Students’ Canvas dashboards or email inboxes are often lit up with updates from the school’s Media Center: guest speakers, hands-on activities or club meetings regularly occur in the library. A handful of students do attend these events, but most overlook how truly important it is to have a place like the Media Center where the school community is able to connect through these events.

Activities that take place in the Media Center vary, but this year, they have included celebrations of monthly awareness themes such as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage and Jewish American Heritage Month, where students are encouraged to read books found in the Media Center relating to the cultural holidays; December’s Elf on the Shelf event; an Empowering Conversation discussion with teacher speakers presented by the Black Student Union; and a firefighter and EMT program presentation, just to name a few.

Additionally, through the Media Center’s newsletter (where Media Specialist Tammie Burk published issues in September, January and April) and its website, students are able to stay updated on important deadlines and upcoming events all through a centralized platform.

To have a place within the school like the Media Center, where a multitude of events and deadlines are easily communicated from, is incredibly important in an academic community. In an article from the American Library Association that focused on the importance of a community-centered approach, libraries that have partnered with other community-based organizations to enrich the local community have “staff from other community organizations and libraries alike [enjoying] increased capacity, and members of the community [getting] access to better services and resources.” This is shown most apparently in the Media Center’s frequent partnerships with other organizations and people outside the school.

The community-centered approach that libraries take on also further fosters a greater reading culture within a community. At this school’s Media Center, this is done through the monthly awareness themes that encourage students to read books paired with the monthly themes being celebrated. According to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, “programs that incorporate… social interaction, adult reading support and community participation had promising results on children’s motivation for reading and reading skills.”

While both of these statistics apply more so to larger, local libraries, the same notions still apply to the school’s Media Center. By attending events regularly, students will have the chance to connect with their peers and have a better understanding of the resources within the Media Center itself. At the same time, they will also be able to enrich themselves more in reading in a time when reading culture is on a decline.

In a school year where the strength of this school’s community has been tested on different occasions, it’s places like the Media Center that act as community cornerstones by encouraging inclusion and connection to mend a fragmented community. Although the end of the year is near, it is not too late to appreciate one of the most important spaces at this school.