Re: US School Library Usage Down

[Gayle Hodur <ghodur@REDSHIFT.COM>]

I think that statistics can be very misleading, and there are lots of
variables here. A "library media center" could be anything--even a closet
with 100 books on a shelf! (Coming from California, this is not
unbelievable to me.) I know that admin backup is vital. For instance, in
one of my schools this year, which has always been a very active school for
library use (when they HAD a library), the visits have fallen off this
year. Much of it is because of new implementations of state laws and a new
reading adoption, on top of having many teachers who are not fully
credentialed and are still attending classes after work. Teachers are just
on overload, and we have changed the library schedule so that they come to
me in the library rather than my showing up at their door. They have tended
to forget to come, in spite of written reminders and announcements. It
seems to take a personal call to their room to remind them that it's their
time for library. Fortunately, I do have admin backing and this situation
will change.

At 7:56 PM -0800 12/22/98, Carlton Martz wrote:
>The new national study of school library media centers just published by
>the US Dept. of Ed. includes some puzzling facts.  On the one hand 98
>percent of all public school students are in schools with library media
>centers (up from 68 percent in 1958).  But, at the same time, the total
>weekly number of students using library media centers has been *decreasing*
>(42.5 million weekly student visits in 1985 compared to 32.5 million weekly
>visits in 1993-94).  The study only reports these figures and offers no
>analysis why this happened.  What do you think are some possible reasons
>for this decline?

*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)

Gayle Hodur                             Snail Mail:
District Librarian                      Main Street Middle School
Soledad Unified School District         441 Main Street
(408) 678-3923                          Soledad, CA  93960
ghodur@redshift.com

Pager Screen Names:
UnGayle (IM and ichat)
10682291 (ICQ)
15661301 (ICQ - this is the number for &LibraryChat, if you have ICQ w/chat)

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