The view from my circ desk vs. stories of heartbreaking inequity

It’s the close of the school day.

I am sitting at the circ desk looking out at our library where our kids have access to more than 85 computers and assorted devices and tools for reading, research and creation.

I am thinking about the great week we had: scanning curation sites for breaking news, honing filtered searches on our new Discovery service, mining Creative Commons image portals for the very best conceptual representations for senior presentations, producing thesis-driven infographics, and remixing poetry with digital storytelling tools.

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This week, I taught and guided more than 24 class visits, planned instruction, delivered four periods of booktalks, and tweaked the many pages I curate to provide better access to lessons, databases, ebooks and media.

And Book Club, Gay Straight Alliance, Students for Feminism, and Lit Mag met in their library after school.

And, one mile away, 

across the Philadelphia city line,

it’s a completely different scene.

There are 242 schools in the School District of Philadelphia. 

Only 16 librarians are left standing across that line.  (And it seems that number is arguable.)

And what my [former] city colleagues tell me, is that NO Philadelphia public high schools have certified school librarians.

Consider this divide.

In the coming years, we will see groups of students entering college and the work force with strong information and communication skills as a result of strong library programs.

We will also see a growing number of students who have never seen a school library and have never met a school librarian. 

This group of students will be largely unprepared to become ethical and effective users and producers of ideas and information.

These are scary times. They should be especially scary times for the parents of kids who are going to compete with our kids in an information technology-driven world.

We were told to be indispensable, but right now, being indispensable is not enough.

Slash marks by large city school districts are made with little regard to what they remove from the heart of a school and from its learning culture. 

Here’s a heart-breaking recap of our children’s recent losses.

Philadelphia:

In Philadelphia, School Librarians Still in Flux, Aug. 22, 2013, SLJ, Lauren Barack.

Already hobbled, Philadelphia schools are facing their first day with fewer school librarians—continuing a trend in the metropolitan school district and the state of Pennsylvania as well. Of the approximately 22 remaining certified school librarians working in the Philadelphia school district, some are not returning to their school librarian positions.

Budget crisis shutters libraries at 2 top schools, Philly.com, Susan Snyder, Sept. 14, 2013.

But now both libraries [Masterman and Central’s] – the academic hearts of two of Philadelphia’s most prestigious schools – have been shuttered.

They are the latest victims of the schools’ financial crisis. The district did not fund librarians – so principals at Central, Masterman, and any number of other schools had to cut those positions, along with counselors, assistant principals, and teachers.

“I’m going to tear up,” Masterman principal Marjorie Neff said at her desk Thursday as she explained the loss. “The library is the center of our instructional program here. People think about things like the library and counselors as extras. They are not extras.”

Central’s principal, Timothy McKenna, called the library the “hub of learning” at his 2,400-student school, but said the future was beyond his ability to protect.  . . .

“A librarian was never even in the mix for us,” he said. “In the past, we had a lot more decision-making power. And this year, it was limited.”

Parents, too, are trying to figure out how to get students some use of the library, Neff said. She has offered to be the new faculty adviser to the Ink Drinkers. And Kearney, the former librarian, who now works at Childs School, has started a blog to advise Masterman students on great books and databases from afar.

Bernadette Kearney, former librarian at Masterman, shared with me her response to Snyder’s article.

Here’s an excerpt:

Your article stated that there were 15 certified librarians in the district; I think the number may be fewer.

After working hard in this field for over 20 years and then seeing it virtually wiped out in a school district  with students so needy for literacy and inquiry skills, I can’t help but question what did we (I) do wrong?

Why does the general public think that school libraries are nonessential to the education process and, maybe more importantly, to shaping a life of learning?

As I am sure you are aware, Philadelphia is not the only city to eliminate school librarians. This summer, I made an effort to do some research on this issue.  

Washington, D.C., New York City,  Chicago,  districts  in Maryland, California, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania have either cut school librarians or–as in the case of New York City–are threatening to cut them.

I mention this not because I’m advocating for librarian employment, but because of the elimination of the service they provide.  Research has shown that students in schools with libraries fare better academically; there is also a theory put forth by the American Library Association that school libraries offer safe havens for students needing emotional support (not breaking news to any librarian!) . . .

Maybe we librarians are just too quiet! I know I am always buried in my work . . . and have not had the courage to voice my outrage at the inequity to lawmakers. Being one of the few certified school librarians left in the district working in a school library, I feel responsible for changing public perception about the importance of having a certified school librarian as part of a school; I hope our little group can make a difference.  I am grateful for your article because it sheds some light on this injustice. Not only should high achieving schools like Masterman and Central have certified school librarians, but every public school in every state.  

Closing School Libraries? This Means War. Philadelphia Weekly, Stephen Segal, Sept. 13, 2013.

Let me spell this out in no uncertain terms: The library is the single most important operation in any school. 

It’s more important than each and every classroom. 

The library is where students engage their own minds. 

The library is the place that embodies the concept of intellectual activity being something for a person to choose.  

Whether you are a social progressive who believes public education should be the nation’s top funding priority, a fiscal conservative who believes a free market of school-choice options is the only way to keep educators accountable for their job performance, or a moderate who just hopes kids will emerge into adult society as vaguely functional human beings, there is nothing to debate here. Libraries are civilization.

Whether you believe public-school teachers are tragically underpaid and under-appreciated martyrs to humanity’s future or lazy union employees who enjoy coasting on tenure and seniority through a lifetime of ten-month work years, there is nothing to debate here. Libraries are education.

Whether you point a finger of blame for our sorry school system at negligent parents, corrupt politicians, inner-city violence or an uncaring corporate nation that prefers to raise mindless consumers rather than engaged citizens, there is nothing to debate here. Libraries are sanctuary.

A school where students are not free to use a library is not a school.  It’s a multiple-choice indoctrination camp.

Filed under: librarians, school libraries, technology, tight times