If a school has a library but no librarian, does it matter?

In an earlier post, we talked about how the East Bay Children’s Book Project is helping the Friends of the Oakland Public School Libraries re-stock and re-open shuttered Oakland public school libraries.  But what if a school has a library but no librarian to run it and to guide the students who use it?  You might be surprised at the bitterness of the debate on this question.  Read on …

According to the State Department of Education, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on January 2, 2012, fewer than one in four school libraries has a credentialed librarian.  Perhaps even more shockingly, that number is plummeting: down to 900 from 1,100 just two years ago.  Money is tight, and schools may see librarians as expendable.  So librarians’ jobs fall to classroom teachers (who may or may not have a library credential or training), or even to volunteers.

So, does it matter, as long as the library doors stay open?

No, according to Ze’ev Wurman, a Silicon Valley executive who participated in the development of California education standards and served as a policy adviser for the U.S. Department of Education.  The Chronicle article quotes Wurman: “In the elementary grades especially, librarians are essentially teacher’s aides, doing a variety of things that have little to do with books or literacy, per se.”  Wurman also says research shows giving schools grants for their libraries doesn’t increase the amount of materials checked out.

Nonsense, says East Bay Children’s Book Project volunteer Raynor Voorhies, a retired East Bay teacher librarian.  As Voorhies noted in a letter to the editor, librarians are the key to actually connecting students with books:  “Circulation and access increase when knowledgeable teacher librarians use their expertise to promote, introduce and connect students with books and information resources. Would this same Silicon Valley executive expect his product to move off the shelves without qualified staff to advertise, market and keep the doors open?”  Another letter from an elementary school librarian stated that Wurman fails to understand what a librarian does: “all I do is ‘literacy’.”

In a highly unscientific survey, I asked a couple of high school students what they thought of a school library staffed by teachers or volunteers.  Their view: Teachers are far too busy, and underpaid for what they do as it is.  The school library may be the only place a student has access to computers, and helping with that aspect of their library work is a full-time job, not some add-on to an already full plate.  Volunteers are great, but you need someone who is paid and required to be there.  Libraries need librarians.

Why should you care?  Because every child needs books, and many children need help getting access to books and to information.  Their literacy may depend on it.

Leave a post and let us know what you think.

Full Shelves at Reach Academy, thanks to the Book Project!

We can’t claim credit for writing or arithmetic, but the East Bay Children’s Book Project is proud to say that it’s easier for students in a number of Oakland public schools to get books to read, thanks to an ongoing project with Ann Gallagher of the Oakland Unified School District and the Friends of the Oakland Public School Libraries.

In 2010, thirty-five of eighty-three Oakland public schools had no functioning school library.  “They were all in a deplorable situation due to neglect and age,” says OUSD’s Gallagher.  That sounded like just the right kind of challenge to Gallagher and to us at the East Bay Children’s Book Project.  Over the past year and a half, we’ve teamed up with Gallagher and the Friends of the Oakland Public School Libraries (FOPSL), and now the libraries are reopening with full shelves.

Gallagher and a group of dedicated volunteers have been on a crusade to renovate OUSD’s school libraries for four years.   In August 2011 FOPSL came into existence and, says Gallagher, even more regular volunteers joined the cause.   They have achieved amazing successes over the past year and a half, renovating and reopening libraries at Garfield, Frick, Madison, Howard, Hoover, Grass Valley, Reach Academy, and Marshall.  Current projects include PLACE at Prescott and Community United/Futures.  Although these projects aren’t finished and staff haven’t yet been hired, Gallagher says, “the students drop in and see the nice books on the shelves and we are hard-pressed to tell them they can’t have them” – so they allow some classes to come in  on the days that the volunteers are working on the collection.  To misquote “Field of Dreams”: If you give them books, they will come!

Garfield School Library

Says Gallagher about the East Bay Children’s Book Project: “We wouldn’t have felt so confident discarding those ratty old books unless we knew that we could get better books to replace them – and that means YOU!!  Your steady commitment to delivering books to people in need has made all of the difference to us.  We are forever grateful.”

This post is the first in a series about the crisis in school libraries in Oakland and California.  If you have thoughts on this subject, please feel free to leave a comment.

IN APPRECIATION

The East Bay Children’s Book Project has been a wonderful help to me during the last seven
years that I have been working in the Oakland Public School Libraries.

In order to stay reasonably up-to-date and keep the children engaged, a school library needs
a constant influx of new books.  Funding only comes at certain times, and even then must often
be used for things other than books.  The East Bay Children’s Book Project is a fabulous
source of free books.

Their well-organized and ever-changing collection goes from board books through middle
school, fiction and non-fiction, and they always have some books that are brand new.  I go
there almost every week and bring back an average of 30 books each time.  Five or six of
those are usually entered into the school library, and the rest are given as rewards and incentives
to the children to keep on reading and return their library books on time.

In an era of uncertain finances for schools and families, the gift of free books from the East Bay
Children’s Book Project is a godsend.

Ruth Harteneck
Librarian Aide
Burckhalter Elementary School
Oakland, CA

WOOHOO!!

Our book collection stands are finally finished.They are functional, beautiful and so elegant. We are so proud of them. Hopefully they will get us tons of new books. You can see it here at Books Inc. in Alameda.

WOOHOOHOO!!!

Kaiser donated almost 20,000 Board Books to us on May 8th. We still have a few thousand available. These are all preschool books packed in cases of 50 identical books. If you can use some, please come in soon before they are all gone.

WOOHOOHOOHOO!!!

We are already saving prizes for BOOKS BINGO, our fundraiser on Thursday, May 24th. Please save the date and join us for great food, fun and beer at Actual Cafe.

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