Response to Jim Trelease

[Susan Weiss <sweiss@CKS.SSD.K12.WA.US>]

Hello all,

I've been listening to the points and counterpoints and finally have to
comment.

Many of Trelease's points are well taken.  A school library should be an
attractive place to be and we should make it as attractive as possible.
The goals of a bookstore and a school library are different, though.

The School library is there to encourage students to read and to teach
information literacy.  It is a classroom.  It is not a business that
welcomes anyone who appears to have some money to spend.  There are
staff and budget constraints in a school library.  Bookstores don't
teach and don't have supervisory responsibilities for minors.

Do you welcome students who are cutting classes, loudly lounging or coming
in four times a day trying to play computer games?   I would rather have
300 students a day who come to the library for real information needs than
600 who come for the wrong reasons.  Shopping malls don't welcome
teenagers for the same reason.

I do have students who curl up in a window nook and read, who come into
the library to use our computers and books for school work and who work at
a reasonable noise level.

I would love to have the staff and budget of a bookstore! Let's compare
apples and apples.


Sue Weiss
Ballard HS Librarian
Seattle, WA
w - new (206) 252-1121
sweiss@cks.ssd.k12.wa.us
http://www.seattleschools.org/schools/ballard/index.html

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