Joining forces with the school system and community college leverages funding and expertise in a visible way and benefits all partners by maximizing students’ academic achievement; raising the perceived value of public and school libraries; establishing public and school library staff as educators; optimizing public funding for public and school libraries; positioning library staff members as indispensable to the delivery of high-quality education for students, faculty and staff; and linking public libraries to the education enterprise.

Replicated in jurisdictions across the country, HCLS’ A+ Partnership is successful due to key partnership components, which include:

1. Every school, and each college department, is assigned a public library branch and liaison, opening lines of communication;
2. Each student receives a public library card through school registration;
3. Kindergarten field trips to library branches are part of schools' curriculum;
4. Public library instructors teach classes in the schools;
5. Partners collaborate on curriculum; and
6. The school system and library system collaborate on signature events, such as HCLS Spelling Bee, Rube Goldberg Challenge, and Battle of the Books.

A+ has become an established feature of Howard County’s culture. HCLS has disseminated more than 53,500 student and educator cards, and facilitated 772,000 interactions between HCLS Instructors and HCPSS/HCC students, parents, and faculty (Howard County's population is 290,000). A+ academic competitions include the HCLS Spelling Bee (grades 4-8 – the champion advances to the National Spelling Bee) and BumbleBee (grades 1-3). Most notably, more than 1,200 fifth grade students (240 teams) now participate in Battle of the Books (BOB) – one third of Howard County’s fifth graders! Students read 16 pre-assigned books, dream up a team name, dress the part, then compete on a 50-question exam (“Battle”). Requiring five simultaneous Battles (audience: 5,000), BOB has become a rite of passage for fifth grade students.