Building a library is about collecting books that your students can really connect to. Better to have a few dozen of the right books, than hundreds of the wrong ones. 

Please, don't be intimidated if you have no books right now. That's OK! Building a library is a beautiful and rewarding process, and there are lots of ways to do it. 

Start here, with this list of top student favorites. 

Now, consider your options for building your collection. 

#1 Slow and Steady (on your own): With this option, you begin to collect books today. Search in library book sales, used book stores, your friends' basements, Goodwill, your own bookshelf. 

#2 In Collaboration with your Librarian: This is a great way to supplement your own texts, or even as a way to entirely fill your library. Meet with your school librarian and ask if there is a way to run an outpost of the school library in your room, curated by you. 

#3 With Donors Choose: Donors Choose is a great way to fund your classroom library, if your district allows it. You can create a classroom wishlist and get rolling right away using these helpful tips for success. 

#4 With an Amazon Wishlist: If you'd like to tap into your parent community to support your library (and your school is OK with that), you can create an Amazon wishlist with the books you'd like to add to your library (here's a step-by-step to help). For an easy way to share it, create a classroom newsletter a few times a year using these free templates at Canva, and then link your wishlist in one section along with a quick request for interested families to choose a book to donate. 

Can you use all four strategies, you ask? Of course!!!

If you can get your students access to electronic or audio books, that's a free way to expand your shelf by a lot! Creating a digital bookshelf for your class will help students take the best advantage of these resources. 

Here’s how you can create one: 

1. Use one of these bookshelves in Google slides. 

2. Using the program students have access to (Libby, Sora, Overdrive, etc.), screenshot a picture of a book you want to feature. Drop the screenshot onto the slide, resize, and drag it onto the shelf. Click it and press “link”, then add the link to the site where students can find it. 

3. Repeat capturing screenshots and linking them until your shelf is full. Make as many as you want!

For the shelf I created here, the top shelf is books students can readily access for free online, because they're in the public domain. The bottom shelf takes students to the Overdrive site, where they would need to be registered and then request and check out the book (free) to read. Because ebooks are available in limited numbers, you can’t guarantee that anyone clicking the book will be able to get the book just when they want it, so you should remind students that if a book is already taken, they should submit a request to get it next before moving on to check out a different book. 

As your book collection grows, you'll want to create an inviting home for it in your classroom. Time to keep an eye open for free or inexpensive bookshelves. Adding book posters, genre labels, and a book return area will help keep things organized (download these items below). 

Use the App, Book Buddy, the web program Booksource or a chart in a notebook to help you track books coming in and out. 

Tomorrow, we'll be diving into creating an effective First Chapter Friday program. This is a wonderful way to promote a reading culture in your classroom, and I can't wait to share all the details and resources to make it SIMPLE for you to get started.  

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