Due to budget cuts, half the elementary and middle schools of Los Angeles have been forced to close their libraries due to a lack of librarians or aides.
This is a disgrace. The district committed to spend $1 billion for iPads for Common Core testing but can’t staff its libraries.
“In the sun-filled space at the Roy Romer Middle School library, thousands of books invite students to stimulate their curiosity and let their imaginations soar. There is classic “Tom Sawyer” and popular “Harry Potter,” biographies of Warren Buffett and Tony Blair, illustrated books on reptiles and comets.
“But the library has been locked. The tables and chairs have been empty. That’s because budget cuts in the Los Angeles Unified School District have eliminated hundreds of library aides, leaving Romer’s library unstaffed for months at a time over the last four years.
“Principal Cristina Serrano said the situation has handicapped students — especially as new state learning standards require them to use more research in their papers and projects.
“The students need access to books; they need guidance on how to use the library for research,” she said. “But funding is not easy for us.”
“Romer isn’t the only L.A. Unified library that has had trouble. About half of the 600 elementary and middle school libraries are without librarians or aides, denying tens of thousands of students regular access to nearly $100 million worth of books, according to district data.”
Having fully staffed and open libraries are necessary for students. But they won’t make anyone rich.
Where are the billionaires of Los Angeles? Where is Parent Revolution? Where is Eli Broad? How about those movie stars who make millions for a single picture? Does anyone care?
For shame, Superintendent Deasy.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-lausd-libraries-20140224,0,5992443.story#ixzz2uD79Nq8W
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Who needs books and libraries? We have the “intellectuals” of Wall Street and political intrigue to “educate” our children. THAT is the way to “educate” in a democratic form of government.
The same is happening in districts across New York state, because the legislature refuses to fulfill the commitment it made in 2007 to properly fund its public schools.
Only high school librarians are mandated, not elementary. Ironically, it is the younger kids who are gung ho on reading everything they can get their hands on. By middle school the rate declines and by high school, many of the kids no longer have the time and/or inclination to read.
Does anyone else remember Soylent Green (the scifi flick starring Charleton Heston)? Two things were particularly chilling to me, a “youngun” when I saw it: the lack of access to books and the scooping up of waste humans for recycling as designer protein (food). Oh yeah, and the death rooms, where our hero selected Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony for his exit track. In tomorrow’s Los Angeles, where the arts, and especially orchestra classes are being decimated (literally), who would know Beethoven as a desirable choice?
Soylent Green is a common theme around here, Ginny, as is A Brave New World and 1984.
The problem is that those are fiction books and the horror we are living through is reality.
“Read ’em and weep!”
Wake up people! School libraries will become a thing of the past. Computers will take over. Common Core has made this a reality. Every kid must now have a device to take the state mandated CC$$ test, and so every school, right now, is being “hooked” up and connected to the web. Don’t you realize that there is a “program” for a school library with thousands of books at a kid’s fingertips? Ah, heck we don’t need real books and a librarian anymore…we’ve got the 21st century version of that (and without the cost and space factor). This virtual “library” is currently being piloted in my district and will probably spread to every school in the district next year. At a local, brand-new high school the library is so small, and sadly they just removed about 4,000 books (not to be replaced). Everything will be digital in this brave new world.
“School libraries will become a thing of the past.”
Fahrenheit 451???
Momoffive: er, not for everyone’s children…
From the website of Harpeth Hall [Michelle Rhee], under “50 Reasons”:
“11. Our state-of-the-art library houses 29,000 books, 1,000 ebooks, 20 electronic databases, 12 Kindles, six small group study rooms, two classrooms for library and technology instruction, and eight really comfortable chairs around a cozy fireplace.”
Link: http://www.harpethhall.org/podium/default.aspx?t=151749
Duane Swacker: I so desperately need the points for my next KrazyTA eval. Can I count the above as a “TAGO“ and give myself at least a 98% “satisfactory” [thank you, Bill Gates!]?
😎
Harpeth Hall is a private school with a $22,000 annual tuition.
Irrelevant.
KrazyTA – that sounds like a library to meet the needs of the patrons at that school – or at least the start of a good one. Libraries continue to evolve – non users are just unaware of the changes. When out of touch administrators shut down libraries and kick out librarians they are thinking about the old lady with her hair in a bun looking over her granny glasses while scanning through the card catalog. It’s no longer your grandma’s library.
A certified and experienced School Librarian is worth her weight in gold.
I would be very interested in knowing what school district you are in and whether the “virtual library” is full of resource/non fiction or is a fully stocked library with fiction and easy reading books as well. In LAUSD the Digital Library is nothing more than a resource, it is not chock full of fiction at all.
