In Danville High School’s L.C. Bosley Library, students can find more than 8,000 books to choose from, quiet spaces to do homework and an area to participate in seasonal activities.
Having a high-quality and accessible library opens up various opportunities to students. The library has a wide selection of fictional books from all genres, nonfiction books for research and even a test-prep section with SAT/ACT prep books and Princeton Prep books for AP classes. Additionally, the library has an exhaustive collection of Danville High School yearbooks and newspaper articles.
Ms. Lois Sepahban, the librarian at Danville High School’s library, explained the importance of having good libraries in schools.
“Libraries, obviously, are information hubs, where students and teachers—really, anyone in the community—can locate information that they’re looking for, whether that is a particular collection of poetry, whether it’s books from their favorite fiction authors, or even nonfiction books on topics that they are intentionally researching,” she said.
Beyond books, the library holds school history. Ms. Sepahban described the library’s role in preserving school history and relics.
“It is also a place where we’re able to keep important artifacts from our school community,” Ms. Sepahban said. The library holds yearbooks going back to 1920. Ms Sepahban also displays news articles that mention different DHS students and literary works published by students. This is a great way to keep our community informed about DHS’s history and achievements.
Additionally, the library is a place for people to gather and participate in activities. Every month, Ms. Sepahban plans themed activities. For example, in December, there were activities themed around the holidays. There are also activities available every month.
“So the activities we have every month are bingo in the library,” Ms. Sepahban said. “Students who participate win prizes like candy and stickers and stuff. We also do crafts … The crafts include bead craft, making ornaments, you know, lots of cute little things. And those change depending on the season.”
Ms. Sepahban hosts many different clubs and events in the library and said she “tries to make the library an open space to all people.” She is the adviser for the Educators Rising Club. They meet every Monday morning to learn about the path to becoming a teacher. Every week, the club visits Edna L. Toliver Intermediate School and eats lunch with the students. This is a great opportunity to provide mentorship to the younger children. She also hosts a book club that meets monthly after school with snacks to discuss the book the group is assigned to read. English classes often also make monthly visits to the library to check out books or take advantage of the puzzles, games, coloring sheets and other activities.
As part of making the library accessible, Ms. Sepahban compiles library carts to be available in classes.
“I try to do library outreach by putting together mobile library carts for teachers who would like one in their classroom,” she said. “They’re often related to the subject that the teacher is teaching, and specifically the unit that they’re currently working on. And that’s just an opportunity to pull out all of the resources that the library has on that topic and put them in the classroom where students are currently learning about it, so that there are just more resources available.”
The library is also a quiet space open to students to study or have meetings. Ms. Sepahban noted that, especially for seniors, the library is a valuable quiet space.
“The library provides meeting spaces for students,” she said. “Seniors who have college interviews or who need to talk to their college counselors can use the library. A lot of times, they will come into the library because we have a silent office space that students can go into for those Zoom meetings or phone calls. In the evenings throughout the school year, adults in the district reserve the library space for workshops or other meetings that they have.”
Ms. Sepahban said the library can provide a sense of community for students.
“All of those opportunities to meet with students and talk to them, often about books, but not just about books, is just getting to know people and building community.”
