Free Books In Media Center

In the fall of 2021, Mason Dixon Public Library went through some of their books and donated them to the district; they are now available in the media center for free.

The majority of the books are located by the maker space area, but some of them are by the front desk. Most of the books are genres of fiction like mystery, horror, or romance, but some of them are non-fiction.

The quality of the books is not a factor in having the books for free. The books are in excellent condition and are hardly ever used. Most of them just sat on the shelf for years because of covid.

The books are available for students and teachers, and there is no limit to how many books you can take. There are even bags for those who want a lot of them.

Interested students can ask their teacher to visit the media center at the end of the period or they could come briefly before lunch.

The books are getting a lot of positive responses; French teacher Shayne Joyce said he would go back, but he felt that library books are already free to begin with.

Mason Dixion Library was getting the books ready for a book sale, but young adult (YA) books don’t sell that well since teenagers don’t normally go to a library book sale.

Library Director Carol Stampler suggested to President of Friends of Mason Dixon Library Jan Virsack that they should donate them to Fawn Elementary/Intermediate School librarian Scott Shaffer.

Virsack contacted Shaffer and when he got the boxes he noticed that the books weren’t just for the students he teaches, a lot were YA.

“I sent the books to the high school because the content was most appropriate for students of that age group,” said Shaffer. 

Shaffer said the library gave him 400 or more books. Out of the 400, he sent Amberman around 100-150.

Shaffer said, “ I am thrilled that Mrs. Amberman is now making these books available to her students for free! I hope that students take them, read them, and pass them on to someone else when they are done!’

Amberman said that she started getting books at the end of last school year, but she found the time to set them up at the start of this year.

Amberman said that the books are free for a couple of reasons. These reasons are that the copyright of the book is more than five years old, the books are not that popular, the age isn’t fitting, or they already have it on the shelves.