Here is the virtual library that may replace our current elementary school library as soon as the students are “hooked up” with devices, that is. My district is Vista Unified in Vista, California. Temple Heights Elementary is the elementary piloting this program.
http://thefutureinreading.myon.com/
Franny and MoMo – I just took a look at the virtual library web site and found it lacking. They represent what would be considered the minor publishers, and not the major companies. This library would be missing the true classics as well as renowned and popular literature.
Also, some of the nonfiction text is questionable, with a slant towards various viewpoints. I have personally reviewed perspective books for my school library which questioned the concept of climate change and/or dodged any controversial topic by giving “bland” interpretations of issues. Also, many of the nonfiction books are 36 pages, with more illustrations than text, to give a cursory view of the given topics. And these books are considered appropriate for middle and even high school.
A competent school librarian would weed through a wide range of books and purchase the best choices for their curricular needs.
This is a library version of Pearson testing. Some of the books will be okay, a few will be good, many will be lacking. It is not a true library collection.
Of course, the administrators purchasing these virtual libraries will be fooled by the rhetoric. They have no clue how to evaluate and select a book. That is the specialty of the undervalued librarian.
Please trust me – I know what I am talking about.
Ellen T Klock
A Proud School Librarian
An Expert in Collection Development
I do not recommend this program.
Scanning (wasting too much time) that Virtual Library site, I found only one book mentioned that I would recommend, and also thought that Little Brown seemed to be the only major publisher. But, caveat, I’m a musician, music educator, a bookworm, but not a librarian.
The women recently working in LAUSD elem libraries, as aides, were savvy builders of collections, and if on site long enough, knew the kids, their siblings and often their parents. They knew they weren’t “officially” librarians, but they took the task very seriously on behalf of the community. Too few, and in a crisis a few years ago, were moved around arbitrarily, even reassigning an elementary aide to a high school, causing great disruption and outcry. As they retire, these cockamamy ideas for parent volunteers have surfaced…along with just locking the library.
My great aunt volunteered in her community library. She was a home ec teacher at the high school, but enjoyed meeting new books and book lovers in the library. She’d get a head start with all the best new children’s lit, and under our Christmas tree were the piles of flat packages! Many of which I still have…long after the toys were gone. She also taught me how to open a book so it would survive many readings without breaking.
Ebooks cost money. The purpose of a library is to purchase resources to share. A library can purchase ebooks, for a fee, and “loan” them out to the students on their kindels – one reader at a time per each fee.
There are various free classical books which can be downloaded from google books. Perhaps we should limit their choices to books written 100+ years ago. Nothing from the twentieth or twenty first centuries are necessary. Goodnight moon. Hello Gulliver’s Travels.
Of course, I was assuming that the virtual library would be an independent collection, and not a pre selected group of independent (not well known) titles.
My (and your) bad!
Librarians are still needed to help students navigate the web, find trustworthy sources, analyze internet content and be discerning users of information. Modern librarians are as comfortable with classics as they are with computers.
Isn’t the issue also around the fact that the union will not allow volunteers to man the libraries? Volunteers man our public libraries.
Then again, Ken – Why do we need teachers? Let’s get volunteers to run our schools. Isn’t that what TFAs are? Well paid volunteers to give two years service. Why stop there? Let’s try giving parolees a go. I’ll bet they won’t have behavioral problems and they can teach our inner city kids all about prison life. What about our soldiers back from overseas – what an opportunity for them? And they know how to use assault rifles.
However, not everybody has the skills to be a librarian. The volunteers you see are simply clerks and pages. Often the real work is done in the back room, except for the reference librarian.
Same with teachers. They make it look easy, but there’s a lot more to the job.
I think this old saying is appropriate here, “Never judge a book by its cover.”
Ken has a great point, let’s use volunteers in limited form. I was a child of the 80’s, and the public school had a sizable library staffed by an assistant (no real librarian.) She was well trained, and knew her stuff. Where I live there are several mothers, who are librarians, that work only a few days a week and stay home with their kids the remaining time. Once their kids reach school age, the librarians show up in their kid’s private school libraries.
On the other hand, I know a parochial school that was located in the same block as the public library. The school teamed up with library. The students were able to attend the library and check out materials once a week. The school had more resources than they could have dreamed about. And, the bonus was the kids had a public library card and the knowledge to check out books during the summer. i prefer the later, as I have seen one too many kids who never visited the public library.
Diane, thank you for sharing this. It is indeed shameful.
You ask where is Eli Broad? Parent Revolution? The billionaires?
They are all right here in LAUSD. They are running the show. A sorry one at that.
