Resources+for+Building+a+Classroom+Library

Independent Reading is one of the most important parts of ELA, secondary English instruction, and our jobs as teachers. For many of us, it can be difficult to invest our students in independent reading because they have limited access to books and our schools have deficient or no libraries, our classrooms only offering the few books we can access. Below are sites that can help teachers willing to take initiative acquire books for their classroom libraries:

Donor's Choose DonorsChoose allows teachers to create a project, choose the products they want to purchase, and (within a given frame of time) attract funders they know or advertise to. If the project is fully funded by the deadline, all the selected products will be bought and sent to your school. This can be used to purchase lots of books (and other supplies, depending on what you need!)

First Book First Book offers large amounts of books for readers of all ages, from elementary to high school, at incredibly discounted prices. First Book occasionally offers deals in which you can receive many books entirely free, and only need to pick them up - earlier this year, I was able to pick up 400 books from a warehouse in Hunt's Point, all YA!

Project Cicero Project Cicero hosts a large pick-up in which teachers who register (be sure to sign up for their e-mail list!) can come with suitcases/bags and choose from hundreds of books. This is entirely free and can add hundreds of great titles to your classroom!

Paper Back Swap The way it works is that you post books you have that you would be willing to part with - old paperbacks on your bookshelf, books you're tired of moving, books in your storage unit. Other members can request the books and the site will give you a mailing label to print out and you just have to pay for postage which is usually around $3. Then once the member gets the book you get a credit and then can get a book posted on he site by another member for free.

For specific titles your students request that you don't have already, be sure to check out the incredible MyLibraryNYC program through which any book you want can be delivered to your school! This also works for class sets.