Northside Libraries are the heart of each school community, creating meaningful and diverse learning opportunities, nurturing in our students a love for reading and learning, and developing in them the skills necessary to fully participate in society.
Our libraries purchase and maintain a current, relevant, and diverse collection of over two million print and digital materials for both study and pleasure.
#NISDLibraries
82 Elementary School Libraries
21 Middle School Libraries
13 High School Libraries
1 Professional Library
Northside ISD has a total of 116 campus libraries and 1 professional library located at NAC.
All NISD libraries are staffed by professional, certified librarians. High school libraries also have a paraprofessional library assistant.
Studies consistently find positive relationships between having access to full-time, qualified school librarians and student performance.
Welcome to the NISD Library catalog! Our catalog boasts an extensive collection of books, e-books, audiobooks, periodicals, and multimedia resources that cater to all reading levels and interests. With a focus on promoting lifelong learning and fostering a love for reading, our carefully curated collection includes the latest in children's and young adult literature, essential reference materials, and a wide range of digital resources.
Recently, all Northside libraries enjoyed a range of improvements: from major renovations to redecorating. This ensures every student an updated, enjoyable and flexible learning space.
Please visit our photo gallery for more images of our newly renovated libraries
Northside ISD Libraries
2024-2025 Yearly Report
#NISDLibraries serve as hubs for our schools: gathering places for students, staff and families. They are a safe space for everyone on campus, offering a variety of lessons, activities, and opportunities. Students can use the library to read, study, create, explore, and more! This number represents individual visits by students, teachers, parents, and other patrons.
NISD Librarians strive to build collaborative partnerships with teachers across the campus. Collaboration can be pulling materials to support the curriculum, teaching lessons that connect to what's being taught in the classrom, planning lessons or units of study with teachers, and even the librarian and teacher coteaching lessons together. Librarians are an important part of the instructional team on NISD campuses!
NISD Librarians are certified teachers who hold masters degrees and a K-12 library certificate. NISD librarians served nearly 70,000 classes this school year in a variety of capacities. These include literacy lessons, read alouds, collaborative lessons, makerspace and STEM lessons, research lessons, class check-outs, and more, all supporting the curriculum as well as student learning and engagement. Academic achievement increases when students receive instruction from school librarians both with classroom teachers and independently.
Author visits increase interest in reading and writing. Seeing performers and speakers connects students to the arts and the work world. NISD Libraries hosted over 670 authors, speakers, or performers this school year, either in-person or virtually!
Northside librarians keep students engaged and reading through creative programming during the school year. Reading programs, Book Fairs, clubs, interactive displays, story walks, makerspaces, STEM projects, and so much more were offered this year. A robust library program increases student engagement at school overall.
Access to both print and digital books is a critical part of learner growth and helps close the poverty gap. A professional librarian curates the collection to meet the needs of the school community, and helps students choose the right books and other materials for academic and pleasure reading.
Students who read more, including just for fun, consistently do better in school and life.
Access to both print and digital books is a critical part of learner growth and helps close the poverty gap. A professional librarian curates the collection to meet the needs of the school community, and helps students choose the right books and other materials for academic and pleasure reading.
Students who read more, including just for fun, consistently do better in school and life.
Access to both print and digital books is a critical part of learner growth and helps close the poverty gap. A professional librarian curates the collection to meet the needs of the school community, and helps students choose the right books and other materials for academic and pleasure reading.
Students who read more, including just for fun, consistently do better in school and life.
Valley Hi librarian Jennifer Grimes won the Leaders Readers Network Cascaron Literacy Champion Award
Lucy Podmore, Clark HS librarian, won the ProHuman Foundation Civic Learning Week/National Week of Conversation Award for her program "Clark Conversations"
Melissa Romero, Hoffmann ES librarian & the Hoffmann ES PTA won the Shirley Igo Award from the Texas Library Association - this award celebrates strong library/PTA partnerships
11 NISD Librarians received NEF grants this year for a total of $23,350. These grants helped librarians with programs such as book vending machines, principal's reading clubs, story walks, STEM supplies, books, makerspace items, and more.
5 grants from the Texas Commission on the arts were received, which helped provide author visits to 18 schools.
Scobee ES Librarian Andrea Colwell received the Dollar General Youth Literacy Grant, and a Firstmark Foundation Grant in addition to the 2 NEF grants she received.
