Students in Evergreen Public Schools have been fortunate for many decades to have both certified librarians and staff assistants to help them navigate the plethora of informational sources available to them.
Traditionally, each of our school libraries has been "equipped" with one certificated librarian and at least one full-time staff assistant. This is about to change due to budget constraints forced on the district by the current economic downturn. We are in danger of losing the people who are the "wind beneath our wings" - our staff assistants. We're not losing them totally, but we're being told that, unless we can come up with a way to recoup over half a million dollars, their time with us will be cut to a .5 position.
What this will mean to our kids:
Because librarians will be doing the other .5 behind the scenes work, both adults will be unavailable to help kids with their reading and research needs. Two adults will be pulled away from direct student contact, not just the one whose job is being trimmed.
I'm in a high school of over 1700 kids and have been fortunate to have 2 full time staff assistants in the library. These two women take care of almost ALL the behind-the-scenes work.
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Here at Mountain View, we try to make our library all about the kids. Need a book? Let us help you find it. We don't have the book? Let's see if we can order it for you. Can't figure out how to do your research? Need to find out how to cite a source? We'll be glad to help you. We all work together to help students in any way we can.
ReplyDeleteSo far this year, we have checked out 2,000+ books each month. When returned, they need to be checked in and shelved. I have spent more than 30 hours putting together orders for 1,079 new titles, which each take 10 minutes (or more) to process and catalog. We have withdrawn 172 books, a process that also takes about 10 minutes per book. Repairing books is a constant and accounts for 3-4 hours each month. As students withdraw, we need to account for any books they have out and, if necessary, post fines on two different systems. Overdue notices need to be sent out on a regular basis to our student body, too.
Less obvious responsibilities include putting together classroom carts for teachers with accompanying bibliographies, changing out library displays, reserving library space for classes, and helping to accommodate authors when they visit.
While we are doing “all of the above”, our librarian is teaching in classrooms, helping teachers plan their curriculum, giving book talks, figuring out how to have the afore-mentioned author come and visit our school, and helping to find the “perfect book” for the student who loves to read, hates to read, doesn’t want to read, or (heaven forbid) can’t read.
All three of us feel so privileged to work with students each day, and feel we have a positive impact on their lives. If this budget is implemented, the ability to work with students one-on-one would virtually disappear, buried under an avalanche of "behind the scenes" work.
I am appreciating the work you are doing to let the public know about the importance of libraries. Student achievement is the bottom line.
ReplyDeleteAs a high school ELL student, I would say that the library and the people who work there have been extremely helpful for me. Since English is my second language I always need help in selecting a book that I want to read for pleasure. The librarians in Mountain View High School have inspired me to read more and more classical literature and that really helped me improve my English. They helped me and I am sure that they are helping many other children as well.
ReplyDeleteWould they have the opportunity to help more young people if their work hours are being cut? We all know the answer to this question. Should we really sacrifice the quality of education? Students could be very helpful by volunteering to stay after school and help with anything they could, or by simply becoming a TA for the library. It is going to count as an elective credit. Students would be able to not only get a credit for a class but also to better the community.
Having a staff to direct and guide students in the library is of utmost importance. The help and encouragement given is pricless and most needed. We thank you for the fine job you have been doing for the past years and hope this can continue.
ReplyDeleteIf educating and making our children a success is the main mission of the Evergreen School District (or any district for that matter) then we need to give second thought to cutbacks in the staff assistant positions in the school libraries. Assistant is a fairly mild word when it comes to describing the job they do. Without the assistants it will up to the Librarian to ensure that ALL functions of the library are met in a timely fashion, both logistically and administratively. In order to accomplish that, less time will be available for student/library interaction in order to meet our students individual needs. Teaching them how to find information among the many choices of periodicals, print or electronic; how to collate it into a useable fashion; help with computer issues, or copying issues. Not all students in the district are lucky enough to have access to the Internet at home, or have parents at home when they need help in researching a project. That's where the staff assistant comes in. These are support positions, support for both the Librarian AND for the student. The Football coach AND team cannot win without the Assistant coaches...why should we ask the Librarians to play without theirs and in the end, make the students the "losers". Let's rethink this issue. Portland Schools have (The Oregonian 22MAR'09) and they're trying to reverse a bad decision...let history not repeat itself. Thank you
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