smf to Bond Oversight Committee: SAVE SCHOOL LIBRARIES

by smf for 4LAKids: comments to school construction bond citizens’ oversight committee 20 April 2011

Good afternoon to the new improved Bond Oversight Committee: I'm back!

My friend and occasional debating adversary Caprice Young once said how much better it was to stand and speak from this side of the horseshoe than the one you are on. General MacArthur famously quoted an old barracks ballad that I will abuse even further: "Old Bond Oversight Committee Members Never Die - they won’t even go away."

I'm here to agree with the other public speakers about the importance of and threat to school libraries in the current budget cuts. I am not here to protect librarians’ jobs or library aides’ jobs - though that is important. I am not even here to protect the voters will and the taxpayers investment in school libraries and collections paid for in the bonds from BB to K, R, Y and Q. Or to argue that the District is violating contracts made with outside partners like Wonder of Reading, Access Books, PTA's and parent groups to convert and build libraries. Those contracts hinged on agreements that said "If you build it we will staff it” and those promises are being broken as the District eliminates teacher librarian and library aide positions.  This is balderdash and I'm being kind.

It is in the library that students learn to do independent study. Where they learn to do research in the book stacks, in the reference collection, in the encyclopedia and on the internet. It is here that they learn to read for pleasure. It is here that they learn to think for themselves. Not by themselves, but with the assistance of trained professionals - teacher-librarians and library aides.

I am here to rail about the lack of investment and vision and commitment to education in failing to invest in the future of students by failing to support school libraries.; The District has cynically made this a local decision - letting principals and school site councils decide whether to staff libraries. Just because a decision is made locally doesn’t mean it’s a good decision!

I am also concerned about the integrity of library collections. Books will disappear with no one in charge.

We have heard that libraries will be equipped with Kiosks. The reality is that this is nothing new or additional – it’s just the current collection software and hardware being operated by teachers, students or volunteers. It's like those surplus police cars parked prominently 24/7 in shopping mall parking lots. An unmanned police car is not a policeman, a vacant library desk is not a librarian. The Ed Code provides qualifications for teacher librarians and library aides - an empty desk and a bar code reader don’t meet the qualifications.

We need literate, qualified, accountable staff in our school libraries.

The Districts Chief Instructional Officer has said that we will not recognize school libraries as they evolve in the future - but just because they will change doesn’t mean that we need to disinvest in them. Eliminating librarian positions isn't a strategy or a plan, it’s a lack thereof - and a blueprint for mediocrity.