I've had a crazy idea last week and wrote a letter. Some of you many or may not
know that Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have been calling other billionaires on the
Forbes 500 list, getting them to pledge to give at least half of their wealth to
charity.
Here's the link to an article, if anyone is interested:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2010/0805/Warren-Buffett-Bill-Gates-and-the-billionaire-challenge
We all know how underfunded school libraries are, and I've spent my summer trying
to track down grants for individual school libraries. Apart from the Laura Bush
Foundation Grant, there is very slim pickings out there. There are lots of grants
for public libraries, and lots of grants that school districts can go after, but
virtually nothing for those of us in the trenches to use in our own school
libraries. Who better than us to know what our own libraries need and how to spend
the money?
If there is anyone else out there who would be willing to write to him, it might
get the need for more school library funding noticed.
Cheers,
Kelly Green
Librarian
Sandy Valley, Goodsprings, Blue Diamond
greenka61@cox.net
Mr. Warren Buffett
C/O Berkshire Hathaway
3555 Farnam St.
STE. 1440
Omaha, NE 68131
Dear Mr. Buffett,
I saw on television last week that you had convinced a lot of billionaires to
pledge to give half of their wealth to charity. Thank you so much for doing that. I
think you are doing a wonderful thing.
Grants Specifically for School Libraries
If you have the inclination or time, would you suggest to some of the people who
are giving away their money to consider offering grants to individual school
libraries? There are lots of grants out there for public libraries and there are
grants for school libraries on a district wide level, but the only grant I've ever
found specifically for school libraries is the Laura Bush Foundation Grant.
I know that times are tough all over, but it makes me really sad when states and
school districts balance their budgets by cutting funding to school libraries, and
sometimes close them entirely. Perhaps I'm old fashioned or a little too
idealistic, but how are kids supposed to learn to love reading and learn to "read
more about it" if there is nothing but old, cruddy, out-of-date, unappealing books
in the library, or even worse, no library at the school at all? How are the kids
supposed to go online to see the actual US Constitution or the actual Magna Carta
if the library computers are so old that they freeze every time a student tries to
use them? It just doesn't make sense to me.
Sandy Valley School
I can't speak for other school libraries, but I can speak for my own. I am the
librarian at three different rural schools: Goodsprings Elementary, Blue Diamond
Elementary, and Sandy Valley School (K-12). Goodsprings and Blue Diamond schools
are two-room school houses in other parts of Clark County. Sandy Valley, my primary
school, is sixty-five miles south west of Las Vegas and lays on the Nevada -
California border. There are about 2,000 people there and about 300 kids go to the
school which houses preschool through 12th grade. In Sandy Valley, there are only
three businesses: the general store, the pizza place, and the bar. It is so small
that there isn't even a gas station or motel. The town is mostly made up of
families who farm and ranch. Everyone else commutes into Jean or Las Vegas to work.
The elementary and middle school kids use one library, while the high school
library is in a portable trailer. Most of the kids speak English, but there is a
growing Spanish speaking population. Most of the families are poor. It is not
uncommon to see orange electrical cables running from one house to another so that
the second house has electricity. Yet, for all of the problems the families have,
the kids are really good kids. Our school does very well on the academic tests
every year. Over the past five years our students have succeeded reaching the
benchmarks for No Child Left Behind: the elementary school has made Adequate Yearly
Progress (AYP) four years in a row but failed to meet the criteria this year, the
middle school has met AYP benchmarks for the last three years in a row but failed
to meet the criteria this year, and the high school has made AYP for the first
three years of its existence. With that being said, as the standards increase our
need for additional resources to keep our students growing is critical in the face
of a $230 million dollar district budget deficit this year. The anticipated
shortfall for next year is nearly $200 million dollars.
Sandy Valley School Library
At school, the library is the hub. In the morning before school, it is where the
entire staff goes for meetings. It is where we have staff development. If there is
not a meeting, the kids can come in and check out books, use the computers, or work
on games and puzzles before class. During the day, the elementary/middle school
library is where teachers bring their kids for lessons and to work on research
projects. At lunchtime it is open to students on the days that I am not in
Goodsprings or Blue Diamond. After school, the school library in Sandy Valley is
where the Parent Advisory Committee meets with the teachers and school
administration to discuss the changing needs of the school. My library aide and I
also help edit student papers before the kids turn them in. We like helping them
with their writing.
