Program hopes to reach student library users

A new program aims to keep libraries relevant to middle and high school students even if they don’t step foot inside.

Spokane County Library District is handing out library cards to about 20,000 local students so they can access the district’s research database of newspaper articles, magazines and encyclopedias from home.

This is a new effort to reach out to young library patrons who may not realize these resources exist, said district spokeswoman Jane Baker.

“We have a large amount of people that come in: parents with young kids for story time and a huge amount of young adults. The kids in between high school and middle school – we don’t always get them coming in on their own,” Baker said.

The new cards were distributed to districts earlier this week so some students may already have them or could expect them next week.

The program covers all schools in the county, except for those in the city of Spokane.

As new students enter middle school, they will receive library cards too, Baker said.

To visit the district’s research database, go to www.slcd.org and click on research.

Cheerleading competition results

The results are in from last week’s state cheerleading competition where some local high school teams competed at University of Washington’s Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

• North Central High School came home with a trophy after placing 2nd in the 3A and 4A division for nontumbling co-ed teams.

• Central Valley High School placed 5th in the 4A division for nontumbling teams.

• Rogers High School placed 7th in the 3A and 4A division for large teams.

• Ferris High School placed 8th in the 2A, 3A and 4A divisions for medium-sized groups.