Priestley Library

Mission

The dual mission of the Priestley Library is to integrate information literacy into the learning environment through collaboration with classroom teachers and to create lifelong readers. We will provide a variety of print and non-print resources to support the curricula needs of both students and faculty while encouraging our students to be both recreational readers and seekers of knowledge. Priestley library hopes to touch the hearts as well as the minds of all our students.

Library Gift Program

The Priestley Library invites parents, relatives, and friends of our students, as well as friends of the school to honor someone special to you with a gift of $25.00 to the Priestley Library. Occasions may include birthdays, anniversaries, christenings, confirmations, graduations, or other important events. Also, someone who has passed away may be memorialized with a gift to our permanent collection. For each gift of $25.00, a book will be added to the library collection. Each book will have a bookplate on the inside cover with the name of the person being honored and the occasion. In addition, the recipient of the honor or a designated loved one will receive a notice of your thoughtful and generous gift. Your gifts will provide much needed support to the library collection. Contributions are tax deductible.

Grants Received

The library recently received a grant from the Louisiana Library Association. These funds purchased books, supplies necessary to open a library, an automated cataloging/circulation system, and DVD’s to support the curriculum. We have also applied for other grants and will use those funds to add to the book collection.

Magazines

Priestley is subscribing to 15 magazines in 2007-2008. Students have access to them during lunch when they are placed in the cafeteria. Students completed a poll on the titles and subjects for magazines they wanted and titles were chosen according to the students’ preferences. In addition, a friend donated two subscriptions to bring our total of magazine subscriptions to 17. If anyone would like to purchase a magazine subscription for the library, please contact the librarian for a suggestion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Recommendations

Fiction

1. Curts, Christopher Paul.  Elijah of Buxton. 
   The Coretta Scott King Award winner for 2008 and Newberry Honor Book.  Elijah is the first child born free in the Canadian town of  Buxton.  All the inhabitants, including his parents, are escaped slaves from the U.S.  This is historical fiction that includes belly laughs along with life or death decisions, adventure and serious questions about life.

2. Draper, Sharon M.  November Blues. 
   A Coretta Scott King Honor Book for 2008. November loses her boyfriend through a horrible accident and then discovers he left something behind for her.  How will she tell her mother and how will she deal with it?  Her life is complicated by her boyfriend’s cousin who is also having a hard time coming to terms with Josh’s death.

3. Fraier, Sundee T.  Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It. 
   Brendan Buckley is into Tae Kwon Do and studying rocks. He would love to be a scientist and faithfully keeps a notebook with important questions and findings. During the summer, Brendan plans on becoming a rock collector. And he is trying to adjust to losing his best fishing buddy, Grandpa Clem. When looking at a mineral and gemstone exhibit, he meets a man who has awesome rocks and who knows a TON about rocks and minerals. His Grandma Gladys sees the man and yanks Brendan away. Well, what are the odds of this? That man was actually his other grandpa. A man he had never met and is told to never see again. He has no idea of the trouble he is stirring up when he decides to disobey his parents and find and get to know the mysterious other grandpa.

Non-fiction

1. Smith, Charles R.  Twelve Rounds to Glory.
   Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. . . . I’m the prettiest thing that ever lived!" From the moment a fired-up teenager from Kentucky won 1960 Olympic gold to the day in 1996 when a retired legend, hands shaking from Parkinson’s, returned to raise the Olympic torch, the boxer known as "The Greatest" waged many a fight. Some were in the ring, against opponents like Sonny Liston and Joe Frazier; others were against societal prejudice and against a war he refused to support because of his Islamic faith. Charles R. Smith Jr.’s rap-inspired verse weaves and bobs and jabs with relentless energy, while Bryan Collier’s bold collage artwork matches every move — capturing the "Louisville loudmouth with the great gift of rhyme" who shed the name Cassius Clay to take on the world as Muhammad Ali.