Get Materials Delivered Directly to Your Classroom with an Educator Card

Written by Joe Armstrong, Content Specialist, Downtown Main Library

A new school year has begun, and this year you can take your lesson plans to the next level (and save some time!) with our Teacher Collection Delivery Service. This free, monthly service brings a collection of up to 35 titles (books, audiobooks, or eBooks) delivered straight to your classroom each month!

The deadline to sign up for delivery service is November 1! A minimum of five educators are required for schools to qualify for the Teacher Collection Delivery Service.

Schools that meet the minimum requirement of five educators may include additional teachers for the delivery service throughout the year.

Schools that don't meet the minimum of five educators before November 1 can still get curated collections each month by picking them up at their closest library branch.

Learn more and sign up for Teacher Collection Delivery Service on our Outreach Services webpage.

How To Sign Up

Any daycare or school in Hamilton County, Ohio is eligible to apply for the Delivered Teacher Collections Service.

First, to take advantage of this service, you need an Educator Card, a special library card with unique borrowing privileges.

Then, we'll coordinate either a location for you to pick up your collection or if enough educators at your school participate, a date that materials will be dropped off directly to your school or daycare.

Available Materials

Collections may include up to 50 books if picked up at a branch or 35 if delivered straight to your classroom or daycare. A total of 200 items are allowed to be checked out at a time per educator card. We may limit the number of books sent on some topics due to their popularity among teachers. Please provide two weeks' notice for changes and special requests.

Teachers may request the following materials:

  • Nonfiction books for classroom research. Our staff will choose up-to-date books at the proper reading level.
  • Picture books for classroom story times. Teachers may request subjects, seasonal topics, specific authors, or let us choose.
  • Books for students to read. We have lots of leveled readers, early chapter books, juvenile fiction, and juvenile nonfiction.
  • Multiple copies for classroom sets
  • Lists of specific titles
  • Accelerated readers. Teachers can supply us with the school’s list or a link to the website the school is using and we will deliver titles on the list at the specified reading levels.
  • Magazines
  • Audiobooks and Playaway View

A Classroom Favorite

"Signing up for the Delivered Teacher Collection service is one of the best things we’ve done all year," says Laura, a teacher at C.O. Harrison Elementary in Delhi Township, "My students just love having all these books."

Laura’s first-grade classroom erupts in celebration the moment the CHPL Outreach Services van arrives at their school. The students know that their free monthly delivery of up to 200 materials has arrived.

Laura works with Outreach Services staff to handpick up-to-date books at her students’ reading levels, including seasonal themes, multiple copies for classroom sets, and specific titles tailored to her lesson plans. CHPL Teacher Collections help Laura create exciting learning opportunities for her classroom.

Educators from across Cincinnati and Hamilton County have great things to say about the Delivered Teacher Collection service:

"Our first foray into an independent reading program was a rousing success. Our kids LOVED the variety of titles you sent us and they are developing into readers." - Glenetta, Dater High School

"This is the first year I have taken advantage of the teacher collections each month and I have been loving it and will be sure to do it again next year! It is a wonderful way to get books in the hands of our students!" -  Lauren, Blue Ash Elementary

"We are really appreciating the library collection bins as we work to make our remote instruction as effective as possible! Thank you!" Katie, Hyde Park School

Sign up for Teach Collections Services by getting an Educator Card. Apply for your Educator Card online.