Joliet Public Library - Educators

Services Available for Educators

The Joliet Public Library offers classroom enrichment materials to supplement your curriculum.

Who Can Apply?
- Schools located within the Joliet city limits
- Schools whose population is 50% Joliet city taxpayers
- Joliet residents who teach in other districts (must have valid JPL card & proof of employment)
- Joliet resident homeschoolers (must have valid JPL card)
How Does It Work?
Most participants will require a signed agreement by the authorizing agency. Please contact the Ottawa Street Branch Youth Services department at 815-740-2662 to find out more.

Educators may have the Joliet Public Library assist in pulling materials for them, or they may come in and browse the collection in person. If this is your first check out, please give two business days notice in order to prepare for your first visit.

All materials that are checked out must be for classroom use only; no personal use allowed. Loan period is six weeks and may be renewed once for an additional three weeks. Seasonal and holiday selections are limited to five items per classroom. High demand items and/or topics may have limited availability.

How Do I Request Materials?
You may contact the Ottawa Street Branch Youth Services at 815-740-2662 or fill out the classroom enrichment request online. Please allow at least three business days for materials to be prepared.

How Do I Receive/Return Items?
If materials are going to a District 86 school, they may be delivered/returned via the courier. Otherwise, boxes may be picked up/returned at either location. Materials should be returned in the same boxes to ensure accurate records.

How Does It Work?
Additional Questions? Please contact the Ottawa Street Branch Youth Services at 815-740-2662.
To schedule a library event at your school, or to bring your school to the library to visit, please contact Amanda Gregory at 815-846-3118.

Library Promotion at Events
We would love to join your school for parent and curriculum nights, PTA meetings, and fun fests. We can hand out library information, have activities, and sign people up for library cards.

Family Engagement
Plan to host your next family night at the library. Family Reading/Math/STEM/Game Nights at the library are a great way to foster lifelong library usage.

Classroom and Library Visits
The Outreach Librarian and Youth Services Staff are available to come to your classroom to present a variety of programs. General library overviews, curriculum related storytimes, and genre booktalks are just some of the things we can bring to you and your students. Programs are between 30-60 minutes. Programs can also be presented at the library and include an age-appropriate tour. To schedule a visit, please fill out our Library Visit Request form.

Some special visits that the library offers include:

Presentations:
- What the Library Offers: covers all the materials, services, and current programs that the library offers
- Research Training: covers general research tips and resources, including JPL databases
- Online Homework Help: overview of our online homework help, Brainfuse, and the services it provides such as subject one-on-one help and proof-reading papers.
- E-library Resources: covers the various e-resources JPL own such as e-books
Booktalks for any grade:
- Genre
- Award Lists
- Quick Reads
- New/Hot Books
- Theme focused (poetry, black history, war, etc):
Programs:
- Storytime
- Crafts
- Teen Crafts
- Robotics (1 hour minimum)
- Escape the Room (5-12th grade)
- Special Themed Program
Outreach Collection
The Joliet Public Library offers thousands of quality reading materials suitable for pre-Kindergarten through High School youth, and is intended to be a zero risk way to provide materials to children to use at your organization, or for children to take home to read at their leisure.

How Does It Work?
At your request, we will fill a book tub with a curated collection of fun reads for your students’ age group, to be picked up at either library location, dropped off during an outreach staff member visit, or delivered to your school (District 86 only).

How Does My Organization Sign Up?
After the Business Owner, Chief Executive Officer, Local Administrator or Property Manager of your organization signs an agreement form and has a library card on file, email your request to the library at teacher@jolietlibrary.org or fill out our online request form.

The Details
- Each book tub contains a maximum of 50 items. Tubs with books for younger readers (ie. Board Books, Easy Readers, Easy Fiction, Easy Nonfiction) will hold more items than tubs with books for junior high and high school readers (ie. Juvenile Fiction, Juvenile Graphic Novels, Young Adult Fiction, Juvenile Nonfiction).
- There is no limit on the amount of tubs an organization may check out at any given time.
- Each tub circulates for 3 weeks/21 days, and may be renewed twice. A checkout length of up to 9 weeks can be requested at your first checkout.
- Outreach items do not accrue fines. We request that all books in a given tub be returned together to Joliet Public Library on time (or retrieved by library staff, upon request). Books that are not returned with their tub will not be billed to the institution or to the family.
- Outreach books are encouraged to leave your site to go home with children. We do ask that educators track which child has selected which book(s) when the child has taken the material(s) home. We suggest that children who have not returned books to your organization be limited from taking additional books home until their books are returned.
- If you prefer a customized tub with specific topics or specific titles, we are happy to provide you with those through our existing Curriculum Kit service.