When Jim Chadwell, the former principal of Northwest High School in Texas, renovated his media center four years ago, he had two things in mind: Starbucks and Barnes & Noble. “He wanted a place where students could read, do research, and work on classroom assignments, but also socialize,” says Media Specialist Naomi Bates. And that’s exactly what he got—a Java City that sells coffees, lattes, cappuccinos, and smoothies, as well as soups, salads, panini, and wraps—right inside the media center. “It’s like a magnet,” says Bates, explaining that her circulation has more than tripled since the coffeehouse opened. With several bright red-and-yellow signs, comfy chairs, and warm lighting, there’s no real difference between this Java City franchise and others around the country. Except this one is flanked by racks of popular YA titles—and it’s packed with teens. On most mornings, when Bates walks into her media center, it’s teeming with up to 200 kids, most of whom are reading, studying, or gaming, while enjoying a fresh cup of joe. Thanks to the café’s popularity, Bates says she’s able to spend 90 minutes in the school auditorium each semester booktalking some of the hottest titles to more than 600 kids. She also credits Java City as the main reason why students line up each month to get 60 highly coveted lunch passes to the library. “[The café] is kind of a status symbol,” she says. “Kids love the freedom of making choices and being seen as adults. They have a sense of ownership in this facility.” While public and academic libraries have embraced the idea of cafés on their premises for more than a decade, ditching the rules on noise and food is a newer—and sometimes controversial—concept for media specialists, says Sara Kelly Johns, president of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL). After all, wonder some critics, should schools be pumping caffeine into kids? Isn’t the library just a place for instructional or independent learning? And anyway, who’s going to clean up the mess? But if you ask most media specialists who have coffee bars—no matter how inexperienced their baristas—they’ll say it’s a lot easier than it looks. Besides, a café does wonders for a library’s image, not to mention helps boost circulation—benefits that some librarians think far outweigh the negatives. “Welcome to the 21st century of librarianship,” says Bates, explaining the rationale for her coffeehouse. “It’s not teacher-led. It’s student-centered.” She has a very good point. In the fall of 2006, when Richard Sweeney, university librarian at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, conducted a series of focus groups with millennials (those born between 1979 and 1994), he uncovered some interesting behaviors, the most important of which is that today’s digital natives expect—and demand—more choices when it comes to consumer products and services. Therefore, librarians “must play a larger role in motivating and accelerating our user-patron learning, whether we are in public libraries, special libraries, academic libraries, or school libraries,” Sweeney says. In short, recognizing this crucial shift in student expectations—and doing something like creating a café—can make a difference in how kids feel about libraries. Certainly, having a coffee shop isn’t for everyone. Beefing up your graphic novels collection or offering a gaming center are other great options that click with kids. But it makes a lot of sense to open a café if there’s adequate space and your administration supports it, AASL’s Johns says. Even then, there’s some wiggle room. Although Jace Daily’s principal was lukewarm to the idea of a café in her small media center, he didn’t say no—and that was all she needed to go ahead with her plans. Daily ended up making a late-night run to Wal-Mart to pick up two $60 Black & Decker Home Café systems. Then she cleared the area behind the circulation desk, giving Tulia High School, located 45 miles south of Amarillo, TX, its first coffee bar. Once word got out about the school’s Classics Café, kids were lining up out the door. “It was the first time since I’d been here that the library was full,” she says. Since opening day in 2006, there’s been a 12 percent increase in circulation—despite a four percent dip in the overall student population. Still, there’s a delicate balance between making a library more appealing and ensuring students get the academic support they need. And Centennial High School in Tennessee has managed to do both. The library’s Cougar Café, which opened in August 2007, is entirely run by students, who order all inventory and keep the place running smoothly five days a week. Manager Sam Clarkson, a senior, landed his position the old-fashioned way—he submitted his résumé to marketing teacher Robbie Reed, worked hard to ace the interview, and spent more than a week training for the job. The café’s hours are flexible. It’s open during the school day, in addition to a half hour before and after the bell rings. And in December, it closes five hours later than usual—at 8:30 p.m.