School Library Journal» letters

Slim Pickings: It’s Getting More Difficult To Find a Job as a Children’s Librarian | Letters September 2012

Phyllis Levy Mandell — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 14:00:56 +0000

The following is a response to Elizabeth Bird’s feature article “Role Call: Want to work with kids in a public library? Here’s the inside scoop,” .

While there may be children’s librarian jobs out there, and indeed librarian jobs in general, they are few and far between. Plus many of them may be part-time, or downgraded to “assistant” in order to save on salaries. Public service has gone the way of private corporations, wherein job openings require someone to already be doing the exact same job somewhere else, not taking into account the ability to learn if taught. Entry level jobs as a librarian are almost non-existent in my neck of the woods, and it’s difficult to gain new skills because staffing levels are so low that one’s time is stretched thin. So looking for a different experience is pretty much luck. My take is that few public library systems value children’s librarians at the appropriate level. We are the shapers of the future generation, yet many who don’t dwell in our world think it is an “easy”” job and, thus, devalue it. And it is definitely not easy, if done correctly. I also think the article needed to point out that public school librarians in many states must have teaching experience prior to stepping into the library part of the school. At this point in time, it is extremely difficult to get a children’s librarian job that delivers appropriate pay and a great working environment. I hate to be so negative, but that is what I am seeing and experiencing.

Name withheld

The right to read

Debra Lau Whelan’s July 23, 2012 news story for SLJ, “Michigan ACLU, Students File ‘Right to Read’ Lawsuit” reported on a class-action suit filed on behalf of 1,000 students claiming that the state and school district have failed to teach them how to read, thereby violating their rights. The following comments are in response to that story.

If school districts weren’t so overly obsessed with standardized tests and instead focused on teaching and inspiring these children to learn, perhaps low literacy wouldn’t be the dangerous issue it is today. I have family members in the teaching profession, and they often complain that each year the Michigan Educational Assessment Program and all the preparation it requires takes more and more away from things they want to teach the kids. I realize that these types of tests are an essential part of school district funding, but evidence seems to suggest it greatly distracts from teachers’ lesson plans—and, in turn, from kids actually learning the things they need to survive and thrive in the real world. Perhaps the state (and its districts) needs to reevaluate its obsession with standardized testing and go back to the old school way of teaching. This article is certainly a wake up call!

Name withheld

Perhaps the district can counter sue the parents for not being “full partners” in their children’s education. How many parents ensure that children attend school every day on time and homework is completed? How many parents turn off the TV and take away video games until the children are reading proficiently? If the parent is underemployed or unemployed, he/she has time to volunteer in their children’s schools. Do they? It would be interesting to see what the families are doing to support their children’s education besides suing the district.

Name withheld

Filtered

The following comments are in response to Lauren Barack’s July 10, 2012 news story for SLJ, “Arizona Mandates Stiff Penalties for Schools, Public Libraries without Filters” about a new law mandating that Arizona’s public schools and libraries filter all computers children use or risk losing some state funding.

The biggest problem isn’t so much the need for a filter, but who decides where the line is. Blocking pornography is an easy decision to make, but my school blocks etsy.com and all blogs regardless of content; if it runs WordPress then it’s blocked automatically—everything from Zenhabits.net to the Huffington Post. It’s sad and something that we can never stop working on.

Name withheld

Very frightening—government forced censure! What about the freedom of speech that the men of this country have fought and died for? What children view can be monitored without Big Brother’s help.

Name withheld

Feedback: Letters to SLJ, July 2012 Issue

SLJ — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 14:06:42 +0000

I am the Project Coordinator for Limitless Libraries, the partnership program between the Nashville Public Library (NPL) and Metro Nashville Public Schools. Limitless Libraries provides collection development assistance to school libraries to meet curriculum needs, and also provides daily delivery of NPL materials to the schools.

I just read Rebecca Miller’s editorial, “We Need Tag-Team Librarianship” (May 2012, p. 11), regarding collaboration between public and school libraries. It made me very excited to see a cover story dedicated to a partnership that makes sense. With Limitless Libraries finishing its third year, we are continuing to flourish and have really seen the benefits of the program. I have had the privilege to experience the program from both sides, first as a high school librarian and then as the project coordinator of the program. The program and Nashville Public Library provided materials and opportunities I wouldn’t have been able to budget for my students.

Through the program this school year, we saw increased school circulation at 45 of the 54 schools we currently serve and NPL delivered over 96,000 materials to schools this past school year. We have over 25,000 registered Limitless Libraries users and 15,000 of those are first time NPL card holders. The program showed all parties that this can be the perfect partnership. Together we all have the same goal of providing students and educators access to the best material possible. Working so closely with the school librarians has been an amazing experience to further collaboration and programming to reach young adults in Nashville.

I hope school and public libraries took a very close look at your article to begin the discussions in their cities because it can work! Nashville has experienced amazing results and we look forward to expanding our partnership next year to include elementary schools.

Stephanie Ham
Project Coordinator
Limitless Libraries
Nashville Public Library, TN

As a public library administrator, I read with no small amount of incredulity the ideas espoused in Rebecca Miller’s editorial, “We Need Tag-Team Librarianship” (May 2012, p. 11). Collaborate with public schools? She has to be kidding.

Our experience in “collaboration” with the local school district has been a complete failure…a failure on the part of the school district to respond to any and all initiatives on our part. We have tried to engage the school district in library programming to benefit students, in outreach advertising our collection, and in sending our youth services librarians to the schools. Both school administrators and students have ignored our efforts.

Why has this happened? Two reasons. First, the school district is flush with money. They are constructing new buildings and hiring new teachers. Second, school administrators have embraced the scourge afflicting the whole library profession which is technology. Give students a laptop and they can access textbooks, ebooks, and databases in the comfort of their homes. Who needs a library? The school district has done away with professional librarians in the schools and rumor has it that they are going to do away with the high school library all together.

Our public library is withering on the vine financially. The whole state is in trouble financially and state public library funding has gone the way of the dodo. Yet this editor would have us coordinate book purchases that support curriculum and deliver books to students in the schools? What planet did she fall off of yesterday?

In view of the school district’s intransigence towards our efforts to “collaborate,” it will be a cold day in Hell before we reach out to a school district that is not interested in “Tag-Team Librarianship.”

Name Withheld by Request

CORRECTIONS:

The editors regret that the bibliographic data accompanying the review of The Healthier Happier Life Skills series (June 2012, p. 51) referred to the classroom edition instead of the home edition actually reviewed. The home edition consists of 3 DVDs priced at $19.95 each, and does not include the 100-page teacher’s guide embedded in the DVD of the classroom edition. Hence, the teacher’s guide was not evaluated.

In the video clip of Jeff Hasting’s review of Ebook toolkit: Mackin VIA (http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/06/ebooks/ebook-toolkitmackin-via) in SLJ’s The Digital Shift, the product’s name was pronounced incorrectly. Mackin “VEE-ah” is the proper pronunciation, and not “VYE-ah” as spoken in the clip.

The review of Jason Myers’s Run the Game (S & S, 2012), published in SLJ’s June 2012 issue (p. 131) was inadvertently attributed to the wrong reviewer. The book was reviewed by Kimberly Castle-Alberts, Hudson Library & Historical Society, OH.