Re: Classroom libraries

[JSchaffner <jschaffner@IGC.ORG>]

Hi to all,
    The issue of classroom libraries has recently come up in NYC because
our mayor has announced that he is finding budgetary money for classroom
libraries for all K-8 classrrooms. As if with a single breath, all of
the board of our NYC School Librarians' Association reacted with
disgust, not because we do not want our children to have access to
books, but because of the hypocrisy of comparing this money to years of
neglect of school libraries in NYC. Below is our statement on the
subject, which we have sent to any appropriate policy makers we could
think of. I hope it will not be too long for a LM-NET post. By the way,
I am a vice-president of the organization.

    Who could criticize classroom libraries? Nobody, as long as they are
part of an omnibus approach that puts its emphasis on the creating,
maintenance, staffing and stocking of a central library collection in
each school. Kids should be surrounded by books. Every place they turn
they should have the option of choosing a good book., However, a
classroom library is no substitute for a well-run school-wide library,
which can offer a range of levels, formats and subjects that cannot be
equaled even in the best classroom collection. In addition, a library
that is run by a certified school library specialist offers the
possibility of integrated curriculum planning with the classroom teacher
and the teaching of information searching skills that are not required
in a hodge podge of classroom books.

 As well meaning and wonderful as the Giuliani initiative of building up
classroom libraries sounds, we must, as the professional organization of
NYC public school librarians, take issue with it. In a system that has
systematically devalued, underfunded and understaffed its school
libraries, classroom libraries are only  temporary bandaids, a quick fix
that will not last and represents a misallocation of money.

Most of the NYC public elementary and middle schools lack a decent,
up-to-date, well-kept central library. The only money to maintain such
an institution comes from the $6 per student allocated by the state
(only recently upgraded from $4). Given today’s book prices and the
expanded role libraries should play in terms of offering access to other
media such as CD-ROMS and the internet, one can see that this money will
not go far.

Yet a well-stocked, well-staffed school library media center has been
cited by repeated research as an important factor in student
achievement. Well staffed means a trained, licensed librarian to
maintain the collection and to collaborate with teachers on planning use
of the library. This collaboration has been shown to be the strongest,
most effective way for students to become information literate.
Well-staffed means allowing students  to have flexible access to the
library so they can get books without depending on a once-a-week
scheduled preparation coverage when their whole class comes to the
library (if library is even one of the coverages for which their class
has been scheduled). Well-staffed means clerical assistance to free the
librarian to do the professional job she or he was trained to do:
helping students do research, introducing students and teachers to new
literature, inculcating a love of books and planning with teachers.

Well stocked means a library that is not only print rich with a wide
variety of books and magazines that are not outdated and disheveled.
(Our students should not be reading that “one day man will walk on the
moon.”) The library should also be technically in the 21st Century.. The
catalog should be automated so students can learn the electronic
searching they will be using throughout their college and adult years.
It should be hooked up to the internet so our students can receive
guidance in searching this wonderful, but often confusing resource.

In many schools, classroom libraries will disappear as the original
teacher for that room changes rooms or schools. Paperback books, which
will probably be the major format for such collections, will not last
long. In some schools, teachers do not have an assigned room, but travel
from room to room. This is especially prevalent at the middle school
level.

We want our students to have access to books, but we want the commitment
to be on-going and meaningful, not just a headline grabbing,
make-the-mayor-look-good quick fix.

Judith Schaffner
Librarian
I.S. 218
NYC
jschaffner@igc.org

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