A Message from Mrs. Voight

For the past 7 years as a librarian, I've been part of the Unified Arts rotation teaching technology. The first few years before Access 24 Chromebooks going 1 to 1, this worked out fairly well balancing library and technology duties. But since the implementation of Chromebooks, especially during the fluctuating educational environment during the pandemic, the use of library resources significantly decreased. A culture of reading really was lost in the last few years.

My principal recognized that my role was not being utilized in the most effective way and reconfigured the schedule. I am now fully flexible in my schedule to be able to encourage students' reading and collaborate with teachers. I have a calendar in which reading classes are scheduled every 2 weeks. Other classes such as writing, science, and social studies can sign up for research or to use the larger library space for instruction.

This new format has allowed me to focus on building a culture of reading here at Zoneton. This has been my absolute dream job these first six weeks of school! My passion in life is to inspire students to love reading. Reading books for enjoyment truly builds lifelong learning qualities. Reading builds empathy, vocabulary, decreases stress, and so much more!

With regular reading classes visiting the library, the circulation has quadrupled! We have had great success in doing activities like book tasting, 30 second book talks, and students are creating book review "shelf talkers". ZMS has also subscribed to the Kentucky Shared Collection of ebooks from MackinVIA. All across KY, students have access to over 1,400 quality ebooks and audiobooks from the comfort of their device. ZMS students can now read ebooks anytime anywhere in addition to the physical library books.

In terms of impacts, students have been taking their books to classes and choosing to read when assignments are complete. Other students have been stopping me in the hallways to tell me how much they love their books. I've had several students email me thanking me for the increased access to quality books and how much they have enjoyed reading! I truly believe continuing to build a culture of a love of reading will have far reaching impacts to ZMS students. I'm excited to keep building this program and create other reading opportunities for all ZMS students!