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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A couple other purposes:

- the librarian helps teachers pick good books to teach content and loans books to teachers to read in class.
- librarians reach research skills and helps reach how a library works
- kids are exposed to a wide range of books. This builds content knowledge which is tied with better reading skills
- libraries have books of all reading levels, where classroom libraries are limited to the main grade level of the class. So my kindergartener can get a chapter book on his favorite subject we can work on at home
- it's hard to find time to go to the library, but if books show up, we end up reading them and my kids get far more reading in

As far as costs, they are far less than you'd expect. Many libraries keep books in circulation for many years.[/quote]

Elementary school teacher here.  The first item on this list doesn’t get enough attention.  Not all kids’ books are created equal.  If a  teacher does a general search for a book on a certain curriculum topic, they will have to weed through a lot of so-so books to find the gems.  We are so lucky to be able rely on our librarians to know what the real gems are and to keep on top of new options.  I also feel like our librarians enable us to provide something akin to bibliotherapy.  If a student is having challenging experiences, I’ll often ask parents if they want me to ask the librarian to find the student some books that might be helpful.  They are really a great support.  I’ll also say I’ve been a teacher for many years.  I’m about to retire.  The level of professionalism and the knowledge base of school librarians has really increased over the years and their jobs have expanded.  I wonder if OP is asking her question because she remembers the librarian at her own childhood school not doing very much.  It’s really a different situation now.[/quote]

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