The Santa Barbara Public Library (SBPL) and the Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD) are enhancing their partnership by launching the Library Cards for Student Success Initiative. Currently the SBPL supports schools by distributing books to school classrooms, coordinating author visits to school, offering specialized programs to complement curriculum, and partnering with After School Programs.

In the Fall of 2018, the SBPL and SBUSD began talks to increase the number of students with library cards and therefore increase student access to books, resulting in the Library Cards for Student Success Initiative and a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two parties.  The proposal was recently introduced at the May 16 Joint City Council and School Board Meeting. The City of Santa Barbara and SBUSD are agreeing to a MOU, which includes provisions for student data privacy. During annual online school enrollment, parents or guardians will be able to opt-in their child to receive a library card. SBUSD will share limited student information and the Library will import data electronically in order to issue library cards. SBUSD issues each student a unique student ID and SBPL will use that number as the library card number for each student. This automated process is considerably more efficient. Additionally, library staff will visit classrooms or attend other school functions to introduce students and teachers to library resources. More students will have library cards and so it will be easier for teachers to coordinate and requests materials to support instruction.

Library cards open up a world of resources to students, including access to more than one million print books, including extensive nonfiction research materials, books for emerging readers, and Spanish language and bilingual books. SBPL also has many digital resources not available through SBUSD, including Hoopla and Overdrive for e-books and e-audiobooks, Lynda.com courses, Mango Languages courses, The New York Times online as well as digital magazines, and Encyclopedia Britannica online.

The City and Library are offering valuable resources to SBUSD. Currently, only 5,000 SBUSD students of 15,000 students have library cards. In low-income neighborhoods or in families where parents do not speak English, lack of library cards impacts the ability of those students to access information resources, including internet and research resources. Additionally, the Library’s budget recommendation to eliminate fines for overdue materials is a substantial benefit for students. Overdue fines of library materials are frequently a barrier to families who cannot afford to pay even minimal fines.