I have some personal experience and observation to share on the subject of the demise of the school library. I have a daughter who attended elementary and middle school (at the same K-8 institution) during the “decline” period in question. I should feel lucky that her school, a charter school, maintained its library building as a library. However, staffing the library was not top priority. For a number of years, there was a lady who worked in the library, on payroll, and called herself a librarian, and, well, without being rude, all I can say is that she was not qualified to run a library. I think this just demonstrates the short shrift that staffing considerations have played in the demise of school libraries. Before and after this lady, the school library was staffed by a succession of various instructional aides. All these folks had good intentions, and probably did a job that was “good enough”, but when I know how much better it could have been if only they had had someone in there with some real training and experience... well. There is a whole generation of kids who, if they were lucky enough to have a library at their school, it might have barely been “good enough”, and could have been so much better.
For clear evidence of the decline in staffing levels at school libraries, let’s examine the data presented in this 2018 School Library Journal article, “School Librarian, Where Art Thou?” by Keith Curry Lance. Between the years 1999-2016 (school year starting), we lost about 19%, or a total of 10,000 school librarians. The most rapid decline during that time period was from 2009-2013, during the Great Recession with all its attendant budget cuts. Libraries are always the first to go.
Why are libraries always the first to go? I think there are two main factors at work here: 1) very few people who are not library workers understand what library workers do, and 2) people persist in believing that libraries can be/are replaced wholesale by the internet. For an example of factor 1, look no further than the harrowing account of parents who tried to fill the void left when their school district severely slashed the library budgets and fired most of the library workers (Barack, 17). In the 2004-2005 school year, the city of Des Moines, Iowa thought that a good way to close their school budget gap would be to close all the school libraries and fire all the librarians. Rather than closing the libraries outright, parents in the school district decided they would volunteer in the school libraries and media centers to keep them open. Needless to say, these parents were shocked to find out the depth and breadth of knowledge and skills one must have to do the job correctly. Their hearts were in the right place, bless them, and let’s chalk this up as a valuable lesson.
For examples of factor 2, look no further than the occasional conversations I have with people from various walks of life when they hear that I work in a library and plan to get my MLIS and make a career of it. “Do you really think that’s a good idea? What is the future of libraries anyway? Aren’t they going to disappear any moment?” Doubtless these are people who need some schooling in the value of libraries in our present times. They just don’t know because they themselves haven’t set foot in a library in decades and have NO IDEA what’s been changing and evolving in the world of libraries. No wonder they think that if school libraries close it’s no big deal, or that they can just replace school librarians with parent volunteers. Yikes.
Bringing us right up to date with the state of school libraries today, and their varying degrees of demise and rise, is the recently released State of America’s Libraries report (School Libraries section) by the American Library Association, which came out April 20, 2020. The section on school libraries paints a mixed picture. The demands placed on the school library continue to grow and become more challenging and complex, while at the same time the role of the school librarian continues to be threatened and diminished. In particular, it is more critical than ever that students are educated in the discernment of quality information and truth in an information landscape that makes this discernment extremely difficult. The role of school librarians in teaching information literacy can mean the difference between students becoming critical thinkers and students being overwhelmed by information that they just don’t know how to judge. And yet the budgets continue to be cut, because in a purely capitalist system, our values come down to money and what we’re willing/not willing to spend it on. And we can’t value what we don’t understand.
Works cited:
Barack, Lauren. “Des Moines Parents Sub for Librarians.” School Library Journal, vol. 51, no. 5, May 2005, p. 17. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lxh&AN=17034017&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 25 April 2020.
Lance, Keith Curry. “School Librarian, Where Art Thou? (Cover Story).” School Library Journal, vol. 64, no. 3, Mar. 2018, pp. 36–44. EBSCOhost, login.ezproxy.palomar.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=128357310&site=ehostlive&scope=site. Accessed 25 April 2020
"School Libraries", American Library Association, April 12, 2020. http://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2020/school-libraries .Accessed 25 April 2020. Document ID: 9ad5eadc-bfd3-46bc-9ea1-1602132753c7
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