Griswold Middle School’s Learning Commons, formerly known as the Library Media Center, has been selected as a recipient of an American Library Association grant.

This emergency-relief grant program called American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries provides $2 million in emergency funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Griswold Middle School’s Learning Commons was one of 200 libraries nationwide selected by the American Library Association for a $10,000 award to create and sustain humanities programs.

GMS Library Media Specialist Laurie LaBossiere will direct the program, which will deliver services related to culture, history, literature, and other humanities subjects. Programming will include a series of in-school programs with the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, new books that diversify the school’s titles, subscriptions to online databases, and an investment in academic-specific virtual reality goggles that will be used for Google Expeditions and other educational programs.

“We are so proud to be selected for a $10,000 grant to support humanities programming in our school library,” said LaBossiere is a release. “These enriching programs will tie into the school’s history curriculum and offer unprecedented resources for students.”

In March 2020, just one week after the schools shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the GMS library was badly flooded; the library lost many books and makerspace resources. This grant funding will help rebuild the library’s collection of books and digital resources for for years to come.