With shelves of books, comfortable chairs and plenty of resources, the Lakewood High School library serves as a place where students can come to relax, socialize and study. Beyond providing a quiet sanctuary, the library plays an active role in daily student life by supporting classes, technology needs and creative projects.
While stocking shelves and recommending titles are routine for librarian Kevin Costello, no two days are alike.
“Yeah, that’s the funny thing. There is no typical day, and I like that there’s a lot of variety of different kids coming into the library with different needs, different classes,” Costello said.
Students can go to the library for a new read, but the space also supports students’ learning beyond books. It is a hub for studying, a social center for peers, and a quiet zone for those needing a mental reset during a long school day.
“I think that students know that this is an inviting place. There are puzzles to work on, people to talk to, books to look at, and I’m okay if you just want to put eyeshades over your eyes and zonk out for 40 minutes,” Costello said.
More than just offering books and research, the library is also a place where students can get help with technology problems. Technology assistant Christine Tillo is available to help with common Chromebook issues, such as broken screens and dead batteries.
“First thing in the morning, I have a lot of students coming in with Chromebook issues that they’ve experienced overnight, and address those either with doing some refreshes, restarts, or if need be, sending them over to the tech department for repairs,” Tillo said.
Even with the rise of the digital age, physical libraries remain essential to students’ academic careers.
“A library is a reservoir of resources staffed by people who know that collection, and you don’t have that with a Google search,” Costello said. While the internet offers quick facts, the library provides curated depth, as seen in Costello’s hand-picked nonfiction section.
“You don’t get this online. These [books] are full book treatments of a specific event or topic that’s important to our history or just humans,” Costello said.
The library’s versatility is further showcased by the classes held within its walls. Senior Abriana Heinz regularly uses the library’s resources for the school’s broadcast journalism program.
“I go [to the library] for broadcast journalism. And we have to walk through it every day, and that could be seen as a disruption, but [the librarians] really treat us like we belong there,” Heinz said. “We have our own space that’s dedicated to us, with the green room and our editing studio, so that’s really cool. It’s a really good space that they’ve given to us that we get to use for what we love doing every day and making the school news.”
Heinz also uses the space to produce a student-led podcast, showcasing the library’s evolution into a modern media center.
Overall, the library’s main theme seems to be its welcoming nature. So many students can go to the space for so many different purposes. It’s a place of growth for both students individually and for the school itself.
“I think that we contribute to school-wide learning goals by promoting the fact that reading is a good thing, that any reading is good, and you don’t need to read specific things,” Costello said.
Whether students are there to study, produce news, or simply find a moment of peace, the library remains the heart of the LHS community.
“I think it’s important because it’s a gathering space for people, and it’s also just kind of like an outlet for whatever you have to do, you know that you can do it there,” Heinz said.
