BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The pandemic has changed a lot for educators, and one of the biggest challenges is providing students with access to readings.
“As everybody knows, things have been so different this year and one of the things that have been really effected is libraries abilities to get books in the hands of patrons,"School Library Media Specialist at both Kenmore East and Kenmore West schools Mary Kamela said. "And above all else really, that’s what we want to do.”
So her schools, and the rest of the Kenmore and Town of Tonawanda school districts, partnered up with the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library to provide its students with thousands of new ebooks.
“Given the remote learning, given the hybrid learning, people need access to these e-resources," Director of Buffalo and Erie County Public Library System Mary Jean Jakubowski said.
The library is providing these schools with more than 120,000 unique resources and students can access it all through their student IDS. According to Jakubowski there has already been 72,000 downloads.
“We are so very proud of that. It definitely shows that access to those resources is absolutely necessary,” she said.
Students can access the libraries database through Soara, an online reading app for students.
“We’re very grateful that we are able to afford to offer this particular program, and we look forward to advancing the program with additional school districts,” Jakubowski said.
If your child's school is not currently partnered with public library they can still access this database online. All you have to do is create a student digital library card on the library's website.
