New Initiatives Grant Final Report
“School Story Walks”
Please provide a brief narrative explaining your project and its outcomes.
Our project began when we recognized that we could share our StoryWalks with the elementary schools in our district, and give teachers an opportunity to share books with their students while outside their buildings. Using our previous StoryWalk experiences, we were able to add 9 new stories to our collection, along with the supplies needed to put the StoryWalks up at the schools – industrial strength velcro, laminating pouches, lawn signs and heavy duty stakes.
Once the stories were assembled, we advertised the service to the school librarians. Some of the librarians were thrilled to have us come out. Only 2 never responded. We started putting up the StoryWalks at the beginning of April 2021 and continued until the last week of school in June.
We were very happy to get feedback from the school librarians that the students and teachers were enjoying the StoryWalks, feedback from community members who were surprised and pleased to find them in their neighborhoods, and tales of the children looking for the stories in their school library. Additionally, we heard from principals who were grateful for the StoryWalks and looking for LPL to provide additional services for their students.
One obstacle we encountered was finding books with diverse characters that were also in paperback and the correct dimensions for the signs. In the end, we were able to add 3 stories with diverse characters to the collection.
Another obstacle was getting the schools to sign up for the service and then having to manage which schools got which stories each week. We persistently emailed schools each week with reminders, and photos, and then tagged the schools on social media to try and encourage them to try the service. We ended up with 7 of the 9 schools participating and created a spreadsheet with our circulation statistics.
We also ran into issues with the maintenance staff at some of the schools who did not want to move the signs to mow the lawn. When we asked the school for alternate areas to put the StoryWalks, those school were firm in their desire to have the StoryWalks and keeping them in high-traffic areas.
Staffing was a challenge because it took 2 people at least 2 hours/week to switch out the stories. We are lucky enough to have both a Youth Services Department and a Community Outreach Department and we were able to work together to switch out the StoryWalks while still providing coverage for the Reference Desks.
Finally, we struggled with some of the locations we were asked to use for the StoryWalks because they were limited and the stories did not get spread out as much as we had hoped.
What is the most remarkable accomplishment or finding of your project?
The most remarkable accomplishment, I feel, is that not only were the teachers and students reading the StoryWalks, but so were other members of the community! The StoryWalks were all set up in the front of the schools which allowed families and other people to access the stories when the schools were closed.
Please provide a brief summary of your evaluation activities and/or results, if available.
By the end of June, we had put up 76 StoryWalks at 7 different elementary schools. In September we put them up again and plan to continue the service in the spring.
Joellyn Murry
Coordinator, Children’s & Family Services – Liverpool Public Library
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