Advocacy Blog

We at the Gail Borden Public Library District are honored to be hosting Violins of Hope, ten lovingly restored violins played before or during the Holocaust. This project showcases Jewish stories of resilience, resistance, and unity through the power of musical performance. “Through hands-on...

Joliet Public Library is excited to announce a new traveling exhibit will open on June 16. – The Questioneers: Read. Question. Think. PLAY! Based on the best-selling series of books by author Andrea Beaty and illustrator David Roberts, the imaginative world of Questioneers characters Ada Twist...

Fox River Grove Memorial Library is proud to offer a Sensory Storytime on the second Monday of every month at 10:30 a.m. The next Sensory Storytime takes place on Monday, June 12, 2023. This program differs from the Library’s regular storytimes in that enrollment is more limited; transitions are...

This year Glenside Middle School rolled out WeVideo accounts to all of our students. This was the first time that students had access to a full-feature video editing program on their Chromebooks. It wasn’t a perfect journey, but over the year almost all students could access the basic editing...

As a Librarian, nothing is more frustrating than having students look at our shelves filled with thousands of books and say there is nothing they want to read. I wanted to leverage the RAILS My Library Is Grant to make my shelves more accessible and encourage reading throughout the John T. Pirie...

The Lisle Library District (LLD) was aglow from sunflowers and the LiteZilla on Saturday, April 22. After a year-long two-phased renovation, the Lisle Library District celebrated with a Grand Opening that attracted about 800 attendees, who enjoyed soft pretzels from Gnarly Knots and sunflower...

RAILS Member Engagement Manager Dan Bostrom talks with Jeanne' Aken from Beach Park School District in Beach Park, IL. Beach Park was the recipient of a 2022 My Library Is... Grant for School Libraries. For more information on the My Library Is... Grants for School Libraries, please visit: https:/...

In 2021, the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, proudly opened the doors of its new Makerplace building, ushering in a world of exciting possibilities for the community. Since then, residents of all ages have eagerly embraced the opportunity to acquire new skills, unleash their creativity, and...

I think it is very important that our students are made to feel whole when they enter our East and Central Libraries at Evanston Township High School. My library is a place of welcome and acceptance for who they are.. The East Library is a place of refuge for many of our students. Yes, there are...

Through the power of virtual reality (VR), school librarians can transport their students to different times and places in order to get immersive, interactive 360-degree views like never before. In other words, VR allows us to become our own versions of Mrs. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus...

Getting to know the library I started as the school librarian at Grace Lutheran School in the fall of 2021. My first job as the school librarian was to unpack and move the library back into its space. (The library had been boxed up and put on temporary shelves in another space during Covid to...

Everyone's a reader. That is the message I want to send to the students at Medinah Middle School. Last year I purchased celebrity READ posters from the American Library Association for all of the teachers in the school in order to promote reading in all disciplines. It was fun to see how the posters...

Pandemic-related delays are being felt throughout schools, but Heyworth’s Junior-Senior High School library was hit hard. Between closures, no in-person group visits, falling literacy levels, and a budget cut, the library was seeing a drastic loss of circulation as students struggled not only to get...

My Library is…the heart of our school: a space for all students, staff and community members and filled with something for EVERYONE….readers, scientists, engineers, friends and so much more! My school opened its doors in August 2021 and while the library opened with an adequate supply of books...

During the pandemic, my workspace in a public high school transformed from a traditional book-centric library to an innovative makerspace community called The Hub. Removing our freestanding bookshelves made all the difference in lightening up this student space. I alternately enjoyed and disliked...