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I will posit a contrarians view. I believe that school libraries, and especially high school libraries, are on there way to becoming obsolete. That said, I think we need to refocus completely what a high school library library can provide. Please note, I am referencing high school libraries only. We have a huge print reference collection that is no longer used. Absolutely. By no one. Not an encyclopedia, not an almanac, not a dictionary. The only use we get is for road atlases, because Drivers Ed requires both a print map and an Internet based map. No student uses are general collection unless required for a school assignment. No one, not one, checks out a book for reading for personal development. Nada, no one. Teachers no longer use the library. Not our ESOL teachers--they require that their students select books only from their classroom libraries, nor the Reading teachers, they are focused on Read 180 and the books are in their rooms. There is no focus on outside readings. Social studies and science teachers from low level to AP are so structured that the use of the library is out. The AP programs on the Internet feature their own outside readings. There is no in-depth reading of books in a library required. We cannot support the highest level of student researchers, as we do not have the funds to support books at their level. We ferry them to the local university instead. Our library could be reduced by one half. A room for presentations, a computer lab, and a modest area for recreational reading--paperbacks and high-interest periodicals. And our staff could be reduced by at least one professional. One professional/one aide would be enough (I know some of you would be blessed to have that) to service 1700 students. The use of the library media center is declining year by year, standardized testing plays a part, national studies that say that reading for pleasure does not improve test scores is another, the rise in acceptable use of copy and paste assignments by teachers is yet another. So, why do we even need libraries? A reasonalbly sized room with computers and some magazines and paperback fiction is enough! Food for thought! Adam Adam Janowski Library Media Specialist Naples High School 1100 Golden Eagle Circle Naples, FL 34102 E-mail: NHSWebmaster@collier.k12.fl.us Phone: 239-377-2210 Fax: 239-430-6673 Library web site: http://collier.k12.fl.us/nhs/lmc/ School web site: http://collier.k12.fl.us/nhs/ >>> Peter Milbury <pmilbury@IIS.SYR.EDU> 01/21/05 9:51 AM >>> Dear LM_NET Colleagues, On Thu, 20 Jan 2005, Brent Bradley wrote: >I'm more interested in what people think of the NCES document "technology > in schools" at > http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003313 > While the AASL and the NETP pieces seem to be a lot of propaganda and > 'We're doing great things here', this document seems (to my untrained > eye, I suppose) something actually useful to districts and individual > schools. I think Brent made an astute observation. Bureaucracies always seem to drift toward inertia, or even worse, self-destruction. They become timid and afraid of offending their perceived benefactors, and even forget about who their benefactors are! We just have to do our best with what we have, and let it be known when there are deficiencies. There are many ways to band together for mutual support, and LM_NET is one of them. Perhaps there is a way that we can let both ISTE and the U.S. Department of Education know that they are ignoring school libraries in this important document, the National Education Technology Plan.? Please, let us all know your thoughts on this topic! Peter Milbury, LM_NET Co-Moderator pmilbury@iis.syr.edu School Librarian/CA TeleMentor, Chico HS, Chico, CA ............................................................ 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