Sections of the libraries at Tamaqua Area High School and Middle School will be converted into “student career and support centers” this year.

The school district received a $980,050 grant from the John E. Morgan foundation to repurpose its existing libraries and add new services.

Use of the school libraries has decreased over the years, and the district has no librarians. School officials decided to downsize the collection to make room for services they hope students will use more often.

“This comes from the needs of our students, where curriculum is headed, where education is headed,” said Superintendent Ray Kinder Jr.

The grant will go to help repurpose the unused space in the library, and fund two new positions which will use it as a home base.

A new career counselor will work with high school and middle school students on career interest surveys, and other programs to prepare them for the job market.

A new social worker means that the district will have one at the high school, middle school and elementary levels. More schools are providing those services to address the mental well-being of students. While Tamaqua took initiative on its own, the Department of Education has been requiring schools to address students’ social-emotional learning skills - the ability to cope with everyday challenges - with their COVID stimulus funds.

“With young people all over, the need for support and mental health services is evident,” Kinder said.

The redesigned library will include new areas for meetings between students, teachers and guest speakers. There will be areas for new technology like virtual reality headsets, available for Tamaqua teachers to use in their classes.

The overhaul will take several months to complete. The district has already begun removing books.

Teachers and the Tamaqua Area Public Library were given a chance to take any books that they wanted for their collections.

Kinder said they chose books for removal from the library based on how much they are used by students. They included reference materials like encyclopedias and atlases which are still available. Students will have access to digital equivalents. Other books that were taken off the shelves hadn’t been checked out of the library in 20 years.

Kinder said that the content of the books did not play any role in their removal.

“It’s not a content-specific issue. At the high school, students are taking out very few books at all,” he said.