Heres something you may not know about our school libraries: There have been no state funds allocated for libraries in many years. I didnt know this until I saw an email written by a librarian in Huntsville. (Im leaving out the school, because I dont know if she wants that much publicity.) Each system works differently, so I have no idea if Madison or Madison County libraries have a separate source of funding. Meanwhile, heres a little history behind the lack of funding for our school libraries, as well as some sobering and shocking facts. The Alabama legislature eliminated money for school libraries in 2008: Library Enhancement funds for books, e-books, standing orders (periodicals), media, and supplies were zeroed out across the state and are unlikely to be restored for the foreseeable future. Starting in 09-10, in the absence of state LE funds, our library received $4000 annually from its PTA. This was enough to keep the fiction collection on life support, and we were grateful to have it; other libraries in the school system fared much worse, some much better Weve received funding from donations and fundraisers in the years since. In the past year, our library: 1. Purchased 14 non-fiction e-books to support the common core curriculum; 2. Purchased 220 new and replacement fiction titles to support recreational reading; 3. Provided printer services for students who do not have access to printers at home ($700/semester for paper and ink); 4. Bought cataloging and other supplies for in-house book processing ($150); 5. Dropped all magazine and newspaper subscriptions for lack of funds; and 6. Hosted a Scholastic Book Fair which did not earn enough profit to allow us to take cash. At the end of every year, we upload the catalog for an on-line analysis of our collection. Last year, the average copyright date of non-fiction books in mathematics/science was 1989, technology--1988, history/geography--1995. These numbers are not acceptable, but we can only minimally maintain the fiction collection, which is more heavily used. (The HCS system will undergo compliance monitoring by the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) in the next school year, and one of the checkboxes for libraries is collection development. Were all asking ourselves if theyve noticed we havent had money for 7 years and counting....) We have not purchased new reference books since 2008 and will not for the foreseeable future: I teach information literacy and research skills to the students, and my web page links them to the Alabama Virtual Library and many other reference sites, which offsets the need for this expense. However, children still need knowledge of how non-fiction, multi-volume book sets are organized, and we use our older reference books in these lessons. The cost of a new fiction title in glued (not sewn) binding is around $18 (processing not included); the cost of an e-book title ranges from $35 to $55 (no processing necessary). We lose an average of 50 - 70 books a year to theft or dilapidation. Bottom line: we need a minimum of $5000 per year to maintain the current level of support for the librarys fiction and e-book collection and printing service. As you can see, our libraries need help. They have gratefully accepted donated books in the past. This would be an amazing project for a student group to adopt, because libraries deserve love, too. They are too important to just let them die.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 03:15:57 +0000
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