Dr. Bernstein, Superintendent of the Valley Stream Central High School District in New York, recently suggested to Governor Cuomo that one way he could make NY education more efficient would be to eliminate the “antiquated requirement that all high schools have at least one full-time librarian and a minimum number of books.” Because, you know, with the internet and everything, no one needs books or librarians.
Inspired by Taylor Mali’s poem, “What Teachers Make,” librarian Joyce Valenza wrote her own poem. Here’s a little excerpt:
I am here to introduce young people to a rich world of books and literature, options they can select themselves. I am here to see the joy on a kid’s face when she shares that she loved the book she borrowed last week. The one she stayed up all night reading.
…
I am here to help learners ask important questions.
I am here to help learners understand that when they ask questions, they have a rich search toolkit available to them and that toolkit reaches beyond one big search engine and that that toolkit offers them access to high quality databases and ebooks and blogs and tweets and magazines and newspapers and wikis and scholarly journals and primary sources and media of all sorts.
As it continues to shift, I am here to organize the information world for my teachers and our kids.
Ah, makes me want to be a librarian. Wait! I will be soon. But first I must go do some homework.
Antiquated requirements!! Oh, dear. My students need SO much help of exactly the sort librarians provide.
Hah, never really thought about it like that, wouldn’t it be cool, if a Librarian could be like, your ‘doctor’, and give you advice for what ails you in a literary sense.
“Come back in two months after you’ve read XYZ, and we’ll talk.”
Love it.
Oh God. I hate it when people like Dr. Bernstein make comments like that. I bet he never bothers to darken the doors of his high school libraries. Great poem!
Hear, hear, Emily. It’s unbelievable when it comes from someone in a position like that too…
Yikes. That is downright scary. Not quite as scary as the total emptying of libraries with a handful of monitors and a coffee shop in their place, but just another step in that direction.
I love Michael’s comment.
Dr Bernstein needs to have his access to all printed matter removed from him and see how he likes it. Grr, makes me very grumpy. Writing a poem is all very well – tattooing it on his forehead would be a lot better.
Dr. Bernstein is obviously intelligent and, one would hope, up-to-speed with regard to the relevance of Librarians and Information Scientists, in the world of education. It is still something of a myth that everything can be accessed via the internet. It’s just another valuable resource. One that qualified Information Professionals can help researchers to exploit fully. Those who work in information never rest on their laurels.
Dorothy, I know! We make so many assumptions about the born digital generation, how tech savvy they are, etc, but study after study shows that knowing how to work a gadget does not translate to know how to do good research.
Michael, heh, many librarians are already “therapists” so it would be only a small step to “doctor”
Emily, steam came from my ears and melted some snow. Obviously Dr. Berstein has not read the reports that show school with libraries and librarians in them have higher achieving students.
whisperinggums, do people who should know better say stuff like Berstein did in Australia? I will be forever baffled as to why librarians and teachers are the first ones cut in hard budget times and then everyone wonders why kids do so poorly in school and then the teachers get blamed. Oy.
Bookfool, it’s pretty sad, isn’t it? I loved going to my school’s library when I was a kid and picking out new books to read. Kids who don’t get to do that are being deprived of experience and opportunities.
Litlove, I didn’t know you had a mean streak in you
I’ll hold him down and you do the tattooing.
Martin, that Dr. Berstein is intelligent is what makes his statements even more disturbing. While there is a lot that can be found on the internet, you are quote right that everything can’t be found there. It is a useful tool to be sure, but golly, I love the library databases!
I don’t think we’re immune to thoughtless bureaucrats here Stefanie. I haven’t heard this particular one but I wouldn’t say that it’s not been said. When funding is tight teacher-librarian positions are often hit… BUT that said, I was horrified when my kids attended an elementary school in the California – a school of over 1200 kids and the library was not run by teacher-librarians. My kids little primary (elementary) school here had less than 100 kids and we still managed a part-time teacher-librarian because the role was seen as important.
Ah. Another enlightened (and “forward thinking”) administrator. Don’t you love them. It’s good to know there are passionate people like you who will be becoming librarians soon–and will help drown out voices like that!
Yeah, those pesky books…they always need a lot of dusting, and if we didn’t have them, we could maybe do without the extra janitorial help, too. Just think of all the money we’d save on feather dusters. Books are always in the way…just hanging around waiting to be picked up. They are so n-e-e-e-e-d-y. Always crying, “Please pick me up and take me home, please, please.” I mean, we could go to the local animal shelter and get that, for crying out loud. No need for them, that’s what I say. Hrumph!
Antiquated requirement? Geez Louise. Why not do away with the pesky reading and writing requirement altogether? Gah. After all, if you can cut and paste from Google and Wiki.
Whisperinggums, I grew up in southern California public schools. Luckily, my elementary school did have a small library and there was a librarian there part-time. My parents still live in the house I grew up in and my mom tells me that there is still a library at the school and a librarian but she is there only one day a week or something as she rotates from school to school. I guess that is better than nothing.
Danielle, aw you are so kind. Folks like Dr. Bernstein are frustrating but on the other side are lots of librarians and non-librarians and parents who really care and raise their voices in protest. Whether administrators and those who hold the pursestrings listen, that’s something else entirely.
Carrie, yeah, who needs reading when cutting and pasting from the internet will suffice. Afterall, the internet knows all and everything online is free. Oy.
I hope Dr. B’s inbox has been filled with enlightening letters from librarians!
Iliana, I’m sure it has. I hope he is eating his words about now.
Mmmm… the poem makes me want to be a Librarian
How can someone in leadership at a school district think like this? I am horrified that he would think something like that, let alone express it. I always tell my teenage son that as long as we have libraries we will remain civilized.
Kathleen, I know, isn’t it horrible and irresponsible? But somehow it came from good intentions which shows a distinct lack of understanding in the role of libraries and librarians in education. Hopefully he has learned a few since his short-sighted remarks.