What a Toronto school is doing to get books on library shelves

Watch above: A Toronto school is taking things into its own hands to get books back on the library shelves. Christina Stevens reports. 

TORONTO –A Toronto elementary school took 4,000 books off its library shelves over the last two years.

Galloway Public School didn’t get rid of the books because smartphones and tablets made them redundant. Instead, the books were considered old, decrepit or irrelevant; and couldn’t be kept on the shelves anymore.

“In the last couple of years, we looked at what was current and what wasn’t,” school Principal Naomi Smith said. “It was time to go through our collection and see what wasn’t current and remove what was outdated.”

School libraries are funded on a per pupil basis: $17 per student in elementary school and $26 per pupil in secondary schools.

And according to a statement from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), the books are supposed to be replenished but haven’t been yet.

“Due to provincial funding, this process can take some time,” read the statement from the TDSB.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Due to provincial funding, this process can take some time," read the statement from the TDSB.

The provincial ministry did not respond to requests for an interview regarding this story but did say in a written statement the province provides roughly $563 million to school boards for library books, learning materials and text books.

So the school entered itself into a contest to win $10,000 in books – and won.

Penny Green, a Indigo spokesperson, said the company holds the contest annually to give kids books, but also in part to turn them into habitual readers.

But she said, Galloway Road Public School was chosen in part because it’s close to their Scarborough Town Centre location.

The school is located near the Galloway neighbourhood of Toronto – one of Toronto’s poorer communities and among the city’s priority neighbourhoods.

“It’s very high needs. They have a lot of low-income families in the area. Most of their shelves are empty. They recently culled about 4,000 books from their library because they were irrelevant and old,” Green said. “It’s important to get those relevant materials into their hands because they’re not getting the money that they need.”

– With files from Christina Stevens