Why have school libraries?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the library love!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a school librarian I can’t tell you how many kids come in and say that library is their favorite special. By knowing the kids and what interests them, we save new books for them that we know they would love and help them find new books to try besides their favorites. We also help teachers find books to use for their curriculum. In addition, we coordinate author visits among many other things.

It's my kid's favorite special by far. We go to public library every weekend and checkout a stack of books, but it's still her favorite.

[Anonymous]

To address one point: almost no teachers would have the room for a full classroom library that would be required if we got rid of library all together

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a great question that I, as a school librarian, love to answer!

First of all, there is a research base to support the correlation between school libraries staffed by licensed librarians and improved student performance on assessments. Read more here: https://kappanonline.org/lance-kachel-school-librarians-matter-years-research/

Keep in mind that despite their presence in the press, book challenges are overall very rare. In my decades-long career I’ve not had a single parent concern raised. And “expensive to maintain” is not accurate: my current budget is about $6k, and if you divided that by the classrooms in my school, each teacher would get $250 each. That’s only enough to buy about a dozen hardcover books for each classroom annually. I buy from an approved vendor that is often able to provide a discount, and because they are processed for a library (the fancy covers), they are durable and my books serve the entire student population for many years.

Half of my job is serving students, but half of it is serving teachers. Not only do I annually research and purchase books to meet state standards, I also select many of the books teachers use for instruction. Teachers will ask me to gather what I have on X topic and then they base their instruction on what I give them. They have little time and often little familiarity with what is available and the rely on my suggestions.

My district deems my instruction more valuable than a foreign language (I am in ES). I assume that is because I am teaching both library and literacy skills. Students learn how to use a library independently so that in MS and HS they can do so for academic reasons. Kids need to learn how to identify good search terms and strategies and how to choose and navigate the many databases available to them. Classroom teachers often don’t know this stuff, so librarians are teaching them, too. They also learn research and literacy skills that supplement classroom learning. I know that with the amount of focus on testing and standards, my students seem to value the library as a place to celebrate the freedom to read whatever brings you joy, which promotes a valuable lifelong habit of reading.

As other posters have, I want to remind you that public libraries are not accessible to all. I work in a very high poverty school where some families are often unfamiliar with the advent of public libraries or their usefulness, and many of the adults are not literate in their home language. Many families have just one car used by the adult at work, so most errands are done by walking. My students have to cross a six-lane highway to get to our awesome public library and many are not permitted to do that until they are older. And don’t forget, a school library can be visited daily, and not at parents’ convenience on weekends or in the evenings.

Thank you!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are they more valuable than a second language?

More valuable than 45 minutes a week of learning to "Me llamo Larla" and sing a song in Spanish? Almost certainly.

+1

When my kids had FLES, they had a beautiful concert at the end of the year. I’ll never forget when my mother-in-law asked my kids the meaning of the songs they sang. The kids laughed and said they had no idea. They only memorized the words to the songs. What APS did with FLES with a waste of time and resources.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are they more valuable than a second language?

Hop over to the FCPS forum and read how many think FLES is a waste of money and want it gone. My kids had a mandatory foreign language in elementary. They didn’t learn anything except a hate for that particular language. We are not alone with this. They don’t become fluent or even competent.

Agreed. Mine were so tired of it, neither of them had any interest in continuing in middle school. During elementary school, they'd ask why they have to learn songs in Spanish - why not some other language? The repetitiveness of the curriculum was boring and un-engaging; and they did not feel like they were learning anything new each year.

There is no reason for learning a different language or learning music to NOT be FUN in elementary school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a great question that I, as a school librarian, love to answer!

First of all, there is a research base to support the correlation between school libraries staffed by licensed librarians and improved student performance on assessments. Read more here: https://kappanonline.org/lance-kachel-school-librarians-matter-years-research/

Keep in mind that despite their presence in the press, book challenges are overall very rare. In my decades-long career I’ve not had a single parent concern raised. And “expensive to maintain” is not accurate: my current budget is about $6k, and if you divided that by the classrooms in my school, each teacher would get $250 each. That’s only enough to buy about a dozen hardcover books for each classroom annually. I buy from an approved vendor that is often able to provide a discount, and because they are processed for a library (the fancy covers), they are durable and my books serve the entire student population for many years.

Half of my job is serving students, but half of it is serving teachers. Not only do I annually research and purchase books to meet state standards, I also select many of the books teachers use for instruction. Teachers will ask me to gather what I have on X topic and then they base their instruction on what I give them. They have little time and often little familiarity with what is available and the rely on my suggestions.

