Under pilot program, Burbank students gain access to the city’s libraries

More than 1,000 Burbank sixth-graders now have the ability to check out books and access online materials from both their school and any Burbank public library by using just one ID card.

The school year kicked off on Monday along with a new pilot program called BConnectED, which is a joint initiative between Burbank Unified and the Burbank Public Library that allows students to use their school identification cards to check out materials or access online resources at any Burbank public library.

The pilot program will only include the 1,148 sixth-grade students in the district this school year. However, should the program prove to be a success, Burbank Unified and the public library system will work on integrating more grade levels into the program, said Cathleen Bowley, the children’s supervising librarian for the Burbank Public Library.

Bowley said that it had always been a dream of hers to see the school district work with the library to give students access to more materials in order to help them with their studies.

“It’s always something we wanted to do, in one way or another,” she said.

The purpose behind the BConnectED program is to help students gain access to the books and online resources provided by the city’s libraries. However, there was a barrier that stood in the way.

Though students could easily get a library card, Bowley said that children under 18 years old needed to be accompanied by a parent or guardian to do so.

The way the district and city libraries got around this issue was by adding each student’s identification number into the city library’s system, but that was easier said than done, Bowley said.

“We had to figure out how to set up the [student] information so that it can be integrated into our system,” she said.

Although the school year has just begun, Bowley said sixth-grade students who have already started using their school ID cards to check out books.

It is only a matter of time until the city library can determine if students utilize the program to its full potential.

“We’re going to do school visits and do surveys at the beginning and end of the school year to test [the students’] knowledge and awareness of the program to see if it made a difference,” Bowley said.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio