[LM_NET] What is it we are missing?

[Kathy Graves <kgraves@4FAST.NET>]

Will all of the current budget cuts and decisions to cut library  
positions as well as the arts, what is it that we are missing? What is  
it that we aren't doing to build awareness of the value of these  
programs?

I am retired from the public school system in California where I spent  
18 years in the classroom, 4 years as a school site librarian, and 15  
years as the director of a county schools library-media center  
program.  From the time I started teaching in 1967 we constantly  
worried about school support staff and programs being cut, so this  
isn't new.

Over the years our profession has developed strategies and resources  
to help prevent proposed cuts but it always seems like those are  
localized successes.  Nothing seems to change at the state and  
national levels.  Why?  What is it that we aren't doing?  What are we  
missing?  Why do we constantly reinvent the wheel when it comes to  
advocating for our programs?  We know the right thing to do - we have  
the results of over 20 studies to support us, yet we continue to be  
back at where we were 40 years ago trying to justify our programs and  
fight for them.

We must be thinking and working in too small a sphere.  What will it  
take to make this a national campaign?

Kathy Graves
IMC Director/County Schools Librarian, Retired
Siskiyou County Office of Education
Yreka, CA 96097


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