Free books for all! That is the goal of Paws on Prints, Pleasant Hill Elementary School’s mobile library.
LauraLee Tucker, Pleasant Hill Elementary School’s librarian, spends a portion of her summer every year driving the Paws on Prints trailer. She sets up the mobile library at various local locations, and from 5:30-7 p.m. during designated event dates, the library is open for business.
Students are encouraged to “bring a book, take a book” as a part of a book exchange. They walk up the ramp into the trailer and sift through the library shelves. The shelves are labeled, so students can find books to fit their age-level or particular interest – chapter books, everybody books, fiction, nonfiction, and even a section for adults.
Students take as many books as they would like, take them home, and many bring them back at the next Paws on Prints stop, ready to find their next round of reading.
“Every time we go out into the community, the kids are excited to be there,” Tucker said.
The excitement and involvement in Paws on Prints has grown over the years. The mobile library trailer first started out in a truck bed, but has expanded and been branded thanks to donations, fundraisers, and a grant from Texas Stars Foundations. During the school year, a mini version of the mobile library sits in front of the doors to the school library, and students can donate books all year long. Before school lets out for the summer, the Paws on Prints event dates are promoted through signage and save-the-date flyers.
Tucker has big goals for the Pleasant Hill ES mobile library. In the future, she would like to add a technology aspect to it, all in the effort of promoting continued summer learning and a love for literacy among LISD students.
