The Twins game was over an hour before I left work today so the train home wasn’t as packed as yesterday. What a relief!
I am glad you all are enjoying the library week stuff. Today, let’s think about school libraries. Forbes has a recent article about why young learners need librarians. The focus is on information literacy and how kids that go to schools where there is a certified librarian are learning important research skills like how to tell if the information on a website is factual. And along with learning how to do research in general, kids with school libraries and librarians also learn how to construct quality search queries to avoid one million results that may or may not be relevant.
Kids that do not have a school library and librarian get to college not knowing any of this stuff. How well do you think they do against the other kids? The gap is significant and can severely affect how well they do in college.
Study after study has been done over the years that confirms time again the link between student achievement and school libraries. There are so many studies I can’t link them all but if you want to dig into it Google: school libraries student achievement. Yet despite the solid evidence one of the first things that gets cut out of the school budget is the librarian quickly followed by the library.
I was really lucky when I was a kid. My elementary school, junior high school and high school all had libraries. I was too cool for the junior high library. I spent some time in my high school library for school related things. But it was my elementary school library that I remember most.
It wasn’t big but my teachers would take the class there on a regular basis to pick out books. Sometimes we had to do a report on the book we chose but most of the time it was just for fun. I loved that library and I loved the librarian.
One year I was really fascinated by Helen Keller and had read the couple of books the library had. One day when I went to the library the librarian called me aside and gave me two books she had bought for me about Helen Keller. I didn’t have to give the books back, they were mine to keep. The librarian had bought me books. Did I say how much I loved her?
Now I don’t expect school librarians to be personally buying books for kids, but what a moral outrage it is to deny children the opportunities, knowledge and love of books and learning a school librarian can provide. It doesn’t just harm the kids. It harms us all.
I’ve heard of funding cuts for school libraries here in Canada, but never of them being closed, just not able to acquire new books or stay open long hours. The idea of a school without a library is shocking and rather upsetting. I grew up with librarians who took an active interest in the students and our reading habits. They organized theme weeks, solicited us for opinions on what to buy next, and hosted workshops that brough local authors into the school. For every librarian, there were also two or three volunteers, usually mothers or grandmothers of students, who made the meager budget stretch that much further.
As much as I hate the idea of cutting the arts and sports programmes in schools, I’d cut those long before getting rid of the library. As you say, denying children access to school libraries harms our entire society.
I didn’t know about the link between school libraries and achievement, though it stands to reason. I volunteered in school libraries from grade 8 onward, and visited the city library regularly as well. I can’t imagine a school without a library or a librarian. It seems out of touch with the times to suggest that children don’t need formal training in dealing with all of the information there is available. Heck, it almost seems un-American to say that children only need to learn what their teachers tell them and don’t need to learn how to find out things for themselves! Of course the book-banners and curriculum-nazis might prefer it that way.
I also didn’t know about the correlation between libraries and acheivement, but when you talk about creating searches and analysis skills it makes sense. I love the idea that there is evidence that learning critical source analysis skills make your chances of success higher (see, humanities subjects are important world!).
My school libraries really made a big difference for me as well, although at some point they became the enemy insofar as I’d once I’d read literally everything “appropriate” to my age group, they wouldn’t let me take out more advanced things, event though my mother called and insisted a number of times I was not to be censored because of my age. Ah well. I’m still a reader.
Aww, this entry reminded me of my own elementary school librarian – she was equally meaningful & loved in my life. She was an amazingly creative, wiry little woman who wore plaid almost every day and came up with incredible book-related programs to involve the kids. Frightening to think that these days she would have a hard time finding a job…
Stefanie, you make me want to go and re-train as a librarian!
(which might not be a great idea as I’m already retraining as a historian…maybe I should do both…!)
You know I don’t have any recollections of school libraries until I went to high school–how sad is that. I went to very small Catholic schools and I think we just didn’t have them, or they were really tiny, or I am sure I would have memories of them. My high school had a library, but I spent far more time in the city public library and that hasn’t changed much at all (my visiting it that is—the library itself has changed vastly!). Happily my niece has a ‘media center’ ( I guess that is what they are called now?) and often brings home books. Now I can’t imagine a school without a library!
I can’t imagine a school without a library or librarian! Times have certainly changed since I was in school.
Now (clinking fork on wine glass for attention) YOU have the dubious honor of being awarded the Beautiful Blogger and Honest Scrap Awards from me! You can get the buttons at The Curious Reader if you wish to post them, and tell us 10 things about yourself (that won’t land you in jail, of course). Then pass it along to 10 others. (This sounds like one of those e-mails that says a brick is going to drop on your head or something if you break a chain. I always break the chain and nothing has ever fallen). According to Doctordi, we should then post the names of the ten recipients. I haven’t doled all mine out yet, although I know who the “lucky” winners are, but will get around to them all by Monday.
I couldn’t have said it any better and the stats don’t lie so people have to realize how important libraries AND librarians are in this society. I have wonderful memories of my elementary school library too!
I can’t recall my high school libraries (2 schools, because I transferred) AT ALL! But I do remember hanging out at the public library. I wonder if maybe the high schools didn’t have their own and merely relied on the public library (both my schools with a branch nearby). That doesn’t seem possible! I guess I just thought the public library was cooler and have blocked out all memory of actual school.
Ah what a great memory you have of your librarian! In high school during senior year I ended up with one free period and I volunteered at the school library. I got to shelve books mainly but I had so much fun just wandering along the stacks and stuff. Plus, the librarians were super nice and when I graduated they gave me a very nice dictionary and thesaurus set.
I have fond memories of my Jr. High and High School libraries — I remember checking out Louisa May Alcott books again and again and again. I also remember researching in the card catalogs. I’m not doing that anymore, of course, but I know what I learned then was really valuable.
I know, it is really disheartening to see how easily ‘educators’ decide to cut librarians & libraries when times are tough.
I recall my elementary school librarian, Mrs. Lyons, very well. She was astounding. She encouraged me to read whatever I wanted and as much as I wanted (and I read a lot very quickly so it was great not to have a numerical limit to my checkouts). She remembered me YEARS later and even wrote me a recommendation letter when I was trying to get into library school. Everyone should have the chance to have enhanced learning opportunities in a school library.
I can’t tell you how much my son needs to learn how to do a quality google search, so he doesn’t come up with pages of the wrong kind of data. He gets so frustrated! But his school certainly has a library…hmmm, I have never heard speak of a librarian. I will try to quiz him in an oblique way (well known fact: boy children never answer direct questions) and see if his school organises library-based learning events.
nice information on the importance of school libraries. i think that will really help me.