sit there everyday. I observed students come in and out of the room for a variety of reasons, just never to use a book. I wanted to bring attention to this issue, so two and a half months ago I wrote an article about this hoping for the Student Council to read it. 

The library became a discussion in the Student Council’s meetings in January, and additionally 8th grade social studies teacher and Junior Honor Society (JHS) advisor Molly Willner wanted to get involved. Once the Student Council decided to take on the project, they teamed up with Molly Willner and JHS to work on establishing a library system at WESS. 

By April, students will now have access to the books in the library. Student Council and JHS have digitally cataloging the books through the app Booksource Classroom. When they finish scanning all the books into the online system, every WESS student will be given an account that allows them to check out and return books. Booksource Classroom will also suggest how to grow the selection of books, provide multiple reading levels, and give recommendations to students. 

The Student Council will potentially hold a book drive after the catologing is complete to add to the library’s selection. For more information on this, reach out to [email protected].

Without Molly Willner helping students facilitate this, establishing a library system would not have been plausible for this spring. Willner wanted to take the staff lead on setting up the library because it is a center of learning and can be a teaching tool. 

“I hope WESS’s library will be a place students can quietly work during lunch, find a new book that interests them or supports an AoL assignment, and participate in community service activities such as keeping the shelves organized or peer tutoring.”  

For Seniors with a free period in their schedules, a library is an ideal place to spend those 45 minutes, as well as for students who spend lunch and other free time during the day there. 

Senior Pia Sharma feels relieved that in her seventh year at WESS the school will finally have a library. 

“I plan on borrowing books because I want to save more money [and] I know a lot of my friends already use the library for these reasons and if students are able to borrow books from the library, they will probably use it more which is a good thing because WESS students should take advantages of the resources that they have,” Sharma says. 

JHS and Student Council’s time spent scanning books to make them accessible to everyone will not go unnoticed. The new library system is not only a testament to what WESS will provide hundreds of students with, but shows that the Student Council cares and is receptive to our student body.