Thougthful Thursday: Can You Really Live Without a Full Time Librarian?
August 16, 2007
I joined ALA (American Library Association) in the spring because I am going to the AASL(American Association of School Libraries) conference in the fall. ALA sends me emails almost weekly updating current events throughout the country.
This is a current event I did not want to see “Spokane schools halve K–8 librarians’ hours“. This is the second largest district in the state. My state. My district(Evergreen Public Schools) is among the largest in the state as well. How can that be? How can Spokane Public Schools decide to cut the teacher librarian positions to half time at elementary? How can they decide that libraries are not worth maintaining in the district budget? How can a they ignore the data and research that supports that a strong library program supports student achievement? How can a district ignore that the National Board of Certification for teachers offers national certification of library media specialists?
Our district is experiencing a flat line in student enrollment. Probably for the first time since I started working in the district twenty-nine years ago. That, of course, translate into a reduction in funding. Last spring our district cut third grade swimming, driver’s education and went from an overnight out school model to a three day field trip model. There was good rationale for these cuts but in the end, it does save the district money. Our Library Advisory team and Advisory Coordinator positions were also cut. It makes one wonder, “how will the library program be affected?”
I recently posed that question to our superintendent. He assured me that “libraries should be the hub of literacy and research.”
I cannot be like Chicken Little, waiting for the sky to fall. I will work this year (as I do every year) to make certain that our library is the hub of activity. I will make certain that I am available to support students and staff when I am not teaching classes. I will be doing my part to support the “$21-million state-budget request to fully fund school library media programs in every K–12 school…. $20 per K–8 student and $25 per high-schooler to provide an acceptable level of school-library resources for Washington’s school-age children.”
I hope our district will see the value that the library program provides for its students and staff.
Happy Reading.
MsMac
Entry Filed under: Libraries, Uncategorized. .
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1.
Kelly | August 16th, 2007 at 9:37 am
You go, Jone! Libraries are so very important in schools. They are particularly necessary for children (most of them) who don’t have any or many books at home. Keep fighting the good fight
2.
Christine M | August 16th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
In our elementary school our librarian is only there half the week - we share her with another school. - When she is there she does library lessons. When she is not the school relies on volunteers (of which I am one) to man the library so children can have “book exchange”. I feel the children are being short changed without a knowledgeable person there to guide them toward the right books. Librarians are important!
3.
jules | August 17th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Scary stuff. Good for you for being even more resolved to prove the worth of a good school library.
4.
Alkelda the Gleeful | August 18th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
It’s decisions like Spokane’s that leave me speechless. (And really, this is not the time for speechlessness.) There’s so much talk and clamor about the children being our future and how we must invest in them… and then they get their resources yanked away. Keep fighting the good fight (and bite if you have to).
5.
kathy | August 19th, 2007 at 8:54 am
I am with you. Thankfully (so far) my district here in Georgia (the largest in the state) values librarians/media specialists, but we are a growing district, I do wonder what will happen when the enrollment numbers go down. I think that even in the school community, some people truly do not know what we do, they think back to the days of school librarians just being book checker outers and story tellers. I think one job of a school librarian/media specialist is advocacy, to let everyone know what we do and how it impacts student learning!
6.
Camille | August 22nd, 2007 at 9:58 am
I subbed at a local elementary school some time ago and discovered the principal had moved the library aide out of the library and into the office to answer phones. Some part of his brain was apparently still generating some electricity because he realized the librarian could not continue to serve a school of that size (1200 students) without an aide, so he deemed it unnecessary for grades 3–5 to have library lessons.
This is in a school district with excellent, funded library services at all levels. As principal, he decided having one more person on his office staff was more important than the library.
I asked, “So your TAKS (state mandated tests) scores for those grades do not need improving? All those kids are scoring 100% ? Wow, that is soooo… amazing.”
The librarian I was subbing for moved to a new school the next year and it has been a revolving door there since then. I have not been back to sub.
I have checked their test scores ever since. I am always shocked-shocked to see they do NOT have perfect TAKS scores.
So even in excellent situations, wrong headed administrators can make a hash of it, to the detriment of their students.