Replies, cont.:
We are building a new school this summer on an emergency basis. Lucky
for us plans had been drawn up three years ago. The old school burned
down one night about a month ago. I guarantee you there is a library in there. I
am pushing for it to be larger, but the people in charge of the plans for schools
in my district all come to see me as they set up plans to see what I need in the
different libraries.
Good luck on this one.
-------------------
You need the public/parents on your side... know any that are
strong willed enough and vocal enough... who believe in libraries to take
up the fight....??? It only takes one local "mover and shaker" in the community...
in other words... someone with political power or of a "monied" status...
----------------
I have attached a tongue-in-cheek article about books that I got
of LM_NET that you may be able to use. It holds a lot of truths, most
especially the part about books requiring no outside power source, not
crashing and being able to be used hundreds of years from now.
Computers belong in the library also, especially with all of the
databases usually offered through the library/technology budget. More
importantly though, in this age of information, a librarian belongs in a library.
Only the librarian in the school is trained on information
retrieval - as well as being current on contemporary literature.
Without a library, there will probably be no librarian, in which case
your teachers have no support for research and no expert on literature
tie-ins to their lessons. They will all have to become experts. (Sure, they have
plenty of time to learn all about the databases and the deep web. At least they
won't have to know the books - because they will all be gone!) Your students will
also have no expert on good books for pleasure reading (yes, some students DO
read), and, again, the books will be gone anyway.
I am sure you can obtain a wealth of information you can take with you
to a meeting with your principal and the superintendent from ALA, as
well as from others on this listserve. I'll end with a quote from Keith Curry
Lance, whose research you will definitely need to access for your meeting: "School
libraries are a powerful force in the lives of America's children. The school
library is one of the few factors whose contribution to academic achievement has
been documented empirically, and it is a contribution that cannot be explained away
by other powerful influences on student performance. "What Research Tells Us About
the Importance of School Libraries" Keith Curry Lance, Ph.D. - - - Good luck.
-------------
It scares me to hear younger/newer librarians say that their
print materials don't get used as much as their online
resources. That's because they don't push students to do so.
It's still quite often faster to find information in a book than
online because search engines and even databases don't have the
capability (yet) to be intuitive...to know what the searcher is
really looking for. Looking up the same information in an index
is very straightforward and quick. The upper school librarian
and I have gotten the teachers in both our divisions to make it
a requirement that students use at least one print resource for
their projects (in middle school, I require 2). Faster, easier,
cheaper doesn't mean high quality. In fact, if a student uses
mostly Internet resources, the teachers can usually tell because
the information is not as accurate. There are also increased
instances of plagiarism, because it's so easy to copy/paste
information from online sources. I'm all for accurate,
authoritative, unbiased materials any day and it's not because
I'm an old, stodgy librarian who doesn't like computers. I'm a
computer geek and as bad as the kids sometimes about going to
the computer to look something up, really quickly, but the idea
that libraries need fewer print materials and more online ones
is not acceptable, at least until the online environment can
provide safe, high-quality, easy-to-find information.
As far as the fiction issue goes, I will never want to curl up
with a good computer and I hate paperback books. They get
really ratty looking very quickly, whereas hard cover books are
built to last much longer.
I do agree that more focus is needed on teaching students how to
determine what sites/information is "good" and how to do the
best search possible. The internet is here to stay and I love
it but it has a plethora of problems that need to be dealt with
before it's as good an information provider as books are.
Hopefully, I will not live to see the day when libraries have
only electronic sources available!
-------------
Hello,
I just moved to a brand new school - they sold our old school and
built us a beautiful new one. The library is central to the whole
campus and is anything but outdated or under-used. That said,
however, Do NOT let architects take control of your school! They have
no grasp of reality and only want to plan and build to the 'big
picture'. In our case, the school is gorgeous, but practically
impossible to work in on a daily basis. Stay firm with your
Principal and District people. These people who build schools truly
don't know what they're talking about. Their job is to build the
school that your faculty, district and community wants and needs. So
don't let them get away with this fantasy that the new age of schools
will not have a library. Your superintendent and budget people are
only looking at the bottom line way to save money. Remind them that
if they were to build a school without a library, that they'll be
looking at adding buildings later because they WILL miss the library.
Where are all the books going to go? Who will be teaching research?
Who will be responsible for ordering and maintaining those classroom
collections? It'll be a huge waste of money...and lose them more
money than they think they're saving. What short-sighted thinking!
I'll be happy to chat with you at any time. I love my new
environment, but wow, the things they put into it are so off base for
how kids really use libraries....
-------------
I have taught an interesting session on Information Literacy to
teachers, and one of the lessons I developed was a contest to see who
could find 4 facts about Sophie Tucker the fastest. I had the tech
person time the group and I had a stop watch on myself. The teachers
were in the computer lab (with a connecting door to our county office
of ed. library) and were told they could use any resource they wanted
to. They all chose to search the Internet.
The first teacher to find all 4 facts did so in 2 minutes 11 seconds
using the Internet. I found the same information in 12 seconds using
the Biographical Dictionary - a good old print source most of the class
had never heard of.
So, if we are talking about one small component of finding information,
one can consider the expense of time as well as in knowing what kinds
of information one can expect to find in print and non-print resources.
In my experience, it takes an LMT and a fully stocked library to share and teach
that information.
Just thought I'd share.
------------------
I posted this in a different way a few weeks ago about the School of the Future
being built in Philadelphia in conjunction with Microsoft. I did not say it
specifically because Ii wanted to see who would catch that when they went to the
website and read all of the information about the School of the Future.
I would ask the architects to give you specific schools that have been built
without a library -- and what impact it has --
In South Carolina we have a State Committee working on this very topic right now.
