The library is a division of the Department of Cultural Resources which presents grants annually to schools who qualify and apply for the grants. This year's requests for grants from across the state totaled $5,484,101. One hundred sixty-two projects were approved with a total of of $4,923,71. The awards are made possible by LSTA grant funding from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a federal grant making agency.
The grants are based on identified need, and strives toward excellence and equity in North Carolina's libraries.
The purpose of the grants are to enrich the lives of North Carolinians through enhanced and targeted programs and services in our libraries that address the needs of specific audiences; enhance information for lifelong learning for all North Carolinians by expanding the information resources in our state's libraries through strengthening, sharing, digitizing and preserving our valuable and unique collections, and promote equal access to 21st century library services for all North Carolinians by providing contemporary and evolving technologies to our states libraries through programs designed to address infrastructure, resources, and services.
The grants applied for by the three area schools were for library collection development grants. These grants are in place to provide assistance to public school library media centers in building strong curriculum-related print book collections that are accurate, current, and attractive.
Becky Beamguard, librarian at Courtney Elementary said that the grant is limited to print media.
"We will be using the grant manly for our non-fiction collection," Beamguard said. "It will benefit the K-2 students, but our concentration will be on collections for the 3 - 6 grades.
"Our main goal is to purchase books on space exploration and technology," she said. "Some of our material is outdated and needs to be upgraded. The grant is a three to one matching grant, so we're responsible for $2,500 and they give us $7,500. Before we can spend the grant, we have to spend $1,000 towards the purchase of new media material."
The library at Courtney accepts donations of books from parents and residents in the area to add to their library.
"We try to keep our school library current," Beamguard said. "Our children's education is of the utmost importance and new and current material is vital to that effort. Any community member who wishes to make a donation of books and/or money, we're grateful for."
The Courtney PTA (parent teacher association), has made an effort to raise funds to help with the library's collection of books. Beamguard said that the average science books the library offers are from the early 1990's.
Forbush high school in East Bend received a $10,000 grant and Mountain Park Elementary in State Road received $6,000.
These two schools will be using their grants toward print media material also, updating materials that students need for research and information.
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