Library vs teacher budgets

[Susan Speranza <SSper60121@AOL.COM>]

Hello everyone:

As a new Library/Media Specialist, I would like your advice. I have
discovered that my library budget pays for magazines that go to the teachers
for them to use in their classrooms. Sometimes one teacher will get  4 copies
of Business Week or Time Magazine. Since there are many magazines that have
been ordered in quantity, I think the number of teachers that get this
"service" is rather large. On the surface, I don't think this is a good idea
- since these teachers are using these magazines often instead of textbooks -
having their students cut out articles for projects, etc etc. I think if they
are using them as textbooks, the departments should pay for them.

My principal is very supportive of me and any new ideas I have brought him
thus far. When I spoke to him about this, he suggested that I continue this
tradition until the end of the year, then if I can come up with a better way
to handle this he'd be willing to impliment it. Waiting until the next budget
cycle would help ease the teachers into the new way, and also, if necessary,
they can arrange for this expense to be taken from their budget next year.

My questions are: am I being unreasonable in objecting to approaching
magazine buying in this manner? What would be a better way to handle this
situation? Personally, I believe that if the library buys magazines even at
the request of teachers, those items should remain in the library, available
for all - and it isn't necessary to duplicate and triplicate copies of the
same magazine...But again, I'm new and I don't want to incite riot the first
week I'm there! So any advice you can give me would be most welcomed...

Susan Speranza
School Media Specialist
Bellows Falls Union High School
Bellows Falls, VT
SSper60121@aol.com

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