Do your school plans have to pass approval through your State Dept. of Education?
Do you have any current building regulations that require a certain amount of space
for libraries?
Our professional organizations need to get proactive about this very topic -- but
it seems to me they want to worry more about Internet filtering and censorship than
the reality that is going on in schools every day.
Now don't start sending me the importance of freedom of speech, etc, that I support
100% -- Our professional organizations are not proactive enough -- they are more
reactive.
Also, I asked last summer for statistics on library circulation from school
districts.
I saw high circulation in ele. schools and then virtually nothing in high schools
Since I now work at the district level --
how do I justify full-time staff, huge libraries, book purchases, etc. that are not
being used......
Recall the discussion a few weeks ago about how to keep kids out of the library
during study hall -- because they were not doing real research..
Ask yourself -- if you didn't work in a library -- why would you go to do research
when you can sit a home or in your classroom and search Google -- (don't go off the
deep end and send me the list of why this should not be the case) you need to work
with others and convince them.
How many times have we seen or heard about librarians who don't want kids in the
library? or the kid can't check out a book because they have overdues --
Shall we even mention classroom collections?????? for pleasure reading???
I don't have answers but questions ---- these are reality questions that we need to
deal with and address as a profession as well as in our individual roles as
librarians (media specialists, instructional specialist) or whatever darn term we
are calling ourselves these days.
--------------------
I am horrified to hear of such a thing. I am truly sad to hear how
short-sighted your superintendent could be. I have been a library tech in an
elementary school in Ca for 16 years, and I am currently in grad school at San Jose
getting my Masters in Library Science. One of the papers I had to do was
basically, "everthing is on the Internet, so why should I have books?" I am
attaching the paper here, in hopes that some of the resources and/or ideas might be
of help to you. It does have a school focus (elementary) but I'm sure you can
tweek it to meet your needs. PLEASE feel free to use it as you need. You can't
give up the fight! Good luck and I hope you keep us posted.
P.S Not that this matters, but I did get an A on the paper :) and I also have a
paper on valuing the information professional if you'd like to use that.
----------------
Attached is the PDF of the Topsy Smalley article just
in case it helps.
Hang in there.
----------------
I would challenge the architects to define "many." And
then to find any follow-up studies that show if those
schools are pleased with their decisions about five
years later. There are a FEW schools being built like
that, but not "many."
The one I am familiar with in my own area is a
Catholic school which moved into an existing building
and didn't have/make room for a library. They broke up
a carefully balanced collection of resources since
students would be "able to find all the information
they needed online." Three years later there is a lot
of frustration; the staff is not always happy with the
"good enough" information students are using.
There is also a need for the quiet, productive place
to study that is provided by a library rich in
resources.
Even more importantly, students are not being prepared
for the in-depth reflection and thinking that they
will be required to do in college when they do not
have access to that depth provided by books--which are
edited and fact-checked. Or the instruction in
evaluation and searching provided by a strong school
library program.
There is a great article in this month's Multimedia
Schools about preparing students for university
research:
"Helping Students Make the Jump to University Level
Research," Mar/Apr 2006, By Carrie Esch and Amy
Crawford
Perhaps you can point your administrators and parents
towards it and the work of David T. Conley
<http://www.s4s.org> who is the author of College
Knowledge and who is convinced of the role libraries
play in giving students the skills needed to not only
get into college, but out of college.
And, there is a study done in California by Topsey
Smalley which shows the higher college grades for
students with high school libraries. Here's the
citation and abstract:
Smalley, Topsy N. "College Success: High School
Librarians Make the Difference." Journal of Academic
Librarianship 30.3(2004): 193-8.
Abstract: Abstract
Many students who enroll in a community college
Information Research course come from three local
school districts. Of those three districts, only one
has librarians. Through examining grade rosters, this
study demonstrates that student achievement is
substantially higher for students who come from high
schools that have librarians and library programs.
Don't give up. It's too important for kids.
-----------------------------
We have just been through a very public battle with a high school in New Zealand,
Cambridge High. About five or six years ago the principal closed the library and
turned it into a cyber café. Immediately the School Library Association of New
Zealand Aotearoa got to work to advocate the reinstatement of the library. I am
sorry to say this had limited response from the school. However, after the
principal was removed from the school because of misconduct the new school
governing body reinstated the library. I have pasted a couple of links below for
you to see some of the debate.
Good luck with your struggle. You may be able to access many things on the
internet, but in a school good quality reading promotion and information literacy
teaching can only really be resourced by a well run, well staffed school library.
It's all about the people!
http://www.slanza.org.nz/waikatobop/chairreport2003.PDF
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/organisation/story.cfm?o_id=308&ObjectID=10358882
--------------------
I'm sure that many will be sending on to you similar sentiments. I'm just
wondering if there is a university near you that could speak to the need of a
library for your students. I just attended workshops at Cornell University
(luckily we have such a great resource nearby) and one workshop I attended was
aimed at teachers of AP English courses. The focus of the workshop was that
students are entering college without basic research skills, even at prestigious
colleges and universities.
Students need to know how to use the technology to find information but they also
need the skills to find that info in a book or on a shelf. They also need to know
that the computer is not always the best way to find info. They need to know how
to use an actual library to be successful in college, I'm not aware of a
libraryless Ivy League campus or any local college for that matter. Just my
thoughts.
-----------------------------
Lindy Hutchison, Librarian
Sweeny HS Library
Sweeny, TX
lhutchison@mail.sweeny.isd.esc4.net
"Let us put our minds together and see what life we will make for our children."
--Tatanka Iotanka (Sitting Bull)
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