| School libraries have historically served an important role in students' access to quality literature. Students who attend schools virtually, or through online schools, are typically not afforded the luxury of borrowing books from classroom libraries or through school libraries. Many students who attend online schools are economically-disadvantaged and access their education through school-provided computers and internet access. Impoverished students often have a lack of literature in their homes and rely on school libraries to fulfill the need.;This study, a program evaluation, followed an online school's inaugural year in instituting a school library system, replete with both physical books and ebooks. A mixed methods approach was taken, utilizing data from teacher and administrator focus groups, student and parent interviews, student and parent surveys, library use records, and students' DIBELS, or oral reading fluency scores.;It was found that stakeholders were generally pleased with the libraries and asked for more books and additional genres, such as graphic novels and historical fiction. Stakeholders cited the main goal of the library being to "get books into the hands of the students." The library in the school study lacked a true leader though, and communication suffered. Teachers requested that Library be considered a special, in ways similar to how physical education and computer classes were offered, primarily to help lure reluctant readers to use the resources. It was found that students who accessed the libraries most were those who were already motivated readers. Stakeholders requested that the school consider purchasing mobile digital reading devices so that reading ebooks would be easier for the students than reading on their desktop computers.;Conclusions were that it is an essential role for online schools to provide students access to literature. To empower students to fully access library resources, a strong librarian is needed to serve as an instructional partner, an information specialist, a teacher, and a program administrator, following the recommendation of the American Association of School Librarians. The final conclusion was that ebooks can be a valuable literature resource for online schools, but that students report fatigue and difficulty reading from desktop computers, thus hampering reading motivation. |
