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As I travel to the American Library Association (ALA) annual conference in Chicago later this month, I will inevitably carry the baggage of an unresolved disconnect. Those of us inside Libraryland know what our K–12 peers deliver, yet that value is clearly not understood by administrators, who are cutting school librarian positions nationwide. I can’t help but think that a key resource is being squandered out of sheer ignorance.

We have a perception problem. ALA’s current president, Maureen Sullivan, agrees. “I am concerned that school administrators may not fully understand the critical role school libraries and their librarians play in fostering academic achievement and student success in a technology-driven world,” she wrote recently on Huffington Post.

I think she’s right. Moreover, ALA has an obligation to help set the record straight and demonstrate to school leaders the value of the talented people and programs right under their noses. But this challenge calls for more than a task force. It requires a shift in strategy.

Don’t get me wrong. It was encouraging to see Sullivan’s “State of America’s School Libraries” (April 15). The post conveyed urgency and important background about school librarians’ role and their contribution to student learning. But, she buried the lead. The massive body of research that articulates how librarians directly affect student success was allotted only a short paragraph. I think administrators will care if they see what they are actually giving up.

So, what to do? Engage in radical advocacy. The last time ALA leadership really confronted a pressing perception problem—the refusal of publishers to offer ebooks for lending in public libraries—they broke the mold and made inroads with industry leaders through a persistent series of high-level meetings to raise awareness about the role libraries play in building a reading public and marketing publishers’ products—books.

Somewhere along the way, ALA realized the necessity to reframe the conversation about libraries in light of ebooks. It needed to proactively engage the powers that be in the commercial sector to correct the misperception that a library sale is a lost sale. I’m sure some of those meetings were hard to arrange, and even felt risky. I sat in on one in New York that was undeniably confrontational. Facing differences of opinion and knowledge gaps can be like that.

I urge ALA leadership to step out of the comfort zone as it did on ebooks and advocate with education leaders they don’t normally talk to—district leaders, principals, superintendents, and departments of education—to correct the misperception that school librarians are expendable. Tap incoming president Barbara Stripling’s deep passion and knowledge to tip the scales. She managed one of the most complex school library systems in the United States, New York City’s, during a time of tremendous change, and she is past president of AASL. Stripling is uniquely positioned to tell this story in a compelling way.

Cuts to school libraries can’t just be one of ALA’s problems, and it’s not a challenge for the youth divisions to shoulder alone. These cuts impact all libraries and leave our kids in the lurch. If you care about the future of libraries, you have to care about the future of school libraries. Just as the association tackled ebooks head on, now is the time for ALA to drive a new advocacy strategy for school librarians.

  Rebecca T. Miller
Editor-in-Chief
rmiller@mediasourceinc.com

The Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization (CHPSPO) has spent the past seven months pushing Washington, DC, to open its coffers to school libraries to replenish shelves, upgrade library spaces and hire more librarians for K–12 students.

“We wanted to get librarians restored but also get District of Columbia Public Schools to make a commitment to get school libraries on their feet,” says Peter MacPherson, a member of CHPSPO and a parent of a 10th grader in public school.

MacPherson and his cohort are reacting to a decision last spring from the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) to pull dedicated funding from schools with fewer than 300 students and also allow schools with 300 or more students to divert funds for librarians to other purposes. That led to 58 of the 124 schools in the DCPS to start this fall without librarians — nearly double the 34 from the 2011/2012 school year. (DCPS did not respond to a request for information.)

Parents pushed back, asking for a meeting with Chancellor Kaya Henderson, who agreed to form a task force, says MacPherson, which is to be co-chaired by Barbara Stripling, former director of library services with the New York City Department of Education and current president-elect with the American Library Association. (Stripling did not respond to an interview request by press time.)

And CHPSPO has found other allies, namely Council Member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) who has proposed a bill, “The Public School Librarians, Art and Music Teacher Act of 2012,” requiring every DC public school to have a full-time librarian, art and music teacher. However a hearing has not yet been scheduled for the bill and if not set by early January, when the council period ends, the bill would have to be re-introduced next term, according to Council Member Phil Mendelson’s office, who chairs the committee considering the bill.

A $140 million budget surplus announced by D.C. finance officials last month is also cause for hope. CHPSPO would like $23 million of that surplus to be used for school libraries, to restore high school and middle school materials, purchase new ereaders, magazine subscriptions, and 40,000 ebooks, upgrade school library and hire 57 new full-time librarians.

With 2,758 signatures on their online petition demanding for a minimum of part-time librarians in each school, and a second protest scheduled in front of the Wilson Building at City Hall this Friday October 19, CHPSPO expects to bring more energy to the effort to restore school libraries for the betterment, they say, of student learning.

“We hope to have teachers, students and parents come to support our effort,” says MacPherson.

He replaces Barbara Stripling, who left the position at the end of 2011 to become a professor of practice at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies (iSchool). Stripling held the position since 2005.

Hasenyager (right) assumes his new post on July 30 and will oversee the largest school library program in the nation, with more than 1,000 media specialists spread throughout the city’s five boroughs.

“This will be an experience of a lifetime, and it’s a huge responsibility that I will not take for granted,” says Hasenyager, adding that his biggest challenge will be the sheer size of the school district, which serves 1.1 million students in more than 1,700 schools. By comparison, Hasenyager oversaw 64 buildings, 82 librarians, and 82 support staff while at San Antonio’s North East Independent School District.

However, he sees the continuation of existing partnerships with the public library and others, as well as the creation of new relationships within and outside the district, as ways to “enable us to leverage our size to provide the best to our students.”

While Hasenyager admits that the current economic downturn makes it difficult to ensure that all students in the city have access to a quality school library program, he says he’ll remain “nimble and innovative” to find solutions.

“I will need to create relationships with other district administrators to communicate the importance of a quality school library program,” says Hasenyager, who was named a 2011 Mover and Shaker by our sister publication, Library Journal. ”It is through conversations and action that will demonstrate these needs.”

Hasenyager also wants to build upon the Information Fluency Continuum,a framework that forms the basis for the skills and strategies that are essential for students to become independent readers and learners, which was created by Stripling and her team during her tenure. The next step, he says, is to ensure that the city’s school librarians-as well as its administrators and teachers-are offered adequate professional development to carry out the plan.

Recruiting classroom teachers as school librarians is also high on Hasenyager’s agenda. While in Texas, he successfully convinced teachers about the benefits of continuing their studies and becoming certified school librarians.

“I will work to partner with universities to provide them the education they need in order to help students become fully certified school librarians,” he says.”This will require the director of library services to apply for grants to allow us to reduce the cost of education for those pursing a Master’s degree, with an emphasis in school librarianship.”

Hasenyager says he’s qualified for the new position because he has a firm grasp on the big picture when it comes to how library programs fit into the overall classroom instruction-and he can successfully communicate that vision to others. In addition, he says, his leadership style unites-rather than divides groups-and he makes decisions based on what’s best for his students.