Our elementary libraries are at the heart of our school communities. They are places that encourage the appreciation of books and a love of reading. Our libraries offer a multitude of genres and formats, enabling students to satisfy their natural curiosity and explore new interests. Students are exposed to a wide variety of children’s literature through read-alouds, which they discuss and analyze. Multicultural literature from our broad-based collections offers students opportunities to see their own experiences reflected back at them and provides windows into other worlds.

In addition, the elementary library program encourages active learning. Students are empowered with the information literacy tools to navigate our information-rich world. In addition to nonfiction books on a vast range of topics, we select curated, age-appropriate, reliable electronic resources in the forms of online encyclopedias, ebooks, databases of articles, and video services. Through direct instruction aligned with the Empire State Information Fluency Continuum, we guide students as they formulate research questions, select appropriate information sources, gather information, and share their new knowledge.

Each elementary class visits the library once every 6-day cycle. Kindergarten classes spend 30 minutes and all other grades have 40-minute library class periods.