While many use the UPrep library as a space for connection, curiosity and collaboration, there is a significant lack of upper-school students using it to check out books. For librarian Annie Bingham, this is not an issue as there are many other uses.
“It’s not just about books, and it never has,” Bingham said. “The library is more like a kitchen and less like a grocery store. It’s not that you just come to get the ingredients that you need. It’s like this is where some collaboration and experimentation happens.”
She believes that the library is a central part of the school; without it, there would be something missing.
“We could teach these skills anywhere, but I think the space it offers is different from anywhere else on campus,” Bingham said. “If you imagine our campus without the library, there’s a lot of great rooms, but I think this offers something different.”
Bingham estimates that about 80% of the books checked out are by middle schoolers.
“They come in by the grade, and everybody gets a book. And high schoolers don’t really do that, but some kids have kept up their reading, and we try to buy whatever they would like and have it here for them,” Bingham said.
Ninth grader Kayla Billingslea has volunteered in the library after school every day over the last two years. She wishes more upper schoolers would use it as much as the younger students.
“It could be used more. The middle schoolers love it a lot. Our middle schoolers are our most avid readers,” Billingslea said. “The high schoolers kind of just use it as a homework space, which is fine and part of the reason what it’s used for. But there’s not a lot of checkouts among the high school students.”
Bingham highlights reading for pleasure as a skill and a way to prepare for the rest of one’s schooling career.
“Kelly Harrington talked about how the most important thing you can do for college readiness is reading,” Bingham said. “Expand your vocabulary. You think differently. You know, there’s just ways of thinking, and it’s good for your critical thinking.”
She wants students to see the library as a resource, even if they are too busy to check out and read a book.
“It’s really a place where you can connect,” Bingham said. “And once you are comfortable here, then when you do need to do research, you know it’s the place to go.”
