Woodland Hills students to be part of historic public library card giveaway

Woodland Hills High School and its students will be making history Friday in a very positive way.

The Woodland Hills School District has partnered with the three public libraries that serve the students for the “Library Cards for All” initiative. The libraries — the Braddock Carnegie Library, the C.C. Mellor Memorial Library in Edgewood and the Carnegie Free Library of Swissvale — will be handing out public library cards to the high school students in their homeroom class.

The cards are theirs for life and students will be able to access all the digital and physical materials at any library in Allegheny County (all 74 locations). The students can access digital media including eBooks, audiobooks, music and movies as well as countless academic research databases. Woodland Hills thus becomes the first school district in the state of Pennsylvania to offer this level of access to their students.

In addition to the students getting new cards, any fines owed through previous public library accounts were completely wiped away and students will never be charged for overdue materials, the district said.

“Library Cards for All” is not a one-time program. The Woodland Hills School District will add enrollments each year, said Kevin McGuire, the Woodland Hills library media specialist who came up with the idea for the program. He said it’s not just about getting a library card.

“What makes what we’re doing so unique is the fact that the public libraries in our district and their staffs are working with the school to support the use of the cards in the classroom,” he said. “We’re not just giving them the cards and saying, ‘Yep, we’re done.’ We’re working with the students and the teachers in the next two years to do a really strong programming push (to show) how the students can use those cards, not just for their academic needs but recreational reading and things like that.”

But in an age when kids have access to information through their computers and other devices, does a library card really mean what it once did?

“It means more now because libraries mean more now,” McGuire said. “It’s not only, you go into a library and you check out a book, although that’s part of it. There’s also the online realm as well what the card opens access to.”

Libraries have changed considerably since the days when baby boomers were shushed for talking too loudly. They’ve largely become a place where kids play video games and socialize and no one whispers anymore. So, one might wonder if the library is still a place where a kid can grab a book and just read.

“What the library is used for has definitely changed during our time,” McGuire said. “The fact that (kids) are in that space really opens the door to other things – like books. With the right librarian, you can get a kid to read a book if you just ask them what they’re interested in and try to relate it to them in some way.”

However, if nothing else, said McGuire, the kids are in a safe space and doing something fun.

“There is the added factor that the access is there and they will pick up a book and get involved in some other type of programming that they wouldn’t have had access to if they were just sitting at home,” he said.

”We’re the first district in the state to do this, which is so huge to me. There are other districts that have had smaller ways of giving their kids cards, but no other district has given their kids a card that can access a whole community of libraries, plus the educational support, plus a card with no financial obligations tied to it at all.”

McGuire said it all starts with one book and one student.

“If they have the right connection, they’re hooked. That’s what it’s about.”