Barbara's story makes me feel SO much better about the issues that I struggle with
among my family, friends, and even other teachers---and that's how much of my
personal time and money I put into my libraries.
Over the past 22 years, I know that I have spent thousands of my personal dollars
on things for students and the libraries where I've been. A few schools where I
worked had nothing--no budgets, no funds--and I wrote grants. But even with
grants, I could never get the things that "I needed" to reproduce the type of
library program I wanted---puppets for the 3rd graders, big books for the
kindergartners, displays, games, posters, etc. All of those "extras" always came
from my personal account.
My husband (grumbling and grouching) would remind me that teachers aren't paid
enough to "supplement the school's programs" and despite his reprimand, I would
continue to purchase whatever I needed to get a program to work. I always felt
that if the students found something more when they stepped inside the library than
just a room filled with books, it might make them stay just long enough to want to
come back. I've spent hundreds of my own dollars on special events for my teachers
(lunches, book review snacking times, etc.), I've purchased costumes for activities
that related to my bookfairs, and I've even purchased individual gifts for several
(I'm talking over 100 students) classes because I knew that many of the students I
served would never receive gifts for their special days (birthdays, holidays,
etc.). I've left computers and printers (when I upgraded to a new system at home),
furniture, books, toys, and several curriculums, procedures manuals, in-depth
catalogs of video holdings---all of which I created for those specific libraries
(oh, the hours I spent on some of those projects---and never received any
additional compensation!)
We now have a small storage building (okay, barn) on our property and it is packed
with years worth of "library programming tools"---I could be a traveling library
show! Puppets, toys, posters, etc., that I have collected---many were left in
schools that needed the resources and others were taken to be used in schools where
I would later work.
The personal time is something that I could never account for---it's only measured
by the things that I've missed in my own family's life. Some of those events were
demanded from me by administrators who felt that my being present during evening
events held on the same night as my own children's school events were just "too
bad"...others were of my own stupidity because a project needed to be done, no one
else would do it, and I spent my free time making it "perfect" rather than
mediocre---thus losing time with my family during the weekends, evenings, and
summers. These things, however, have been balanced out throughout my children's
(and husband's) lives and I feel satisfaction when I hear their proud comments
about "my Mom's (or wife is) a librarian..." before they respond to questions about
anything that requires reading, research, or a special book they've read or had
signed by a visiting author at my school.
There are times (especially when I worked at the school for the blind) that I
suddenly realized what it "might have been like" to be Annie Sullivan (Helen
Keller's teacher). A woman completely devoted to a student 24/7--the hours, the
personal money and sacrifice, and the complete exhaustion from doing what should be
done because you are there for just a fleeting moment in a person's life. What
impact did you make?
There are sacrifices that are made in this career--hopefully, I'm learning to
balance it all--but overall, when I think about it, the money was well spent...the
time was often well used.
~Shonda
Shonda Brisco, MLIS
US / Technology Librarian
Fort Worth Country Day School
Fort Worth, TX
sbrisco@fwcds.org
http://www.fwcds.org/campus/libraries/default.asp
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