By Wendy Morrell Collins

We school librarians are always looking for ways to extend the power of library resources by reaching out to our neighborhoods and cities. School-community connections can be generated from national, well-publicized events. Or they can begin locally with a spark of inspiration, gathering momentum until they eventually encompass whole parts of the community with delightfully wonderful results. Whatever their origins, the connections between school libraries and the wider community can create exciting new avenues for bringing literacy—and lifelong learning—to every child.

National events sponsored by organizations such as the American Library Association (ALA) or the Children's Book Council (CBC) often bring the glamour of big-name writers to town—people like Chris Crutcher, for example. This noted Northwest author in the young-adult category was the featured speaker at the first annual Teen Author Lecture, put on last October by Portland's Multnomah County Library as part of Teen Read Week, a national ALA literacy initiative. Piggybacking on the lecture, Jackson Middle School librarian Reba Parker asked him to speak to the entire eighth-grade class. In preparation for his visit, Parker invited interested students to read and discuss Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Crutcher's moving novel of friendship and loyalty. Barbara Head, children's librarian at nearby Capitol Hill Branch, supplied discussion questions to the student book group. The young readers not only relished their conversation with Crutcher and clamored for his autograph, but they also sat together at the downtown lecture, front and center, hanging on every word of his talk.

For nearly 10 years, Portland's giant, legendary bookstore Powell Books has sponsored a promotion in conjunction with the CBC's national event, Children's Book Week, donating more than $500,000 in gift certificates to school libraries. For the entire month, when a customer carries his or her purchases to the cashier and utters the phrase, "It's for kids," Powell's donates 10 percent of the purchase price to librarians in the Portland and nearby Beaverton school districts. The librarians often stretch their budgets by buying used or out-of-print copies of kids' and teachers' favorites to beef up their schools' collections.

Last spring, local morning DJ Les Sarnoff read to fourth-graders at Ainsworth Elementary as part of Read Across America, which usually ends on or near Dr. Seuss's birthday (his 100th falls on March 2, 2004). That morning, as Sarnoff aired his show, the KINK radio personality was still mulling over which of five classic titles he should read. Deciding to let the children choose didn't help: They wanted them all! So for an hour, he read excerpts from each, including that perennial favorite, The Cat in the Hat.

"Sometimes it's the little things that have the most impact," Sarnoff says. "Something as simple as reading to a child and watching their eyes light up can make such a difference."

Out on the Oregon Coast where the Columbia River pours into the Pacific Ocean, Astoria High School was the backdrop for a Literary Media Fair last February. It was just the latest community outreach effort of Gregory Lum, selected by the Oregon Educational Media Association as 2002 High School Librarian of the Year and by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology as National School Librarian/Media Specialist. Nine local leaders, including the district superintendent, a bookstore owner, and a former librarian, were asked to judge the public event, which featured projects based on favorite books. Parents, teachers, students, and anyone else who wanted to join in created posters, artwork, PowerPoint presentations, and all sorts of other book-related displays. Teachers submitted their works in the "professional division."

"It was great for the kids to see what their teachers were reading," notes Lum, now at Portland's Jesuit High School.

In the fields and farmlands of Oregon's Sherwood community, nearly everybody is concerned about the quality of water that drains into the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. Librarian Patty Sorensen at Middleton Elementary School recently worked with a blended class of fourth- and fifth-graders to research native plants. They worked closely with the city parks manager, the refuge's head ranger, and a local environmental group known as Raindrops to Refuge to compile information about the local flora. Their facts, drawings, and photographs were collected into a book, published with a grant from Sherwood's education foundation. Copies can now be found in both the school and public libraries. Plus, six books were specially waterproofed for student-guided walks in this rain-drenched Willamette Valley community. The sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade volunteer guides are members of the Refuge Club at Sherwood Middle School.

Jan Peterson-Terjeson, the librarian at Nancy Ryles Elementary School in the Portland suburb of Beaverton, participates in the school's Grandpa Program by hosting retired businessmen who read weekly with students in the library. Peterson-Terjeson isn't sure who benefits most: the teachers for the supplemental reading time, the children for the one-to-one attention, or the grandfathers who cherish the chance to read with kids now that they have some spare time.

Sometimes, the connections between school libraries and their neighborhoods are more informal—and deeply personal. Ann Sindelar-Trahin at Beaverton's Errol Hassel Elementary School likes living in the neighborhood where she works because it creates opportunities for spontaneous and serendipitous connections. "I see kids in the neighborhood and the local stores," she says. "I always stop and chat with them and their parents. I love being a part of the school community, both inside and out!"

In the face of diminishing state funding and beleaguered resources, school librarians can fill some of the aching needs by reaching out to local businesses, to public libraries, to residents of other cultures and other generations. After all, our futures are bound together as surely as the pages of a book.

Wendy Morrell Collins recently completed her dual endorsement for teacher certification/library media at Portland State University. She is the new librarian at Whitaker Middle School in Portland.