Jefferson MS Librarian Hollie Alvarez received the AFCEA Science Teaching Tools Grant, and Allen ES Librarian, Pam Parisher, received a $5000 Laura Bush Foundation grant to help increase the number of books per student and to ensure that the number of bilingual books in that collection is sufficient.
Librarians are teachers and they serve as an important part of instruction on campus. This year, 4 NISD librarians were named Educator of the Year for their campus:
- Helotes ES Librarian, Cynthia Elizondo
- McDermott ES Librarian, Hailey Johnson
- Ward ES Librarian, Shannon Kesselring
- Briscoe MS Librarian, Melinda Adams
- 523 Campus Visits
- 85 Librarians sent to conferences
- 64 PD sessions facilitated
- Assisted with 20 Collection Development Projects
- 70,378 Records loaded
- 9,261 Items processed
The Northside Library Services office, lead by Director Lisa Kulka, includes 2 Library Support Specialists, 2 catalogers, and 1 secretary/bookkeeper. This office works to support all Northside librarians by providing professional development opportunities, visiting campuses, helping with large collection development projects, maintaining the circulation/catalog system and district ebook collection, coaching librarians, opening new school libraries, making sure each library is fully staffed, collaborating with other departments, and much more.
- 117 Libraries staffed by certified librarians
- 1 Professional Library
- 13 Library Assistants
Northside ISD has a total of 117 campus libraries and a professional library located at NAC that circulates professional material to teachers all over the district. All NISD libraries are staffed by professional, certified librarians. High school libraries also have a paraprofessional library assistant. Studies consistently find positive relationships between having access to full-time, qualified school librarians and student performance.
NISD librarians organize several district-wide events each year that are open to all. The goal of these programs is to promote literacy, connect students with authors, increase access to books, and promote the joy of reading.
Expand each section below to learn more about each event.
LibraryPalooza
LibraryPalooza is Northside's premier YA author fest and allows secondary students to interact with some of their favorite authors. This even has taken place annually since 2012, although 2021 was a much smaller virtual event. This year, the featured authors were Lamar Giles, Isabel Ibanez, Kara Thomas, Lynn Painter, Steven Sheinkin, Jen Wang, and Guadalupe Garcia McCall. LibraryPalooza 2026 will take place on February 28 next year at Brandeis HS!
Learn more about LibraryPalooza at: librarypaloozasa.org
Fiesta of Words
Fiesta of Words is an event of creative writing organized by Northside ISD high school librarians that invites students to showcase their creative talents through an original poetry contest.
Students are also invited to shine on an open mic sharing their inspiring poetry, and participate in enriching writing workshops.
This year's Fiesta of Words featured renowned local poet Naomi Shihab Nye.
Find more information here.
Great Book Giveaway
Spearheaded by Brennan librarian, Harry Ostlund, the Great Book Giveaway allows families to get bags of free books at 3 separate NISD locations. NISD librarians gather and sort books all year for the event. This event was borne of a desire to get books in kids' hands during COVID and has been going strong ever since. This year, over 10,000 books were given to students of all levels, as well as teachers for use in their classrooms!
Storyfest
Storyfest is an author fest geared toward elementary students and is a great family event each spring. This year, the keynote author was Suzanne Lang. Students and even parents and teachers loved getting to meet the author of the Grumpy Monkey. Storyfest also features breakout rooms where students can see various speakers and performers, as well as a table top games and activities. This year, Storyfest featured Austin Reptiles, Miss Anastasia, authors Kris Tarantino & Claudia Villarreal, Mother Goose, reading with SA Humane Society dogs, a Book Walk, and much more!If was great fun and we can't wait for next year's!
Visit the Storyfest website.
Battle of the Bluebonnets
Elementary librarians from around Northside worked together to create a district and then city-wide book trivia competition centered around the Texas Bluebonnet Award list. Participating schools hosted a competition on their campus, then sent 3 teams to the district competition. From there, several NISD schools competed in a city-wide competition. Franklin ES came out on top after all of that to win the city-wide competition!Students loved reading the Bluebonnet books, studying and practicing the trivia, and working together!
- Book Battle Royale
Middle school librarians organized their own book battle as well!Luna came in 1st place, Zachry in 2nd, and Stinson and Garcia tied for 3rd.Just like in the elementary battle, students loved reading books they might not have otherwise picked up, learning about them, and bonding as a team.
Contact Us
Call NISD Library Services office: 397-8190
Volunteers help make the difference at Northside
How can you help support your library?
FONL's (Friends of Northside Libraries) mission is to promote and support the vital role of the school library in the educational experience.