Materials Needed in the Library
The school library collections, on the other hand, are not in good shape. This
year I removed about 500 books from the school libraries because they were out of
date or damaged, but the truth is I would throw out half of the remaining books if
I had something to replace them with. There is a real lack of books that attract
reluctant readers or boys. We have no audio books, let alone Playaways. Playaways
are prerecorded audio player that are about the size of a deck of playing cards,
weigh 2 ounces, and can store up to 80 hours of audio. It's a shame that we don't
have the money to afford these because with audio books and Playaways, you can get
reluctant readers, beginning readers, struggling, impaired, and non-readers to
read along with books and in the process, increase their comprehension, fluency,
and self confidence. Audio books and Playaways are also great for the kids who are
learning to speak English. Playaways could even be used by the Physical Education
teachers who could have kids listen to books while they were walking their laps on
the field in the morning.
When I asked the teachers what they wanted me to get for the libraries for this
coming year they suggested: Low level/high interest fiction and non-fiction, more
books about the humanities, audio books, big books, poetry anthologies for the high
school, sets of novels for the middle school, science DVDs that had to do with life
science, physical science, geology, astronomy, environmental science, chemistry,
and agriculture. The resource room in elementary wants more books on science that
are easy enough for their kids to read. The school district gives us $1,400.00 to
buy materials for each library for next year. The point is, a school library grant
would make it possible for me to purchase all of the above items and consequently
fully support all readers and the school's curriculum.
Internet or Wi-Fi Needed for Research Databases
Next, there are databases in Las Vegas that students get to use for research. Our
school has access to them via the school district, but because there is no fiber
optics cable out to Sandy Valley or Goodsprings, (I don't think Blue Diamond has
one either). We don't have high speed internet in the library (or anywhere else on
campus). The computers start crawling every day around 8:20 when all of the
students are trying to get online, and they stay that way until around 3:30 when
the kids go home. In addition to improving the library collection, part of that
grant money would be used to improve our school's Internet or Wi-Fi service.
Despite all of these problems, school libraries do make a difference. As I noted
earlier, little Sandy Valley produces some of the best test results in the district
including more than 40 awards for academic excellence over the past three years,
and the high school being the only high school of 42 Clark County School District
high schools to meet all goals on the district-wide common semester exam. Kids
find their ways into our libraries and they keep coming back.
The Library isn't for Nerds
If your colleagues are wondering how the students view the school library, please
share this anecdote with them. One day, at a school library I used to work at, the
library was full of kids. The kids on the computers closest to the door were busy
working away when a couple of the trouble makers on their way to the playground
stuck their heads in and said, "You going to the library?! You a nerd! Only losers
and nerds go to the library!" One of the big, tough, fifth grade boys who was on
the football team pushed by them. I was thinking to myself, "Well, that's going to
start a fight. " He looked the two of them up and down and swaggered back to them,
"Fool, get out of my way! The richest man in the world is a nerd and I'm gonna be
just like him. I don't care if it makes me a nerd. I'm goin' to the library!" A
couple of the kids who were already on the computers and heard the whole thing
started laughing and telling each other, "I don't care if this makes me a nerd."
School libraries are wonderful places where kids learn to love reading and also
learn to love learning. School libraries are where there are books and information
that are worth reading about; where you can find the answers to your questions and
maybe find a few new questions that you didn't know you needed to ask. School
libraries are where kids can disappear when they need a soft place to land. Mr.
Buffett, there are an awful lot of kids out there who need soft places to land.
School libraries of all kinds, from little rural school libraries, to urban school
libraries to all kinds in between, need help. When you think about it, all
libraries are portals to the sum total of everything mankind has ever thought,
written, and created, but school libraries, even little bitty rural ones like mine,
are where we give the keys to those portals to our kids so that they can unlock
those wonders for themselves.
Please ask your colleagues to consider using some of their money to start
foundations that have yearly grants specifically to support school libraries of all
kinds. Like our children, school libraries are not an expense. School libraries are
a vital, vital investment in our future.
Sincerely,
Ms. Kelly Green
Librarian
Sandy Valley Elementary, Middle and High School
Goodsprings Elementary School
Blue Diamond Elementary School
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