Re: [LM_NET] Elem: Book Fairs

[mchawkins <caughey195@YAHOO.COM>]

I am writing again to clarify that I have nothing
against helping kids get their hands on good books. 
An increasing number of you have written to me,
however, about how you rely on income from the Book
Fair.

One of the other reasons I resist the Book Fairs is
because I have had principals and School Board
officials say that there is no need to increase the
Library budget because the Library gets  income from
holding Book Fairs.

Does the school get it's income from bake sales?  Do
the teachers purchase their text books?  Do the
cafeteria ladies buy the plastic forks?

It is shameful if the only way a school library gets a
budget for material is by selling things to kids. 
That's not even taxpayers money!!  In my district,
it's their allowance or sometimes their lunch money!
(I do try to make sure that doesn't happen)

When I was new to the job,  I accepted that "this is
how it's done."   As I have read more and learned
more,  I find it more important to speak up and out
against the idea that Libarians are responsible for
finding money for Library materials. 

In Pennsylvania,  Commonwealth Libraries has a set of
guidelines that says that a school district should
spend 5% of it's budget on library materials.  Of
course that never happens  (otherwise I'd be getting
$70K each year for books),  but we have to at least
expect School Districts to provide for *something*.

"What a school thinks about its library is a measure
of what it thinks about education."    Harold Howe,
former U.S. Commissioner of Education 

My primary objection to Book Fairs is having to sell
what could be free. But I'm really appalled if Book
Fairs exist because it's the only way for Libraries to
get materials.

Good luck to us all, I say.



Meg Hawkins
Librarian
Darby Township School 1-8
Southeast Delco School District
Glenolden PA 19036


       
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