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On 7 April Yvonne Rolston said and I reply:
Subject: Re: What about Victoria, BC library closure?
Hi everyone! Yes I woke up yesterday morning listening to CBC's
announcement that the Greater Victoria School Board had eliminated library
services to schools also!! I am a librarian at a Secondary School in
Victoria, and Chair of a School Board Committee to review our library
policy and regs, and we are in the process of restructuring services in our
district!!!! Strange how things happen.
WHEN ARE WE ALL GOING TO WAKE UP!!! IT IS NOT STRANGE--IT IS WRITTEN ON THE
PROVERBIAL WALL!!! TOMORROW MORNING IT MAY BE YOUR RADIO PLAYING THE BLUES!!!
Needless to say life has been very interesting in the last 24 hrs. I did
find out that CBC got it only half right, all elementary services have
been cut, but secondary services continue. However, I also understand that
if elementary schools dont have a music program to provide prep time for
classroom teachers, then the librarian will likely continue in order to
provide that "service". In other words, the teacher-librarians who have
worked really long and hard to convince their staffs that flexible
scheduling is the way to go, will be cut, and those who have been humming
along doing the old prep time thing will stay!!!
NO--THEY WILL BE REPLACED BY LTA'S WHO COST LESS OR A COUPLE OF MARINE
GUARDS!
I dont know exactly how this will all pan out, and I dont know what impact
this decision will have on the work of our committee. However I requested
a sum of money from Ministry funds through the site development grants, to
proceed with a pilot called the "family of schools" project. We continue
to proceed with that starting in Jan of 1995.
IThe bottom line of course is that Victoria is utterly strangled
financially, I dont consider the decision to eliminate elementary
libraries as a philosophical one. I worry, of course that without a
speedy return of the elementary libraries that it will be too costly to
turn the ship around some time in the future.
IF NOT PHILOSOPHICAL WHAT CAN IT BE??? THEY DON'T SEE THE NEED FOR A LIBRARY
AND INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL IN A SCHOOL!!!! I BET THEY KEPT MATH--SCIENCE--
TEACHERS??? CALL THEM TEACHER LIBRARIAN OR LIBRARY TEACHER OR WHATEVER---
IF THEY (THOSE WITH THE PAIN OF DEATH IN THEIR PEN SWORDS) DON'T SEE WHY WE
ARE ESSENTIAL--WE ARE DEAD MEAT! LOOK IN THE MIRROR. IF YOU DID NOT WRITE A
LETTER SUPPORTING TOM HART'S AND BLANCHE'S PLEA--GUILTY! IF YOU HAVE NOT
SOLD YOUR SCHOOL ON THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUR SERVICE--GUILTY! IF YOU HAVE NOT
JOINED YOUR PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION AND TAKEN AN ACTIVE ROLE IN SEEING THAT
IT IS STRONG AT THE NATIONAL AND STATE LEVEL--GUILTY! YOU ARE WE--BUT WE MUST
BE UNITED AND TIRELESS IN OUR EFFORTS TO SELL OURSELVES. FACE IT--WE HAVE NOT!
CAN AMERICAN PROS HELP CANADIAN PROS--YOU BET AND WE HAD BETTER!!!! AND THE
SAME AROUND.
I HOPE I HAVE MADE YOU SO ANGRY READING THIS THAT YOU WANT TO LASH OUT AND DO
SOMETHING!!! DO IT!!! DON'T AIM IT AT ME! AIM YOUR ENERGY TOWARD SAVING YOUR
JOB! AIM IT AT PREVENTING OUR CHILDREN FROM LOSING AN ESSENTIAL PRO IN THE
SCHOOL--YOU! IF YOU ARE NOT ESSENTIAL--MAKE YOURSELF ESSENTIAL OR GET OUT OF
THE WAY OF THOSE WHO WILL!
It's so ironical that the Ministry of Education has been moving schools in
this Province in the direction of resource-based learning, at the same
time that libraries are closing.
THEY DON'T CONNECT THE TWO!!! UNTIL THEY DO--EXPECT IT IN OTHER PROVINCES--
EXPECT IT IN OTHER STATES--EXPECT IT AT YOUR SCHOOL!
We are all somewhere between shock and anger.
THANK YOU YVONNE FOR MAKING ME SO ANGRY I COULD NOT HOLD IT A MOMENT LONGER.
JUST REMEMBER MY THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU AND THE PROFESSION IN BC!
BUT THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS WILL NOT ALONE SOLVE THE CANCER CREEPING THROUGH
THE SYSTEM!!! WE HAVE FACED IT IN OUR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCEINCE EDUCATION
PROGRAMS BEING SHUT DOWN. BOTTOM LINE ACCORDING TO THE RESEARCH--THEY WERE NOT
SEEN AS ESSENTIAL TO THE MISSION OF THEIR PARENT SCHOOL AND/OR WERE NOT AN
INTEGRAL PART OF ITS ACTIVITY. THE SAME IS TRUE FOR THE PRACITCE.
Dan Barron
College of Library and Information Science
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208
V:803/777-4825 F:7938
B=N400005@UNIVSCVM or I=N400005@UNIVSCVM.CSD.SCAROLINA.EDU
*--* Grow or Die *--*
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