As the library continues to celebrate 20 years of daily deliveries to Westerville schools, the value of this service for students, parents, teachers, and staff remains clear. 

Teachers like Mary Townley (Central College Christian School) have applauded how the service has saved her an "enormous amount of precious time over the years - not to mention gas money!" 

As teacher Kate Mantenieks (Whittier Elementary) explains, "Kids order the books for themselves, I order books that our school library does not have for specific kid, I order class collections for special topics and units, and I order books for myself." Last year, she was able to order enough high-interest books by Black authors for 90 fifth graders by using the teacher collections service. "We were not disappointed," she said.

When asked if she remembers a student who was positively impacted by the service, Brandi Young (Media Specialist at Westerville South High School) shared, "I have quite a few students who use the school delivery system. But one student comes to mind quickly - she is a senior this year and I have had her as a library worker since she was a freshman. She is a huge reader and when she discovered that [the library] delivers, I swear to you her life was changed. She and I are always talking about our To Be Read (TBR) lists and what we can each add and we scroll through the library app to find books we are interested in to request to be delivered. When Jon comes to drop off books, she is a kid in a candy store and I love seeing her eyes light up. This service is huge for her (and many of my students) because she doesn't yet drive so she cannot easily make it to the library to browse and/or pick up books. This service really helps to diminish our city's book deserts." 

School deliveries also help to empower student-led learning. One student with a huge interest in history had read everything possible in his school library's history section. So each week, he would pull out his library card and have a book sent to his school from the library. "He would light up when his giant new books of history would arrive and share his new knowledge with his friends in the cafeteria. These books kept him interested and extended his social studies expertise," shared  Mantenieks.

For Deanna McDaniel (retired media specialist at Genoa Middle School and former library board member), school deliveries helped her students research topics for the annual National History Day competition.  "A middle school library has its limits for research possibilities, even with the internet.  My students were able to get materials from local archives about whatever subject they had chosen to research.  This was the best of all worlds, as I could provide good, basic, secondary sources, and then we could go on to find some excellent and more detailed sources to back up their research."

Ease and speed are two of the benefits that often come up when people talk about their love of school deliveries. Books can be ordered while waiting in line at the grocery store from the library's app and arrive at school the next day. "I no longer have another errand to run. The Westerville Public Library makes loving books and pairing kids with good books effortless! It feels good that the Westerville Public Library has my back as a teacher."

Young shared a similar sentiment, "I work long hours and have a young kid at home so I don't have the opportunity to go into the library as much as I would like. I am constantly on the app putting books on hold and requesting them to be delivered to South. It's like my birthday every time I get a delivery for me."

Other times that school deliveries have proven useful were when the Westerville South library was under construction and all of the books were packed away in boxes, during the annual battle of the Books event, and when teachers need to curate a set of books on a specific unit or lesson topic, according to Young.

One benefit of the service that came to mind for Lisa Reschke (Clerk 2 at Cherrington Elementary) is that it helps provide equitable access to all that the library offers. "It is such a blessing to our families that don’t have a vehicle. It really evens the field so that all our families have access to books!"

McDaniel remembers what it was like when she worked in a school district before coming to Westerville. "I had high school students taking advanced courses who needed some very technical books.  We had an agreement with the Ohio State University libraries in Columbus that we could order books and journals from them. But what that entailed was ordering and getting postage ahead of time, for the student, and then going to the post office and paying book rate to send them back.  As the librarian that was one of my many jobs. It was expensive and slow!"

When school deliveries launched in 2004, she says, "I was ecstatic! This [meant] that my students could get whatever they wanted from a huge list of public and academic libraries in Ohio, without even leaving their school.  My voracious readers were pleased because they were able to access books that were already checked out from my library by another student.  My students whose parents were both working away from home didn't have to wait for someone to take them to the library.  What a benefit!"

“It is AMAZING that you offer this service. My kids LOVE getting books delivered to them (especially the ones they have really been waiting to read)! Thank you again for offering such a wonderful service. If only the whole world were a library, we would be in such good shape," shared  Jennifer Velazquez.

Borrow to Win!

To celebrate the 20^th anniversary of school deliveries, the library will be hosting a prize drawing every month for a $20 gift card and swag bag from September 2024 through May 2025. Students, teachers & staff - for every item you request for delivery, you'll receive one chance to win that month's prize drawing. Learn more.