—to accommodate students who are studying for exams. Although it’s too early to gauge circulation numbers, Media Specialist Suzanne Lovett says foot traffic in the library is extremely high, and she and fellow librarian Valerie Allen are noticing a lot of new faces. The coffee bar has transformed the library into a happening place because it “allows students to sit down, relax, and see what the library has to offer,” Clarkson says. It’s also forged a close collaboration among Reed, Lovett, and Allen. Reed oversees the café’s business side, and the librarians push books and build relationships with the many students they see. It’s the kind of library that 18-year-old Andrea Drusch was talking about in a recent editorial she wrote for the Dallas Morning News. The senior at Lake Dallas High School in Texas could have been speaking for countless teens when she urged school librarians to create a more Starbucks-like atmosphere. But she wasn’t prepared for the harsh criticism that came her way. “I got a lot of responses from school librarians who were really, really negative about it—who thought that it was just ridiculous,” she says. “Most of the response I got was 'Oh my goodness, how can we let students bring food into the library? I’d have to clean all the time.’” The point, Drusch says, is that the majority of her friends find school libraries unwelcoming and in need of a makeover if they’re going to play a significant role in kids’ lives. “Who cares what approach we use, as long as we’re successful and not hurting anyone or destroying our facility?” says Erika Thickman Miller, the librarian at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School in Pennsylvania, when asked about the relationship between libraries and lattes. “If [students] are positive about the library experience, they’re likely to come back. If they have a good experience, they’re more likely to ask a question.” It’s precisely that kind of talk that Michele Simon, author of Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back (Nation Books, 2006), finds appalling. “Of course, we want kids reading,” she says. “[But] Starbucks and other corporations are exploiting schools as an opportunity to brand kids for life. Schools should be ashamed of themselves for allowing corporations to target our kids.” Bates, the librarian at Northwest High, however, doesn’t have a problem with the commercialization taking place in her library—and that 20 percent of her café’s sales go to Java City. She compares it to the marketing libraries engage in when they stamp their name on a book. “Students have been so immersed in brand name placement, that they don’t see it as commercialization. It’s just real life.” Needless to say, there are librarians who’ve gotten serious flack for serving food. Davinna Artibey, media specialist at the Denver Center for International Studies in Colorado, for grades 6 to 12, had a heated argument with a language arts teacher over the subject. “She said that the Library of Congress would never allow such a thing and that it made our school look bad,” Artibey remembers. “I told her that our school library’s mission involves creating a space for students to learn, research, read, and hang out.” The bottom line, Artibey says, is that school libraries must engage in a major outreach campaign to compete with iPods, text messaging, IM, and all the latest technologies that hog kids’ attention. “If we don’t make it a place they want to be in, there are plenty of other places they can go.” Another battle that Artibey won was with her school custodians, who complained that the extra trash in the library was creating foul odors and attracting critters. The two sides came up with a compromise: kids are now required to toss their waste in the hallway trash cans, whose liners are changed each night. “Students follow the rule because they’re grateful to be able to eat in the library and don’t want to lose the privilege,” she says. Another way to cut down the mess, says Ann Vyoral, the media specialist at Rockport Fulton High School in Texas, is to have volunteers pour coffee and put lids on cups. “The only one who has spilled a cup of coffee has been me,” she says. But more troubling than the cleanup conundrum is a coffee bar’s potential contribution to unhealthy eating habits and childhood obesity, says Susan Levin, a dietician at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization. “They’re serving 900-calorie, caffeinated drinks that are high in fat and serve no nutritional value.” Federal rules that promote healthy eating and prohibit foods of “minimal nutritional value,” however, only apply during breakfast and lunchtime, Simon says. And even though some states and school districts have stronger rules, enforcement is difficult. At the same time, the definition of minimal nutritional value is so vague that some schools prohibit the sale of hard candy, such as Lifesavers, but still offer Coke and Doritos, says Janet Poppendieck, a sociology professor at Hunter College in New York City, who’s writing a book on the nation’s school lunch and breakfast programs. So setting up a coffeehouse isn’t that difficult once there’s