Two Dallas County Schools have been awarded $6,000 in grant money to buy books for their libraries.

Southside High School and Salem Elementary in Orrville were two of only four schools to be awarded the grants from the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries.

“$6,000 in a library can go a long way,” Karen Grimes, the grant writer for Salem said. “It can really help kids get excited and keep them excited about books.”

The two schools were notified in May about the grants and have since ordered the books.

The grant comes at a great time, since there was no budget for new books before the grant, according to Grimes.

“It helps a lot,” Grimes said. “It’s a great tool for us. New books are always exciting for younger students.”

The grants provide money that is hard to come up with during the year, and books can get very expensive Grimes said.

“When you think a bout books costing $25 a piece and reference books even more expensive it doesn’t go to far,” Grimes said. “Even $6,000 goes away quicker than you would like.”

The younger students were not the only ones to benefit from the influx of money.

According to Southside High librarian Daphne Rivera, the school was able to update their book collection thanks to the grant.

“It really helps, but we have a long way to go in updating our collection,” Rivera said. “I think, right now, the average copyright date of our books is around 1980. This grant really helped us get some more up to date books.”

Rivera said the majority of the money was spent on teen fiction books and biographies of modern celebrities.

“We sent around a wish list to the students about books and authors they really liked,” Rivera said. “When we bought books, we tried to get as much as possible for them off of that list.

“When they can relate to a book, they are more likely to read it.”