I’ve been a librarian for about 20 years now, and have been in a lot of different kind of libraries. I’ve been in a few that had money to burn and was happily fully staffed – but not too many. And I don’t think I’ve ever been in a school library like that.

My own view here: I’m a highly degreed librarian (both a MLIS and a PhD in it), and I’ve taught librarianship at the Master’s level for more than a decade. But – and here’s the potential heresy – I don’t think you necessarily need a Master’s to be effective in a library. It’s nice, of course, and if that fits into people’s life plans and opportunities: great.

What is necessary is to spend some time, somewhere/somehow, learning about libraries and what working in a library really means.

If the thought is that libraries are places to store books and to shush people – that’s not only so wildly out of date that I want to bang my head on the table, but constitutes professional negligence. And if the even worse thought is that sticking a few books in a room that is staffed by a person (or two) who are actually responsible for handling all the tech in a school, because hey – who really cares about this information stuff??? I literally want to throw myself under my desk and cry.

I am not kidding in the slightest here.

School libraries are supposed to be there to play a vital role in the education of every K-12 kid. When they aren’t, it’s not just a sad thing – it’s potentially a disaster for every single person being sent out into the world unprepared. (Just ask me about my experience in higher education, and the high school grads who don’t know how to cite material. Ask me about the times we expelled these students for plagiarism – who could have stayed in college if they had THE SMALLEST LEVEL OF LEARNING FROM THEIR HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY!)

*taking a deep, calming breath*

*okay, one more before I can go on*

This is from the American Association of School Librarians, and gives a quick overlook of what a school library should be:

” The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) supports the position that an effective school library plays a critical role in preparing learners for life in an information-rich society. As defined by AASL, school libraries are “dynamic learning environments that bridge the gap between access and opportunity for all K–12 learners” (AASL 2016b, 1). Grounded in standards and best practice, school libraries are an integral component of the educational landscape. The school library provides access to a wide array of resources and an environment in which teaching and learning are the primary emphases. The school library provides a space and place for personalized learner success; learners are encouraged to explore questions of personal and academic relevance. Under the direction of a qualified school librarian, school libraries are instrumental in fostering literacy and teaching inquiry skills to support lifelong learning (AASL 2018, 54). “

So when I read this, and I think back over the assorted school libraries I’ve worked with and been in across a bunch of states in this country – I’m so depressed. And I really, really want to help us – as a profession – to do so much better than settling for just crappy half-assed practices that are ultimately hurting our communities.

Check out this article excerpt below and maybe shed a few tears yourself for the kids of Michigan who are being so poorly served by the schools that are SUPPOSED to be educating them.

Amid a literacy crisis, Michigan’s school librarians have all but disappeared

By Koby Levin

“…In Michigan, this is the new normal. School librarians have become an endangered species across the state. Consider:

• 92% of schools statewide don’t employ a full-time, certified librarian. Even if you count part-time librarians, the numbers hardly budge.
• The number of school librarians in Michigan declined 73% between 2000 and 2016, one of the sharpest declines in the country. The national count dropped roughly 20% during that period.
• Michigan ranks 47th in the country in the number of librarians it has per student.

The disappearance of school librarians comes at a pivotal point for literacy in Michigan. Beginning this year, districts will hold back third-graders who are more than a year behind their peers in reading.

That tough new policy comes in response to Michigan’s two-decade tumble down national rankings of how well students read. The state’s fourth-grade reading scores are 35th on a rigorous national measure of student achievement. That’s down since 2003. No state in the Midwest performs more poorly.

Michigan rapid loss of school librarians makes it one of the more extreme examples of a national trend. American schools are in the midst of a reckoning about the role of libraries in schools. While most adults in the U.S. went to a school with a dedicated librarian, there are far fewer working in schools today, the result of an economic downturn and a growing sense that digital technologies would render books, library reference systems, and librarians obsolete.

Library advocates in Michigan say nothing could be further from the truth, noting that reading scores foundered as the state lost librarians. They point out that Michigan requires its prisons to have a certified librarian on staff.

“Schools that have librarians and libraries have better reading scores than schools that do not,” said Rep. Darrin Camilleri, the Democratic House minority whip. “There is no clearer data than that.”

He can point to several studies that suggest a link between school librarians and improved reading scores, even when accounting for differences in school funding and student income.

Explanations for the decline of the school librarian vary, but there’s little doubt that it is in part the result of cost-cutting by districts across the country. The trend accelerated after the economic recession in 2007.”

Read the rest of this article here!