a green light from higher-ups. Reed, the marketing teacher at Centennial High School, says her library’s coffee shop is exempt from laws that prohibit the sale of certain foods because a portion of its proceeds go toward a $1,000 scholarship fund for each of the 10 to 15 students who work at the café. Centennial Principal Terry Shrader says his Parent Teacher Student Organization initially expressed concern about serving kids caffeine. His response? “They’re already coming to school at 7:30 in the morning with coffees, Mountain Dews, and Vaults.” And it’s not like kids are downing cup after cup of black coffee all day, Reed adds. Still, Centennial does offer fairly healthy options such as sugar-free syrup and two-percent milk—and you won’t find donuts or chocolate chip cookies there. Lack of time is the biggest concern preventing Eileen Whited, the librarian at Fredericksburg High School in Texas, from leaping onto the café bandwagon. “A lot of our library activity is in the morning, and I think I should be pushing books instead of java,” she explains. That’s completely understandable coming from someone who runs a one- or two-person operation. “Really, who has time enough for all we need and want to do?” asks Miller, the librarian at Plymouth Whitemarsh High in Pennsylvania, adding that it takes her four-person staff a total of 20 minutes to prepare and clean up each day. To free herself up, Sara Johnson, of D. C. Everest Senior High School in Schofield, WI, has installed a self-serve coffee machine. And Natalie Sunde, of Nimitz High School in Irving, TX, uses two students to help serve, while another librarian acts as cashier. Some librarians get help from volunteers, parents, or even the school secretary. Other options include opening before or after school, during lunch or a tutorial period, or just on certain days of the week. And if things get too crazy, you can always put up a “Sorry, We’re Closed” sign. “There are definitely ways to incorporate the coffee-shop atmosphere into a school library and not sacrifice normal librarian duties,” says Daily, the librarian at Tulia High School. “It just takes some effort to find a system that works well for everyone involved—the librarian, the principal, the teachers, and the students.” Pat Franklin, the media specialist at Timberlake High School in Orlando, FL, took advantage of her growing clientele by launching a paperback exchange at her Beans, Books, and Brains Café. Kids walk in to find about 200 irresistible titles—from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to Khaled Hosseini’s Alex Award–winning novel The Kite Runner (Riverhead, 2003)—scattered all over the tables. There are no bar codes, and the whole system is based on trust. “The main thing is getting to kids who don’t normally come into the library,” she says. “I just want to start a dialogue.” Café Fame at Flagler Palm Coast High School in Bunnell, FL, doesn’t just attract kids. Whenever there’s an author visit or a guest speaker, they inevitably end up talking in the coffeehouse, says Lorna Moschetti, who serves the dual role of librarian and district media specialist. In fact, the café is such a huge success—circulation is five times what it was three years ago—that educators from all over the state often stop by for ideas on how to start their own coffee bar. Even the smallest coffeehouses can have an impact. The one at Seven Lakes High School in Katy, TX, is only open two days a week for 30 minutes in the morning. Still, the café manages to donate $100 each month to the national Drug Abuse Resistance Education role model program, says Media Specialist Kippie Curcio. And even though the café at the Larkin High School in Elgin, IL, only opens for business once a year, during April’s National Poetry Month, the kids absolutely love it, says librarian April Johns. She manages to cram in readings, creative writing sessions, and poetry slams while her kids sip on warm chai and nibble delicious treats like biscotti and chocolate-dipped strawberries. With start-up costs varying widely—from less than $100 to upward of $20,000—most coffee bars get their seed money from donations, the principal, or by dipping into library activity funds. And then there’s librarian Jack Strawn. His Book Bistro at the Sandra Day O’Connor High School library in Helotes, TX, operates on about $10,000 each year, and hands out free drinks. To top it off, all of the café’s expenses come straight out of Strawn’s own pockets. “It’s like doing missionary work,” says Strawn, who uses the extra cash he gets from teaching an online master’s class in library science at the University of North Texas to foot the bills. Even though the bistro makes about 350 cups of coffee a day and goes through 10 cans of Nestlé hot chocolate mix, Strawn’s biggest problem doesn’t involve excessive noise, spills, or even lack of time. It’s getting up in the morning. “Being at school at 6:45 a.m. to plug in the coffeemakers is a chore for me,” he says. “The actual running of the bistro is great fun. It’s like having nonstop students appear at the door for coffee or hot chocolate.”