Vision

Texas school libraries are essential, interactive, collaborative learning centers, providing physical and virtual access to ideas, information and learning tools for the entire school community.

Mission Statement

Certified librarians and trained staff nurture a culture of literacy and inquiry throughout the school community.  An integral part of instructional teams, librarians and library staff collaborate with teachers on curriculum, technology, design and delivery.  They maintain a professionally curated collection of print and digital materials and assist learners in locating resources that match their academic and personal interests.  Librarians and staff model and teach information literacy and digital citizenship, empowering learners to make ethical, informed choices in an increasingly complex and evolving global environment.

Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.

Kemp ISD Libraries provide grade-appropriate materials to ALL without restriction based upon one particular set of beliefs.

Click HERE for more information on Intellectual Freedom

In accordance to Kemp ISD Board policy, Kemp ISD Libraries will use the Standards adopted by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, in consultation with the State Board of Education.

Click HERE to view Texas School Library Standards & Guidelines

Texas Talking Books

The Talking Book Program (TBP) provides free library services to qualifying Texans with visual, physical, or reading disabilities. TBP is part of the National Library Service to the Blind and Print Disabled, a program administered by the Library of Congress. The TBP collection consists of more than 100,000 titles, including hundreds of titles in Spanish, and some in French, German, Russian, and other languages.

Eligibility
To qualify for TBP service, your students must meet one or more of the following four criteria:

Blindness - Visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with corrective lenses or the widest diameter of visual field subtending an angular distance no greater than 20 degrees.
Visual Disability - Inability to read standard printed material without special aids or devices other than regular glasses.
Physical Disability - Inability to read or use standard printed material as a result of physical limitations, such as paralysis, extreme weakness, missing arms or hands.
Reading Disability - Organic dysfunction of sufficient severity as to prevent reading standard printed material in a normal manner.

Applications will need to be signed by a certifying authority. Certifying authority is defined to include doctors of medicine and osteopathy, ophthalmologists, optometrists, registered nurses, therapists, professional staff of hospitals, institutions, and public or welfare agencies (e.g., reading specialists, dyslexia specialists, speech-language pathologists, social workers, case workers, counselors, rehabilitation counselors, teachers and superintendents). In the absence of any of these, certification may be made by professional librarians or any person whose competence under specific circumstances is acceptable to the Library of Congress. Certifying authorities are not permitted to certify relatives.

You will have to submit individual applications for your students who are not registered with TBP.

For more information or for questions call: 1-800-252-9605 or 512-463-5458 in Austin.

Click HERE to get more information on the Talking Book Program