Grayslake North will be welcoming a new way of going to the library this year with new mini libraries being built by students in the school. 

Mini libraries have started to become more popular within communities close to the area and have received good feedback from the people using them. 

“My brother-in-law actually, his community in Mount Prospect, he has created their own mini library mission where they had people that were interested in donating things, anywhere from books to supplies to even just monetary donations to help with things he would need to build and help paint these things,” said Geometry teacher Stephanie Carbone. “He’s very creative. He started this in his community, and it has become such a big thing. I just thought it was so neat to see his community come together. I know that there were a few of us at GNHS that were trying to get the wheels turning. I had thought of this, and then the same with Mrs. Nielsen in the library and a couple of administrators were thinking ‘How cool would this library thing at our school be?’” 

There are six math classes that are grouped up and building their own prototypes of a mini library they want to put in the school. Every group has been working hard to create the best one because they will be voting on the top picks to be built. 

“There’s a lot of Pythagorean theorems and SOH CAH TOA. It was a lot,” said sophomore Morgan Fielder.

There is an entire process that comes with the mini libraries and how much it takes to get them to come alive. 

“We have six class periods that are grouped up and create their material. We are going to take that on to the next phase which is going to go get built out of wood. Right now we are not working with wood material. Those chosen pieces will go along to 3-D art classes,” Carbone said. “Those students are going to be involved with constructing these out of wood. And then, that’s going to get passed along to the other art classes for painting. One cool thing is that it’s just kind of spread across different types of subject areas that can really get involved and participate in this project.”  

There has been a lot of thought as to how the mini libraries would work. There is an idea when there would be one in every department of the school, where the books of that library would relate to the department it is placed in. Other students have also thought about what could possibly go wrong, like the books being stolen. 

“We have thought about that problem and we’re thinking we might have a stock of books in a different room somewhere so that we can keep restocking,” said sophomore student Jackie Bennett. 

The students have had to go through a lot of trial and error to get their mini libraries the way they want them, but they know it will all be worth it in the end. 

“It’s pretty rewarding, but also during the process, it’s really frustrating. For example, our group had to redo all of our walls because there were small gaps between each little wall. But it’s rewarding in the end. Once you get it fit together, it’s exciting to know I made that and students are going to use it. We feel like not only the students would love it, but the teachers want to use it too,” Bennett said.