Providing opportunity for students to find their personal identity or, through a discussion, to think about what a character is feeling and develop empathy, storytelling has always had a prominent place in my library.

We are in a very powerful spot, as school librarians, where we can advise, suggest, and book talk just the right book for a person or class. It's our superpower! But this power goes even further: through the choices of stories that we curate, we are effectively creating the building blocks of a community of readers who then share ideas and build empathy.

In addition to the countless resources we have in the school library, another powerful aspect can be the large spaces. I've noticed that students, teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders can tend to only think of the library as the place to check out books and print papers. You can easily shatter this dated concept by using the library space to create some memorable learning experiences regardless of the subject.