Reply to Inequality of DCPS Libraries

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[quote=Anonymous]I'm a former dcps librarian. DCPS needs to actually fund both the librarian position and the library. In the past funding for a librarIan was optional. Some principal funded the post on with an instructional aide. Sometimes the aides did not have a Batchelor's much less a Masters of Library science. I know of aides who just played movies or had studrnts color pictures in the library. Books did not get circulated. in schools without librarians teachers and students often stole books from the library which made it difficult to rectify the records if the library and then came back into the system and had gigantic gaps in their collection.

Since I've left, Jennifer Boudrye has worked incredibly hard to get a certified educated librarian into every school I know we're not at 100% but it's much better than in previous years.

The next step is to ensure that every library has funding. in neighboring school districts the librarians can expect to get at least several thousand dollars of funding for their library. In the district you are at the mercy of your principal and how he or she wants to budget. I had a principal who would spend hundreds of dollars buying professional development materials for teachers and self help books for parents but did not spend any money on buying books for the library. Also there is no money for supplies such as bar codes or plastic wrap for books.

I was lucky to be in a library that had been renovated by Target / Heart of America so I had a lot of brand new books but when I lost books I had no way of replacing them this made me hesitent to check out books to students probably really needed them. I had very limited check out rules (2 book limit). I funded the library through donations and money from the meager profit  share of the Scholastic book fair. I could have benefited from even a small budget.

If you want to donate books to a local school please do but make sure that the books are in good shape and are things that the students would want to read. I'll never forget I had this one community member donate this gigantic tome about George Washington that was written at a collegiate level and he seemed baffled as to why none of the elementary students wanted to check it out!

(Posted on my phone sorry for the typos)

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