LAUSDeasy what have you done to our children and our tax money?
http://www.examiner.com/article/lausdeasy-what-have-you-done-to-our-children-and-our-tax-money
What about a tax on the entertainment and tech community. The tax money would go directly to schools in order to reimburse them for any programs lost due to purchases related to those industries. We all know how much it costs to manufacture technology equipment! How about selling to schools at cost plus 5%. How about supplying affordable technology and media to schools and children in the USA for a few years and forget about Africa for a while.
Could someone please blow up every iPad on the planet? Thx.
It’s a sad day for education when buying into Common Core trumps encouraging a culture of literacy by providing a school library. I remember spending a lot of free time in my elementary school’s library, where Mrs. Cuccinata, the school librarian, was my favorite teacher. I feel sorry for the children who won’t have this opportunity to have their lives enriched by having access to the school library, a basic in the effort to grow the love of learning.
This is the perfect opportunity for me to bring up this question. Librarians went through a massive RIF in LAUSD a few years back. I remember reading a quote, I think from Deasy, along the lines of: “We don’t need libraries anymore, everyone will have e-readers”. I know I could/should research this myself, but, I’ve wondered about that quote through all this I-Pad debacle.
And who is going to select and purchase the ebooks which the students can access. Online books are just another book format. You still need libraries and librarians, unless the parents are expected to purchase each book – at $10 or more a pop. It can get expensive.
In updating my comment, based on the above mentioned virtual library package – it seems that any book is acceptable. Forget about what the kids would like to read.
After all, all books are created the same.
Just “ask” The authors of popular books and/or series such as The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Twilight, Divergent, Junie B Jones, Magic Tree House, Redwall, Curious George, Dont Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Green Eggs and Ham, Madeline, any Newbery or Caldecott or Coretta Scott King or other award winner, etc.
Why would you let inner city kids read the same books the elite read? Then they might become literate.
Philadelphia has a total of 16 certified librarians this year. And many of those librarians are given assignments by principals which take them out of the library for a good part of the day.
The superintendent just released his plan which includes as one of its goals having every third-grader reading on grade level (which reflects a misunderstanding of what grade level means). He has not been able to explain how this can happen without school libraries.
For the record, school librarians and library aides are not the same thing. Certified librarians manage collections, buying materials that support the curricula throughout the school and encourage students to develop a love of reading quality fiction and nonfiction. They also collaborate with classroom teachers to teach research and information literacy skills (ideally using the inquiry process). Librarians are teachers. Library aides assist with circulation, shelve books, and follow the directions laid out by the certified librarian. They are not teachers. When schools have certified librarians, every other thing they do is better. There is no other teacher that is as familiar with curricula throughout the building and as knowledgeable about technology and how to use it instructionally.
On point!
Library aides were cut from the libraries in the Buffalo Public Schools years ago. Sometimes the principal would assign a teacher aide to the library to “help”. They didn’t know how to alphabetize, let alone shelve books in decimal order. However, they loved coming in to straighten the shelves and select their own book choices to read. There was more reading than straightening.
If someone was incompetent, they were always assigned to the LMC to assist me. I guess the administration believed that ANYONE could run a library.
Most people don’t have a clue about how valuable librarians can be to a child’s education.
LAUSD has rarely funded School Librarians in the elementary schools. California is 50th in funding school libraries. I am sad to hear that New York is joining us since New York used to be one of the best. LAUSD is determined instead to give every child an iPad even though they cannot adequately run the computers in the libraries that are still open. There is not the infrastructure for any of this. It’s just a sales pitch to beef up Deasy’s resume for his next job. So sad that he is destroying the school district in the process. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC_DLLXXWIc&list=UUOrIDe6GP9mbIXygOCyxfEw&feature=c4-overview
Stephen Krashen and a few of us spoke to the LAUSD board on this matter. Apparently landed on deaf ears. The task force that is being formed will not fight for personnel. It will most likely think it can centralize books or run libraries with volunteers. Sad state of affairs.
And never forget that Obama’s children’s school has THREE libraries.
It’s too bad Stephen Krashen isn’t given a key education position in DC. He gets it. Administrators are afraid of his message – he’d call for bigger and better libraries.
And all is not lost in NYS. Many districts do value their librarians and will fight to keep them on their faculties.
Joan Kramer: thank you for your comments, which got me googling…
Like other self-styled “education reformers,” surely President and Mrs. Obama wouldn’t want one type of enriched education for THEIR OWN CHILDREN and something very different and inferior for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN…
Alrighty then, let’s take a look at the “Libraries” page on the website of Sidwell Friends.
