Library Purchases Books with Cargill Money
October 09, 2009
In April of 2010, Megan Taylor was awarded a $1000 Cargill Community Scholarship from the Cargill/FFA Foundation. Along with the $1000 dollars Taylor received, the library at her school received $200.
When school librarian, Suzanne Murray, decided how to spend the money, Murray asked herself, ‘What would Megan want?’. In the end, Murray chose to purchase books to aid high school students with their yearly research papers and consulted English teachers for their assistance in deciding which books to buy.
Six books were bought with the money. Three books were from the ‘Current Controversies’ series: Censorship, Healthcare, and Capital Punishment. Three books were bought from the ‘Opposing Viewpoints’ series: Mental Illness, Health Care, Eating Disorders. 25 additional books from both series were purchased, including books on self-mutilation, homosexuality, sexuality and religion, teen pregnancy, illegal immigration, and numerous others. Both series of books present views both for and against their respective topics and will be extremely helpful on persuasive research papers whereas the students generally had to get information on the Kansas Library Card web site or through inter-library loans. Now that the library has a collection of over 30 of these books, adding a few additional books each year will help increase the number of primary resources available.
Megan’s scholarship has already begun to help students and will continue to help future students.
