New York: “Long Island Schools Creating Next-Generation Libraries to Ready Students For Future”

From a Newsday Report:

Districts from both Nassau and Suffolk — including those in Amityville, Bethpage, Baldwin, Herricks, South Huntington and Valley Stream 13, have upgraded their libraries in recent years. Some have used funding from bonds and others budgeted from the general fund. And there are future plans are in the works. For example, the Wantagh school district has scheduled a bond vote next month that includes funding for a complete renovation of the library media center at the high school.

“They [libraries] are such the hub of the entire school,” said Eastern Suffolk BOCES School Library System director Carl Vitevitch. They’ve always been collaborative spaces that students use for research and now they are even more essential as higher-level research is being done for Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes, he said. In addition, a library’s online database and other sources can provide resources in multiple languages — including Spanish for the Island’s growing Spanish-speaking population, he said.

“It has been changing and it is still evolving,” Vitevitch said.

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Baldwin High School opened its new library at the high school earlier this month. Officials there call it a “Collaboratory” and it is very different from the traditional library that was there before, said Superintendent Shari Camhi.

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Filed under: Funding, Libraries, News, School Libraries