A Little Library in Every Classroom

(Think smaller.)

We have a plan for the future of libraries at Franklin.

Our group is proposing a system of student-run "little libraries" that can be added to classrooms upon request by any teacher who's interested.

All the pleasures and comforts of having books freely available to everyone — but with much, much less square footage.

We don't have a library :(

As one student put it, “how can we be a top high school in the state with no library??!?!?!?!?!”

We had an actual library once at Franklin, but it had its own problems. It was cramped, its system for checking out books wasn't very intuitive, and it took up far too much space for how much people used it.

Nowadays, the area that was once a library is an open, multi-use space for study halls, robotics, meetings, testing, peer tutoring — it's providing us a lot of value, and we don't want to take that away.

But there has to be a way for books to be abundant and available without having to take up a huge amount of space.

We are building a "little library" system for any classroom that wants one.

• Teachers will be able to request a library for their classroom.

• They can decide where the library will go.

• They will also control when students will be allowed to browse and borrow the books (e.g. after students are done with tests).

• The collections will be small and well-curated by the school's biggest book nerds.

• It will be run on the honor system — borrow a book for as long as you need it, no complicated check-out process required.

We're putting in a lot of work to make little libraries happen.

We are currently in the process of building prototypes to work out the logistics. Our plan is to have a pilot program launch this semester.

We have written a proposal to Franklin Lit Society, hoping they will help sponsor our idea and keep it going after we graduate.

Our hope is to provide a variety of books in each library. We aim to draw from several genres and to rotate them in and out periodically to keep the stacks fresh and inviting.