Elementary Schools Receive Grants for their Libraries

Posted on 10/03/2025

The North Fairview, Logan, Northern Hills, and Elmont Elementary School Libraries all received a $3000 competitive grant from the Northeast Kansas Library System (NEKLS).

North Fairview will use the grant to help bring the nonfiction collection in the library more up to date with topics including transportation, technology, medicine, and government that are geared toward educating elementary age students.

“Keeping nonfiction books current is an important yet difficult task for smaller libraries. With so many things changing so quickly, having funds to provide new materials is vital for kids to learn accurate information. As with everything, book prices are rising so it gets tougher each year to keep up with purchases. This grant will be a huge game changer for our library to get some much-needed updates in our print collection,” said North Fairview Librarian Kim Patton. Patton is currently participating in a year-long professional development program focusing on nonfiction books, with the goal of making those types of books more appealing to students and improving the access that students and teachers have to nonfiction.

In addition to the NEKLS grant, Elmont Librarian Annette Myers also received a reimbursement for purchasing books from the Kansas Notable Books Grant. Elmont will be adding graphic novels, non-fiction, and increasing their audio collection.

Logan Elementary will use the NEKLS grant to purchase Kansas and local-centric books, including fiction and nonfiction written or illustrated by Kansans, field guides about local flora and fauna, nonfiction about local sports teams, Native Americans in our region, historical figures and events, and nonfiction about recreational activities our students enjoy in their neighborhoods and at our local and state parks.

Logan Librarian Natalie Moreland shares, "We want our students to see themselves as authors and artists. Writing books isn’t just for people who live in places like New York or Boston, and having books that emphasize and celebrate life in Kansas helps our students understand this. Living in a so-called flyover state can make a person feel overlooked. I want students to know and understand that the story they have to tell is important. Our students deserve ready access to books they are excited to read, and we are so pleased that NEKLS is helping us to get more great books into our students' hands."

Northern Hills Elementary will use the grant to allow their library to purchase new books to update their biography section to support student interest and support classroom projects. The grant will also allow for updates to the snakes, reptiles, fish, sharks, and amphibians section, which is so beloved by many NH readers. Also receiving more titles will be the fiction genres of humor, scary stories, and sports fiction. "Engaging read aloud books will be included in this grant as all classes are read to each week," said Northern Hills Librarian Bridget Foster. "Even though there are many great picture books, not all are powerful as read alouds, so boosting area of need this is important." Finally, the grant money will also go toward adding more books to the beginning readers section of the library. This is the main area that Kindergarten and First Grade check out from and their favorite titles are lacking. "I am so grateful to NEKLS in all the work they do to support libraries in Northeast Kansas," said Foster. "Without their support, none of this would be possible. I know I'm excited to start planning purchases and the kids will be even more excited to receive new books that they have been asking and looking for."