At Sidwell, students participate in a wide variety of competitive activities, including athletics, robotics and debate. This year, Sidwell Librarians Stephanie Gamble and Savanna Richie presented a new challenge focused on reading and library engagement.
The librarian at Georgetown Day School reached out to Gamble to “create a friendly competition” to increase library use, Gamble said. The contest would keep track of how many books the high school students at each school check out of the library each month to see which school’s students check out the most books. The two then decided to “expand it to other Independent schools in the area,” such as The Madeira School, Episcopal High School and The Potomac School.
At the end of each month, Gamble and Richie tally the number of books checked out and compare it to the checkout numbers of other schools. They will continue to do this each month until the end of the school year, when the winner is announced. The live scores of each school can be found printed in the upper level of the Sidwell library.
The books counted in this competition can only be checked out by Upper School students. Resources used by Middle School students, Lower School students and faculty will not contribute to Sidwell’s total score in this competition.
Because Sidwell’s library system is not limited to the physical books at our school, neither is the competition. Sidwell’s library includes paperbacks on both floors of the library, the online library Sora and American University’s library as well.
Gamble hopes this competition will increase the number of books checked out and engagement with the library. Gamble mentioned that while “students spend a lot of time in the library,” she and Richie want to increase the number of books checked out, “outside of just for research papers.” Gamble hopes “that it’s something we can continue next year.”
Due to the friendly nature of the competition, Gamble and other organizers have decided not to issue an official prize for the winner. Gamble has stated that “if Sidwell wins, [she’ll] do something fun to celebrate.”