Under “Sidwell Friends Graduates as Readers”:
[start quote]
We know that a child will grow up to become a reader under two conditions: when s/he is read to every day from birth, and later, if once that child develops the skills to read, s/he reads every day thereafter. Habitually reading fiction, poetry, narrative non-fiction and biography opens the way to developing a deeper sense of empathy, a wider sense of justice, a broader base of knowledge, and a flexibility of mind— essentially, the conditions for happiness and success. This single activity consistently correlates with more imaginative thinking and higher academic achievement. The goal of the Library Program’s reading activities, which include book talks, book groups, author visits, author studies, reading lists, and class visits, is to graduate students who have become habitual, devoted, intelligent readers.
[end quote]
Now take a gander at the next section, “Sidwell Friends Graduates as Researchers”:
[start quote]
When a student graduates from Sidwell Friends, one of the main goals of the library program is that s/he leaves fully ready to take on the challenges of college level research. This means that the student will be capable of navigating his or her college library with confidence, finding and selecting appropriate resources from the college’s print collections and library databases, and citing sources accurately and ethically in his or her papers. The student will understand the difference between the types of sources that the library offers, including primary, secondary, and scholarly sources, and will select the appropriate types of sources for each assignment. In addition, the student will understand that if and when s/he encounters difficulties in finding sources, the best course of action is to consult a reference librarian. In short, the student will be capable of accessing the highest quality of information at his or her disposal and making educated, selective, and ethically sound judgments in regards to the use of that information.
[end quote]
Link: http://www.sidwell.edu/libraries/index.aspx
Note that when in difficulty, “consult a reference librarian.”
Is that something different than an “eduproduct delivery specialist” to be found in “world class” charters and under-resourced public schools and such?
😎
KrazyT – excellent point. A certified School Library, formerly known as a Library Media Specialist has a Master’s Degree and specializes in preparing students for the rigors of college research. They know this from the “back end”, not just as a student.
Yet they are left out of the “college ready” loop.
Do you know the difference between a scholarly journal and Time Magazine?
Do you know how to analyze a web site to see if it can be included in research?
Do you understand the significance of an article which is peer reviewed?
Can you navigate a college level data base?
This is pablum for a High School Librarian.
If Dr Seuss were alive he would write a book called “The Things You Should Know (and if you don’t, go talk to your school librarian)”.
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 14:00:34 +0000 To: gabbyalibi@msn.com
This has been the situation for more than four years. The story here is that the corporatist L.A. Times only now reports on it. Most schools get only one-half or one day a week of nurse time so it is only a matter of time ’til a child dies for lack of medical care as happened in Philadelphia. Stay tuned.
There are so many ironies in this situation.
Here is a room filled with thousands of dollars of investments, just sitting on the shelf gathering dust. If each book is worth $20 – some are worth lots more, a few are worth a little less – and there are ten thousand books in the library, that’s an investment of over $200,000 in each of the city’s school libraries going to waste.
Then there is the idea that our literacy rate is inferior to the rate in other countries. Yet, it has been proven that the best way to encourage reading is providing a wide variety of books managed by a professional – in other words a library and a certified librarian.
In addition, the common core is filled with skills which fall under the parameter of the librarian. Who is the expert in research and reference sources? Who knows the proper materials, both fiction and nonfiction, to promote the curriculum? Who knows how to utilize search engines and narrow key word choices? Who is the expert on databases? The answer to all these questions is the certified school librarian. Often the classroom teacher unwittingly has gaps in their background which can be filled in by the expertise of the librarian assigned to the school. And that same librarian provides services to the students, the teachers, the staff, the administration, and even the parents and the community.
So which is the better investment – the latest hardware fad or the tried and true information specialist – the school librarian?
Reblogged this on TheMaidenOntheMoon and commented:
This is a complete shame.
They will burn books, one way or another.
http://m.mentalfloss.com/article.php?id=50038
This is only the tip of the iceberg. Teachers haven’t had a raise in 7 years. They took, took and took. We let them and gave, gave, gave. What does that say to young people who want to pursue teaching? We are in a horrible situation!
I was at a community meeting at Venice HS last Tuesday. Board member Steve Zimmer addressed the issue. He acknowledged the need to “make whole” the people who chronically sacrificed. But he said that he would prefer to do it in steps. For folks nearing retirement, that may be way too little, too late. Trying to think of a way to express this to the board, so that they see that the clock really has run out.
Thank you KrazyTA for your excellent research! And as for raises for Los Angeles Teachers — if we didn’t purchase iPads for every child we would have enough to give raises, as well as hire back many of the folks who have been let go over the last five to seven years. We were told there was enough money to go back to 2007 levels. Not just teachers, but all employees need parity. I am hoping people won’t pit us against each other but will unite, as I have been told the unions are trying to do now.