Last month, Marc Bernstein, the superintendent of New York’s Valley Stream Central High School District, published an opinion piece in Newsday called “What Cuomo can do to improve schools.” His key advice for the governor-elect “in this information age”? Eliminate “the antiquated requirement that all high schools have at least one full-time librarian and a minimum number of books.”

I immediately decided to respond with an editorial—I expect we’ll be hearing more of this type of “advice” in the future—when Joyce Valenza, teacher-librarian extraordinaire at Springfield Township (PA) High School, beat me to it in her blog “NeverEnding Search” on slj.com (and did a better job!). So with Joyce’s permission, and a little editing, here’s her response to Bernstein. Keep it in your back pocket.

I am not an anachronism.

I introduce young people to the rich world of books and literature. I am here to see the joy on a girl’s face when she shares her love for a book she stayed up all night to finish. Recently, I saw that joy on a boy’s face when he borrowed his first ereader.

I have a collection that includes everything a modern, literate kid needs: ebooks, audiobooks, open source software, streamed media, flash drives, digital cameras, tripods, laptops, tools for digital storytelling and publishing, cookies, and pretzels. My collection includes and validates my own students’ writings, art, and media.

I am here to help learners ask important questions. I am here to help them understand that when they ask questions, they have a rich toolkit available to answer them. This toolkit goes beyond one big search engine and includes high-quality databases, ebooks, blogs and tweets, magazines and newspapers, wikis and scholarly journals, and primary sources and media of all sorts.

I am here to organize the information world for my teachers and their classes.

I create and maintain websites and pathfinders to help then access content. I model how they might organize their own information worlds and networks.

I am here to help learners question and critically evaluate information, to triangulate the authority of information and media in all formats. (My kids can evaluate a website before they even visit it.)

I am here to teach kids strategies so they can effectively and efficiently find the information they need. I am here to teach them search tricks, tricks that have legs, special tricks that give them special searching powers.

I help students build knowledge from the information they gather. I help them analyze and synthesize and make meaning so that they can use information to solve problems and make decisions.

I help learners communicate and collaborate using today’s tools. I help them become writers, producers, storytellers, networkers, and sharers of new knowledge.

I help them discover that what they create should have meaning for an audience. That it should make a difference.

I teach kids to be solid and proud digital citizens, and kind bloggers, tweeters, and networkers. I help them understand their digital footprints, and help them build academic digital footprints.

I show them how to respect the intellectual property of others. I introduce them to the Creative Commons movement, and they are beginning to attribute Creative Commons licensing to their own works. I teach them about the rights and the limits of fair use, how to cite, and when to quote.

I work with teachers to build instruction, projects, and assessments that focus on creativity and meaning and use the most up-to-date information tools and strategies.

I have created a library that’s not merely a place to get stuff, but is also a place to create stuff, which means that it’s more transformational than transactional, more a kitchen than a grocery store. It’s noisy with the sounds of podcasters, video productions, storytelling, and presentations.

I am here to ensure that all students have equitable access to the tools they need; I know that access to these tools is an intellectual freedom issue.

I maintain a virtual library that’s available everywhere, open day and night.

I make kids smile and laugh, but I also make them work hard.

I am a growing, vibrant, central element of my school’s learning culture.

I make a difference!