Keith Valley Middle School Continues Library Offerings in Remote Setting

Although students are learning remotely in the Hatboro-Horsham School District, Keith Valley Middle School library staff wanted children to have access to books via curbside pickup and Project Lit, the monthly book club.

Curbside pickup reopens access to Keith Valley’s full library to students. Ebooks and audiobooks are available for instant download on a student’s device; however, there is a wider selection in the library’s printed collection and many students prefer to read from a printed book.

Students select the books online and can pick them up in Keith Valley’s main entrance at a later date. When books are returned, they are quarantined and wiped down with disinfectant.
Keith Valley Middle School also started its chapter of Project Lit during the 2018-2019 academic year and it has been gaining popularity ever since. Project Lit is a national, grassroots literacy movement that is committed to bringing culturally relevant books from diverse authors to students.

Keith Valley’s Project Lit meets once a month to celebrate a book with discussion and themed activities, and will continue virtually this year. Students, staff and parents are all welcome to join and do not have to attend the club each month.

“I encourage students to join because we read contemporary novels that are culturally relevant,” said librarian Lisa Quinn. “Kids want to talk about big things and these books give them a way to do that.”

Many of the books have underlying themes, and have more weight and substance than other books for middle-schoolers.

Quinn says the books students read in Project Lit match Rudine Sims Bishop’s “mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors” theory. “Students should see themselves reflected in books, offer a window into someone else’s reality and be able to step into someone else’s world,” said Quinn.

Learn more at https://bit.ly/KVLibrary.