It has been an honor to be your librarian for the 2023-2024 academic year! I feel like so much has happened, but also, where did the year go? I hope that as you look forward to your summer vacations, you'll also be excited to come back again in the fall...even if for some of you it will be as visiting guests! Happy graduation to all of our seniors!

Here are this year's top-circulated titles! Were you one of the students who helped to make these books popular?

This year, I was grateful to collaborate with the staff at Seward Park Campus on a variety of topics. We explored AI and its implications for the classroom, had a three-day residency in US History teaching about Indigenous perspectives on Westward Expansion, explored and created Blackout Poetry, explored the national anthem and what an Anthem for US would look like, and we continued our research lessons. I'm also delighted to report that NY State has finally decided to renew its funding for NOVEL NY research databases, so all students in NY State will have continued access to our research databases.

As you can see, collaborations take all forms, so please take advantage of how the library can serve your classroom needs next year!

This year, we held at arts and music teacher mixer in the library where we brainstormed how we can work collectively to promote the arts campus-wide. Teachers from all five schools got to meet and begin thinking about how to create collaborative projects. One tangible product of this was that we were able to use the library as exhibition space for student-made art. From 3D sculptures interspersed in the shelves, to accordion-books on display, to AP Art sculptures and mood boards, fashions from New Design High School's Sustainable Fashion Show, a Black History Month Book and Art pairing, and an arts showcase featuring student-authored plays. We look forward to dreaming about the library as a dynamic space for future events!

We began publishing our first sets of podcasts and music. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel (@SparkStudiosSPCL) to hear our productions as we complete them!

In this year's end of the year survey, we saw that a majority of our patrons use the library to check out books, work independently, and attend events in the library. We also saw that a vast majority of patrons did not know about our website: https://www.sewardparkcampuslibrary.org/ and our social media account: https://www.instagram.com/sparkcampuslibrary/. But we were touched to see that most respondents were frequent users of the library and were looking forward to using the library in diverse ways more! Though the drawing for the gift card has passed, feel free to add in your feedback as it's still infinitely helpful to library programming for next year!

"I absolutely adore our library and librarian! Mina has created an inclusive space for all the schools in the building. The students feel like the space is shared and their own. I love that we have student interns and a rotating gallery of books and information. In short, Mina makes the library feel alive, and that's the way it should be."

"I think that the library is really cool and has more books and resources than other school libraries I've been in. It's nice that I was able to find every book I've looked for so far."

"Thank you for creating a welcoming space and being a wonderful thought partner this year!"

"I did not know you could reserve studio space via the website! Good to knowww"

"You’re doing great! A welcoming space with so many great resources and events. I hope to work more together next year!"

"Thanks for the way you took ownership and transformed the space, Mina...You've brought light to the Library."

"The library is grrrrrreat!"

"Thank you for all that you do! I hope to work together more in the future and fully utilize all the resources you and the library have to offer."

"It would be great if there was some way to introduce students to all that the library had to offer periodically, it would also be great to build into curriculum the use of the library. For example, if a research project is happening in a class a day to go to the library to find and research sources could be built into the course."

It's absolutely fabulous, nothing to fix.

"To make some arts and crafts"

Thanks to the generous support of New Design High School and the Urban Assembly Academy of Government and Law, we are hoping to build up a MakerSpace in our library next year. We are still very much in the planning stages, but we hope to find ways to serve the diverse and creative needs of our students and staff, so if you have some ideas and feelings about this, hit the "contact" button below and get in touch...

...until September, keep dreaming...and reading!

Love,

Mina