Things We Think About At Work.

[silveradept]

Here's another random thought that waltzed into my head, gave me the finger, and then proceeded to Mosh Mosh Revolution out.

What's going on with school libraries? Their media specialists are being laid off, and it feels like the public library's collection is being relied on as an essential resource for completing assignments. Have schools decided that in the era of standardized testing that having a library is unimportant? Are school libraries being grouped with arts programs as the first things to go on the chopping block in case of budget cuts? (And in those places, what kind of favored status do the athletic programs have?)

Obviously, I'm biased when it comes to how important libraries are in public and school life. I'm just wondering if anything has changed in education thinking that diminishes the role and value of the school library. It would be a shame, because the library and research skills developed there will be way important in college or in life.

Comments

[tscheese.livejournal.com]

My school library was tiny and hopelessly out of date. It couldn't have even lined the walls of a small classroom. I did go to a very tiny private school in the middle of nowhere, and it simply didn't have the budget for anything else.

And yes, the athletic programs were mercilessly favored. The school flooded out when I was in 9th grade (no one was hurt and everything of value was removed well beforehand.) The new building cost over $4 million to build, with an enormous hardwood gymnasium that was twice the size of the old one. The library? Still the same size.

It's kind of ironic because our school was absolutely awful at sports. We only had one sport: basketball. No football, no wrestling, and only a brief track season. But we consistently swept the awards at state competitions in drama, music, science, and business.

[silveradept]

Well, I can understand not having the budget as a tiny private school, if the athletics and academic programs were similarly small-budgeted. This does not appear to have been the case, and so I really have to wonder where the priorities of the school are that they sink all that money into athletics, even with evidence that other areas are doing really well and could use funding, or are doing really poorly and need funding.

[kaura-nighthawk.livejournal.com]

It never made sense to me why a school would spend millions of dollars on replacing the field with astroturf, and not one whit on upgrading our science program.

[silveradept]

Because athletics generate revenue, and the science program does not. (Matters regarding creationism worming its way into science courses notwithstanding) And "everyone knows" that athletics is more important than some silly learning, anyway.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it's not so much that the schools don't feel the library is important, but more of a "well, they can just go to [local library] and get the books/help there" instead?

[silveradept]

Which is bad, because the public library does not specialize, nor carry thirty copies of one particular book in one location so that everyone can do their book reports on the same piece. Nor do we carry a lot of textbook-y or exercise-filled books past a certain point.

There are reasons to retain a specialized school media center, rather than relying on the public library having enough copies in at any given time.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not saying that it's a good idea for schools to rely more heavily on a local library over putting one in the school, I'm just suggesting that might be the mentality of the districts when they're faced with give more money to the library vs.give more money to some other program.

Most of the time when we had to read a novel in school, I went out and purchased my own copy because our school versions were so horrible looking I swear if you looked at it wrong it would turn to dust.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

"Some other program" should be replaced with "varsity football" and "the WASL" in Washington State. Neither of which deserve more money.

-=TK

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

The WASL? What's that?

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

A waste of money, time and resources (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Assessment_of_Student_Learning). Washington's so-called "standardized" test, in order to be compliant with No Child Left Behind. Which is also a waste of the above. I hope the next president nullifies it.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

In Spokane School District (neé District 81), we faced a $10.6M shortfall going into the spring, with a legislature that would not hear our complaint and a superintendent on his way to retirement.

So he comes up with this brilliant plan to put egg on the legislature's face, and cuts lots of non-essential but amazingly powerful programs from the school district. Among those were elementary school librarians, and half of the junior high librarians.

The result was two-fold. First, we learned that the legislature simply does not care about education in Spokane. Second, we learned that you can't run a middle school library by firing the one librarian you have there; they lost hundreds of books before they finally hired someone half-time to fill the job.

On the other hand, I almost never see students use the books in the library at any SSD school. Instead, they go to the library to work on the banks of computers. That's what school librarians have become: computer supervisors.

-=TK

[silveradept]

What a gambit. Too bad it fell flat. There's been a little legislative rustling, though, about the need to keep school librarians on board. Doesn't sound like there will be a whole lot done, if they were willing to let all of those cuts slide on by, but it's nice to know.

As for books and computers, well, there are the periodical databases. Plus, schooltime is always learning mode-on. In the library, while they can do work, given the choice, I think a lot of the kids would rather unwind some or use what they're familiar with.

Might also be that teachers, curriculums, and the WASL are all squeezing out what little cooperation would be possible between librarians, teachers, and students.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

What's cooperation? There is only "collaberation," a forced time of co-planning, where teachers get together, hear what the state mandates they do, and decide how to do the least amount of work to fulfil it. This has been implemented across the state, and all school districts have at least one late-start day in order to incorporate it into the program.

-=TK

[silveradept]

Sounds like it's a really good time for innovation and creative ways of solving problems. Are the litany of budget cuts also read off at these meetings so that the teachers know just how little money they actually have?

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Nope. We only know because people who used to be here are gone.

-=TK

[ekmahal.livejournal.com]

My high school library pretty much sucked. I read the fiction there, and gave the finger to the reference books (exception: dictionaries) because they were under resourced and out of date, by a very, very, very long shot.

As far as book reviews, and such, the school did provide the 30-odd copies of Shakespeare and $NovelOfChoice for the year, but as far as I know that was separately budgeted from the library.

And I bought my own copies anyway, so that I could access them when studying for year-end exams. You weren't allowed access to the books after the X-week-long unit. And tough shit for you if the unit was in March and final exams were in November.

[silveradept]

Igh. That sounds really bad. I thought the problems with school libraries were localized and fairly recent. How very wrong I was.

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

My high school had a decent library (that HADN'T been turned into a computer lab... no student-use computers in the library at all) AND it had a fiction reading room with a balcony and comfy chairs.

[silveradept]

Okay, so you seem to be an outlier at the moment.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Remind me sometime, in person, to tell you about my school's libary. I was an LA for two semesters, and spent a good chunk of my early release days in there as well for a third semester.

-=TK