Back row: Robert Elser, Amanda Primiano, Melanie Turner
MFL Executive Director Amanda Primiano provides welcome packets to North Main Elementary Students.
Monroe, NY – After a months-long collaboration with North Main Elementary School, Monroe Free Library announced that it has provided 184 library cards to students in grades three to five.
In a series of four visits between October 2021 and February 2022, Monroe Free Library Executive Director Amanda Primiano and her team introduced the library to the assembled students and assisted them in obtaining full library membership.
Robert Elser, Library Media Specialist at North Main, was key in facilitating the collaboration between the school and the library. “One of the main goals of my program is to foster a love of reading in students,” Elser said. “Each time Amanda and her team came to visit, they brought an energy and an enthusiasm that was contagious.”
During the visits, the MFL team focused not only on the physical books available from the library, but also the wealth of electronic material that can be accessed with a library card. “We have research databases with simple interfaces made specifically for young learners,” Primiano said, “and an ebook and audiobook collection that has titles for children at all stages of literacy development—resources that these kids can access right from home.”
“It’s building excitement around reading,” Elser continues, “and when you couple that excitement with access to materials, both print and digital, you’re helping to develop students into lifelong independent readers.”
The project was slightly complicated by the fact that not all North Main attendees live in the Monroe Free Library service area. However, Director Primiano reached out to the surrounding libraries, including the Chester Public Library, and made the connections necessary to serve those students.
Primiano assumed the role of Executive Director in May of 2021 and has made outreach and collaboration a priority from her first days on the job. While the library card project at North Main has been completed, Primiano has already begun working with Monroe-Woodbury High School on a library card drive. Additional visits to other schools in the district have already been planned to promote the library’s summer reading program, its online resources, and to offer support to teachers.
Monroe Free Library Cards are available to residents of Monroe and some portions of Harriman. Residents can apply in person or online at www.monroefreelibrary.org/apply.
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