Professonally staffed Cedar Rapids school libraries are essential for education

On Friday of this past week, The Gazette reported plans by school administrators to eliminate librarians at two of our three (or four by some count) comprehensive high schools in the Cedar Rapids Community School District. It is with complete sadness for the students who attend or will attend those schools and with disdain for the administration making that decision that I write this opinion piece.

I spent a long career in public schools, first as a classroom teacher and later as a library media specialist. My six children and some of my grandchildren have attended school in this area. I know first hand the importance of providing guidance in reading and research skills, and the value of building a library collection to support the curriculum and the development of critical thinking skills.

Simply put, a decision to eliminate the professional position associated with the school's library is short sighted and poorly thought out. For years politicians and school administrators have ignored the findings of research that clearly support the value of libraries and properly staffed libraries in the development of reading skills and critical thinking skills, spending instead outrageous amounts of money on less effective efforts.

Serving as the brunt of staff reductions is not a new situation for the library world. First library support staff is drastically cut forcing library media specialists to choose between keeping the library in order (clerical duties) or focusing on their professional tasks. As those cuts weaken the effectiveness of the library's function, the targeting of the existence of a functioning library continues and turns into a dangerous trend, and at present seems to be spiraling so out of control that we are moving to a culture of ignorance - and dare I say our current political campaigns exemplify that trend. Carl Harvey II, former president of the ALA's American Association of School Librarians (AASL) was quoted in the Huffington Post as saying, 'Cuts to school librarian positions betray an ignorance of the key role school librarians play in a child's education, especially in this era of Google, when today's students are flooded with an unprecedented volume of information ... The value of school librarians has been measured in countless studies demonstrating that strong school library programs help students learn more and score higher on standardized achievement tests”.

One only has to read a few of the studies linked from the Library Research Service website School Libraries Impact Studies to be convinced that properly staffed libraries (staffed with professional librarians and adequate support staff) make a significant difference in student achievement, in reading and in content area studies.

Libraries (or media centers) are not the libraries many of us remember from our own school days. A successful library today evidences the presence of librarians and library support staff, instructional collaboration between librarians and teachers, traditional and digital collections, appropriately structured library expenditures, and access to computers. Libraries with those five components were shown to help develop students with higher achievement levels and better scores on achievement tests.

It would be helpful if some commonly held myths were countered with facts.

Myth #1: We don't need libraries, with the Internet we have more information than many of us can handle.

Myth Buster: That is precisely why we need libraries and librarians more than ever. With the proliferation of information our young scholars need assistance in learning how to ferret out credible information from information that is misleading, inaccurate, and prejudicial in nature. Traditional publishers vet information that is published - the Internet is wide open. Anyone can post an opinion and information - erroneous or not. All sources need to be evaluated for credibility. Librarians play a major role in helping students learn how and why to make such evaluations.

Myth #2: We don't need to pay a master's degree person to check out books.

Myth Buster: In truth we don't need a professional librarian to check out books. In fact, that is part of the more recent problems. In the early days of library cuts, it was the support staff that was cut. In many cases, those cuts led to the professional librarian having, by necessity, to use valuable instructional/collaboration time best spent on professional duties to use their time to check out books and to get the books back on the shelves. Library clerks/assistants should be the staff that actually monitor and check out the books. A professional librarian has many other duties that should be accomplished: collaboration with content area professionals, direct instruction to students regarding research strategies, use of the Internet to locate credible information, selecting and acquisitioning appropriate resources to support the important instruction of the subject department professionals, promoting reading and learning, and developing an overall culture of literacy.

Myth #3: Libraries are all about books and books are less important today.

Myth Buster: Actually books are more important today than ever. With the plethora of information on the Internet much of our intellectual history is being lost or erased. Electronic formats quickly become out-of-date and accessibility is lost. Web pages change and move locations and in many cases become non-existent. Early thinking regarding any specific topic gives way to new discoveries - and the old gives way to the new; the history of the development of thinking on a topic is lost in the process. Books provide an ongoing archive of information and the evolution of discovery and thinking. The Internet with its fluid nature is making books even more important in developing historical and cultural archives.

Myth #4: Librarians only want to focus on books and in our society we need to look past books. We don't need a librarian for that.

Myth Buster: Actually a librarian's role has evolved to provide assistance to information regardless of the format: e-books, databases with credible information. Libraries have moved past being houses of knowledge to being houses of access to knowledge. There are books, electronic sources of periodical information, e-books, computers, Internet access - all selected and managed by a professional librarian to serve the specific population that make up the library's patrons.

Among the many professional responsibilities of a certified teaching librarian are tasks which focus on creating an environment that is conducive to active and participatory learning, resource-based instructional practices, and collaboration with content focused teaching staff. The professional librarian also participates in the curriculum development process at both the building and district level to ensure that the curricula include the full range of literacy skills (information, media, visual, digital, and technological literacy) necessary to meet content standards and to develop lifelong learners. Librarians are charged with developing and maintaining a collection of resources appropriate to the curriculum, the learners, and the teaching styles and instructional strategies used within the school community. And of extreme importance are efforts of the school librarian in regard to collection development: to select, acquire, evaluate, promote, and use existing and emerging technologies to support teaching and learning, supplement school resources, connect the school with the global learning community, communicate with students and teachers, and provide 24/7 access to library services.

Do I expect those charged with making these decisions to read any of the available studies; to realize that libraries, librarians, and access to books are necessary for equal educational opportunities; or that the information, if read, will sway the decision to be reversed. Or do I believe that the facts will make a difference? No. So far legislators in the state house and senate (and now apparently school administrators) have ignored available research - either being unaware of the availability of sound evidence or too short sighted to look past their own limited knowledge to avail themselves of the facts.

The absence of a professionally staffed library, will contribute to the development of students that will consider unsubstantiated opinion as fact and to a perception that the library is where 'Googling” suffices for real research. Students slated to attend Jefferson or Kennedy next year should demand equal educational opportunities, or if that fails, petition for a transfer to Washington High School for the coming school year.

' Sharron McElmeel, formerly a longtime educator and library media specialist in the Cedar Rapids Community Schools currently teaches graduate students at the University of Wisconsin - Stout and is the director of McBookwords, a literacy organization. Comments: sharron@mcbookwords.com