Lower School Bharara Library Invests in Technology from Italy

by Mr. Mike Steele
Lower School Library Media Specialist

Lower school students are enthusiastic about reading, but they’re admittedly tough on library books as they’re learning how to navigate shared community materials. Circulation in the Lower School’s Bharara Family Library has quadrupled in my five years at the school.

Last year, we had over 10,000 checkouts. That’s 10,000 books that were potentially stuffed into backpacks, cubbies, and lockers or accidentally dropped onto the floor. I’ve been searching for a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to extend the lives of library books, and I found the solution in Europe.

I like to visit libraries whenever I travel. On recent trips, I noticed library books in England, Scotland, Wales, and Belgium are circulated in plastic sleeves to keep their covers protected. I did quite a bit of research to figure out what it would take to use similar techniques in the Bharara Library. In the fall of 2025, I discovered the CoLibri Cover System in Milan, Italy. I worked with their sales team to bring the system to Ranney.

CoLibri’s e-DaVinci machine covers books in non-toxic and 100% recyclable sleeves made from a product derived from sugar cane. Each transparent sleeve is only 4.1 thousandths of an inch thick but protects book covers from moisture, dust, scratches, and fading. The e-DaVinci machine can cut, cover, and seal a custom sleeve for a book in 30 seconds and works on both paperback and hardcover books. It will cover a book of any size —from thin beginning reader books to large tabletop atlases.

Parents may start to notice library books covered by the CoLibri system coming home. With the help of grandparent volunteer Miss Nancy Matthews, I hope to be able to cover at least 2,000 books before the end of the school year. It’ll probably be another two years before all 12,000 books in the Bharara Family Library are covered. As far as I’m aware, no other school or public library in the area has access to the CoLibri Cover System. I’m excited to be able to bring such unique and sustainable book preservation techniques to Ranney.