The Demise of School Libraries

Blogger: Erika Stuart

            Libraries are an important part of our education. From the time we are in Kindergarten through our college years, we use our school libraries to help us excel further in our education by reading books and improving comprehension to doing research for homework and papers.

The school library has always been a safe haven for the quiet and the curious. In recent years though increase in technology has affected the use of school libraries. Many students in high school only enter the library if their class goes in to use the computers. Students now tend to do their research at home online. While some people may think this advancement makes libraries useless, it should actually make them more important. Librarians need to teach students how to do research correctly. Many students will google their topic and use the first things they see as legitimate sources, and while some information on the internet is accurate, these students need to be able to find credible sources. This need for educated research is only one reason school libraries are still important.

Budget cuts have also negatively affected school libraries in an article called Advocating for the School Library Budget, Published by Teacher Librarian, it stated “The library budget in too many schools consists of whatever can be begged, borrowed, or purchased through fund-raising or grant-writing efforts.” This creates a problem because if the school library has little to no budget, it can’t afford the databases and resources that students rely on for their education much less new materials like books for the students to read. Some school library budgets have been cut so much that they even share librarians. I recently met a library technician who works at two different elementary schools in the same district; alternating them every other week. One week the library is open and then closed the next, on top of that there is no librarian on-hand. The school is part of a program with other schools in the district where they have one librarian who monitors all of the schools. The technician at the school has to write up a book list and send it to the librarian who approves them or denies them. The librarian may visit the school library once in a year to check up, but other than that the school libraries are run by the technician.

In 2011 the New York Times did an article talking about how schools are squeezing out librarians due to budget cuts. People don’t seem to realize how important School libraries and librarians are. They are letting this useful asset to education slip between the cracks.

References:

       Kachel, Debra. "Advocating for the School Library Budget." Teacher Librarian, vol. 45, no. 2, Dec. 2017, pp. 48-50.

       Santos, Fernanda. “Schools Eliminating Librarians as Budgets Shrink.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 June 2011, https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/nyregion/schools-eliminating-librarians-as-budgets-shrink.html 

       Siu-Runyan, Yvonne. “Public and School Libraries in Decline: When We Need Them.” The Council Chronicle, Sept. 2011.