The Year in Review at SPCL 2025-26

Dear Seward Park Campus,

Thank you for another great year! It's been such an honor to be your librarian. You continued to amaze me with your creativity, desire for community connection, and eagerness for books! It was a long year, but somehow it's already summer, and time to reflect!

This was the first year of our statewide cell phone ban, and though the numbers don't reflect it, I can definitely say that a lot more of you spent your time in the library this year reading! I know this sounds like a small thing to celebrate, but it's actually awesome to see as your librarian. We were also the recipient of some major book donations, so I'm sure that many of you took books home with you that you got to keep!

All that to say that I am proud of the community you have built here around reading, books, and spending time together in meaningful ways!

Have an amazing summer!

Mina

We hosted two book talks this year thanks to a generous donation from Lambda Literary and Yu&Me Books! In March, we hosted Mark Oshiro and their book Into the Light and in May, we hosted Soman Chainani and his book Young World. After the book presentations, students were able to ask questions and then get their books signed by the authors!

Our library interns also got to read and meet author Ibi Zoboi and her National Book Award finalist novel-in-verse (S)kin. We traveled up to Symphony Space to hear all of the finalists read excerpts of their book, and then we were treated to a book signing afterwards!

Thanks to a generous donation from the Anne Frank Center USA, we were able to host our own performance of "Letters from Anne and Martin" featuring the writings of Anne Frank and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail. Students also received a copy of Diary of a Young Girl from the Anne Frank Experience in NYC.

We had the privilege of hosting author Marie Lu on the publication of her first adult novel Red City. Marie was kind enough to sign all of our library copies of her YA books, so we were over the moon about that!

This year, we partnered with Tech School from the monday.com Foundation to pilot a 3D Design and Printing class. I co-taught this with a fabulous design teacher from New Design High School. Together with a class of ~20 tenth graders, we learned to navigate multiple design software programs to help us render our 2D sketches into 3D prints. Our year culminated in a Make-a-thon where students designed wearable technology prototypes which were modeled on the runway!

Next year, in addition to continuing our 3D Printing class, we will be piloting a small cohort of vibe coders who will learn how to code apps, websites, and games with AI. Our students got a small preview of this during a visit to monday.com's offices.

Through our community partnerships, we got to visit new locations as well. Special shout to Poets House (see photos from our visit here) and the Center for Book Arts (see photos here). Both places are amazing resources for poetry and art books respectively, and both are free! Reach out for more information on how to connect!

We now have a dedicated Spotify and Apple podcast channel for our studio! Subscribe below so you can keep up with our latest creations!

Our library internship continued to grow with seniors from New Design High School and a work-study intern from Essex Street Academy. The program was a way to help manage our three separate spaces, the library, Spark Studio, and Spark Space, as well as provide valuable work experience to our students. Students met four times a week and receive course credit for their work.

Additionally, we continued our volunteer program for students from all schools, and welcome interns from across the campus. We hope to continue expanding these opportunities. Click on the link below to see photos of our year!

This year we continued our partnership with Yu&Me Books and hosted seven author talks! We also continued our work with City Lore's From Harithaka to Hip Hop program to work with the Library of Congress as well as NYC-based teaching artists. We were privileged to work with storyteller Rawya El Chab who helped us create the We Were Here artist book! Students explored old yearbooks, and thought about local history and their place in it. In working with primary sources, students created their own primary source, which will live on our shelves for the next round of library goers to discover!

This year, Seward Park Campus Library began the five-year process for a complete gut renovation. Through a series of stakeholder meetings with the School Construction Authority, the Office of Library Services, and school leaders in the building, we have designed a new library layout that can hopefully fit the needs of our unique community! We hope to break ground by the fall of 2027, but that will mean that our physical library will not be open for some time. Never fear. Mina is already working on programming and residencies that will allow the spirit of SPCL to be vibrant and useful during our physical closure.

Have a restful summer, all. I will be signing off this summer, but I look forward to coming back refreshed in the fall. Be sure to bookmark our website: https://www.sewardparkcampuslibrary.org/ and our social media account: https://www.instagram.com/sparkcampuslibrary/. It's been a lovely year, but I know we're all looking forward to a little rest.

Be all manner of well,

Mina