My district deems my instruction more valuable than a foreign language (I am in ES). I assume that is because I am teaching both library and literacy skills. Students learn how to use a library independently so that in MS and HS they can do so for academic reasons. Kids need to learn how to identify good search terms and strategies and how to choose and navigate the many databases available to them. Classroom teachers often don’t know this stuff, so librarians are teaching them, too. They also learn research and literacy skills that supplement classroom learning. I know that with the amount of focus on testing and standards, my students seem to value the library as a place to celebrate the freedom to read whatever brings you joy, which promotes a valuable lifelong habit of reading.

As other posters have, I want to remind you that public libraries are not accessible to all. I work in a very high poverty school where some families are often unfamiliar with the advent of public libraries or their usefulness, and many of the adults are not literate in their home language. Many families have just one car used by the adult at work, so most errands are done by walking. My students have to cross a six-lane highway to get to our awesome public library and many are not permitted to do that until they are older. And don’t forget, a school library can be visited daily, and not at parents’ convenience on weekends or in the evenings.

Thank you!!!

Thank you for what you do and for taking the time to type this out! I can't believe OP would want to get rid of a school library of all things. Mine loves going to ours. It is different and more of a special treat than the books in the classroom. And he brings the book home for us to read together. It's a wonderful thing in small and big ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As other posters have, I want to remind you that public libraries are not accessible to all. I work in a very high poverty school where some families are often unfamiliar with the advent of public libraries or their usefulness, and many of the adults are not literate in their home language.

Having lived in other countries, the library system in the US is great. In one country, you need to pay to enter the library!

I agree many parents may not know much about public libraries, but is enough being done to get the word out? For example, are kids in school made aware of their public library and all the resources available? The libraries have great events too -- I wonder if word is getting out enough. We go to some events, and the turnout does not reflect the diversity of the county.

Our elementary school librarians sent home info on the local public library and facilitated getting the kids their public library cards in Kindergarten. They strongly encourage use of the public library, too, but it doesn’t matter if parents and caregivers can’t or won’t take their children to it.

[Anonymous]

My high schooler went to the library today and borrowed a book. Seemed like a good thing to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(I'm asking a genuine question, not trolling.)

Why do we have school libraries, particularly in elementary schools? They're expensive to maintain and people get upset about the selections. Then the teacher ALSO has a class library and that's the one that seems to be used most of the time. Why not just help teachers fund their class libraries instead? I was told that there isn't time for a language elective because the electives are already fully scheduled for the week. So why not eliminate library and add in Spanish/Chinese/French/whatever?

We have wonderful public county libraries that kids can go to any time they want outside of school. They're easily accessible by bus routes and they have much better programming. They even allow kids to study in them after hours, whereas the school library kicks you out when school closes.

That’s a good question OP. My kids love library time at school and love the idea of borrowing and returning books. I think getting used to going to the library at school is what gets them excited about going to the public library. We try to go to our public library as much as possible but honestly only make it there once or twice a month. They do check out a ton of books from there though so that’s not that bad I guess! The other thing about the school librarian is that she gets to our kids. So she directs them to books that she thinks they would like and open their mind up to other ones. I think it’s a good thing and teaches kids the joy of reading and also how great it is to have public libraries. As my kids get older, I hope the librarian will focus on research skills (at least that’s what our librarian did when we were kids!) I think overall it’s a special to have.

One more thing, as schools move towards a more structured knowledge based curriculum delivered via direct instruction (hoping that’s the case everywhere!) library time can be come a time where children pick books that interest them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are they more valuable than a second language?

More valuable than 45 minutes a week of learning to "Me llamo Larla" and sing a song in Spanish? Almost certainly.

+1
DS had FLES for 7 years. All he learned was to hate Spanish. It is an awful class and the kids learn virtually nothing. Huge waste of time. He’s now happily studying a different language and actually learning it.

I WISH we taught foreign language in a serious way in ES but we don’t. At least not outside the immersion magnets.

[Anonymous]

Classroom "libraries" are usually a hodgepodge group of inexpensive Scholastic books and freebies that a teacher has managed to beg off their local Buy Nothing group. They can't be compared to the curated collection of fiction and non-fiction books that have been chosen and organized by a professional to support learning objectives and provide factual information. It's like calling the Little Free Library on your street corner the equivalent of a public library.

[Anonymous]

I'm in DC, but my child enjoys picking out books from the school library much more than going to the public library with me.

[Anonymous]

Having a foriegn language taught at the expense of library is not a valid excuse. Many schools manage to teach a foreign language even twice a week and still can keep library on the schedule.

[Anonymous]

The school library was my safe space as a child. The librarian was kind and had a limitless supply of books, and it was less chaotic in there than in the classroom. I spent as much time as I could in the library. God bless school libraries.