Parkway West Library

From movies students can borrow, puzzles to put together, a sticker maker, a sticker wall and a creative corner to do fun DIY projects in, West’s library has plenty of activities to take advantage of. Librarians Brian Welch and Lauren Reusch take many steps to create a welcoming environment for all students.

“[Our library] is an environment for kids to learn outside of [the] academic setting. [They’re] more at peace here. We have lots of things for people to explore outside of traditional academics, [where] students can find some interest in our different projects or use this space to have a mental timeout — time to mentally heal,” Welch said. “In the last couple of years with [COVID-19] especially, we’ve intentionally added a lot of the crafts and stuff to create that mental [and] social break for students. In elementary school, you’ve got recess, and here, people might have P.E., but some people don’t have that class, so the library acts as that space for students to take a break.”

Many students use the library as a common space before school and during Ac Labs. Some host clubs during Ac Lab in the library, such as Chess, Dungeons and Dragons and Black Student Union. Others use it as a quiet space to unwind. When it comes to books, though, the library has many events and set-ups that promote reading, such as Read Across America. Senior Elle Rotter is the student leader of the Book Club and gets involved in the library’s events regularly.

“I enjoy participating in the activities in the library because it’s a fun way for people to get involved at West and in reading. As a club, Book Club likes to get involved in activities like Read Across America, and [we] find ourselves determined to complete these challenges,” Rotter said.

The library hosts cultural events, including an African Drumming class, a Poetry Out Loud reading, the African American Read-In and Bollywood Movie Nights. 

West’s library also uses the Sora app to encourage online reading. Students can download the app and borrow books and audiobooks completely online, which removes the checkout and returning steps of the process, ensuring readers cannot lose any books or forget to check books back in. 

“I feel like our library does a really good job at staying connected; we use social media to promote everything we do. The library is still a place for the community to connect, and they use the digital era as a way to keep up. If we tried to stay as just a place with books, we wouldn’t be able to keep up in today’s society. Reusch uses a lot of technology when she helps teach students and teachers different digital software. She is very good at utilizing technology to promote learning,” Brandmill said.