The Rambling Reader

Quarter 4 2023

See what is new at the Dr. Stephen J. Storkel Learning Center, including:

Library Promotions and Displays

This quarter the library has celebrated National Poetry Month in April with a variety of activities for study hall students and creative writing classes. Students could submit their own blackout or spine-label poetry.

We also had displays for books the will soon be made into movies and books that showcase Asian American and Pacific Islander authors in May.

Library Appreciation Week - Student Video


PRHS Library Student Appreciation.mov

Library Statistics and Class Overview

This quarter we had 4,449 study hall walk-ins, 256 class periods visiting, and 698 circulations.

English 9 classes visited to conduct informative research on a topic of their choosing using Noodle Tools to create notecards and bibliography. There was also a prereading research project for English 11 for Fences focused on the time period and Pittsburgh's history.

Social Studies classes visited to research the Gilded Age, Law, and the policies of modern US Presidents.

The library also played a big role in providing space for AP and Keystone Exams.

Northern Tier Library Cards 

Northern Tier Pine Center has closed for the year, but students can take advantage of their resources from their main branch or from the convenience of their devices!

Summer reading from the public library has never been more accessible for our students now that they have been issued public library cards in their homerooms. Students will be able to access ebooks and audiobooks from Northern Tier's Libby and Hoopla Apps as well as check out hardcopy books from the library or  Pine Center once they open again after Labor Day.

Every student has been emailed a screencast tutorial video and Google form for public library orientation that has been played on PRTV and shared in many of the English classes to accompany summer reading assignments.

Makerspace Club

Flower Pot Macrame

Ramtastic Reads from the D.S.J.S.L.C.!

*Top 10 Independent Reads Checked out in Quarter 2:

  1. We Were Liars - E. Lockhart
  2. Complicit - Stephanie Kuehn
  3.  The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien
  4. As Good as Dead -  Holly Jackson
  5. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
  6. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
  7. As You Walk on By -  Julian Winters
  8. All of Us Villains - Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman
  9. The Hawthorne Legacy - Jennifer Lynn Barnes
  10. To All the Boys I've Loved Before - Jenny Han


*These do not include assigned readings.

Resources in Focus

Northern Tier Public Library Card Resources:

Libby: Ebook and Audiobook platform. Download the app and enter your barcode and pin. Libby has a huge collection of quality ebooks and audiobooks, as well as magazines and some graphic novels.

Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Libby in-browser website

Hoopla: Ebook, Audiobook, Graphic Novel, and Video platform. Download the app and enter your barcode and pin. Hoopla has access to videos with access to The Great Courses Lectures, Masterclass videos, Documentaries, and some TV and Movies. Hoopla is ideal for reading Graphic Novels on a phone or tablet, and is one of the only platforms that allow you to read a graphic novel cell-by-cell.

Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Amazon App Store (for Kindle), Hoopla in-browser website


Other Electronic Resources


Mango - Language Learning platform (Spanish, French German and more!)


Tutor.com - Free tutoring on a variety of topics


Udemy - Free lessons and lectures


NoveList Plus - Reading Recommendations


Creativebug- Crafting Classes


ACLA Reading Recommendations - Book Recommendations