Eighty-eight percent of public school students in Lexington did not have a library card prior to this initiative. Many from lower-income households can’t get to a library, but increasingly, they have computer access. Directly giving every public school student a brightly-colored, cool-looking library card that has “Mary Miller, May 2021” or “Johnny Jones, June 2026” increases the chance that students will use the Library on their home computer or smart phone, and might even begin coming to a library when they can.

We worked with the school system to develop a way of transferring pertinent student data to the Library’s ILS and card vendors. One elementary, one middle, and one high school were designated for a six-month pilot program. Provocative information about the Student Success Card went to all teachers, principals, and families. Student Success Card Ambassadors (cheerleaders) were christened at each pilot school. A media event at the elementary school heralded the new Library card partnership. The successful pilot period signaled the printing of the cards and their delivery by school librarians to nearly 40,000 students.

Increased circulation and school partnership have been the most important outcome so far. The innovation helped boost youth circulation by 25%. We’ve also seen stronger support from schools, apparent in the promotion of our Discover Summer program, increased student attendance at Library programs, and more frequent parent-teacher meetings in our libraries. Request for our Spellbinders storytellers have increased from 16 to 22 elementary schools. Once our first year is completed, we plan to work with the school system to determine the impact on test scores.