The demise of school libraries...by April

I personally didn't have the same experiences with school libraries as most public school children do nowadays. From kindergarten to eighth grade, I went to the small private school that was part of my church. There were about 40 students in the entire school with five in my graduating class in eighth grade. I then spent my high school years at a parochial school were the average enrollment was about 90 students each year. I graduated from there with a total of nine students in my graduating class. As you can imagine, neither school had an impressive library. Oh, we had books of course….encyclopedias, dictionaries, some fiction that we could use for book reports. But for the most part, all reports or term papers were written with the help of the public library.  My dad would drop us off on Saturday morning and pick us up hours later.

So when I see a headline that talks about the demise school libraries, my first reaction is that it wouldn't be so bad. The kids would just use the public library like I did...I turned out fine. Of course, there are other things to consider that I often forget. School libraries and librarians play a role in the education and development of the students. In 2012, the New Jersey Association of School Librarians (NJASL) released findings of a three-year study on the value that a quality school library brings to education in New Jersey (http://www.nj.com/cumberland/index.ssf/2012/02/three-year_study_asserts_benef.html). The study was performed by the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries (CISSL) at Rutgers University.

To summarize, the study showed that a quality school library can do the following:

• Improve student test scores.
• Develop positive and ethical values in relation to the use of information and technology.
• Increase interest in reading, and develop wider reader interests.
• Teach students to locate, evaluate, and create knowledge from information found in various formats.

These benefits are especially true when the librarians take an active role in the school and with instructing the students. This study is just one of many that come to the same results and conclusions.

While a public library can still help students in many of the ways listed above, school libraries have additional advantages such as accessibility, safety, and familiarity to the students. Overall, I believe our schools and the students would be negatively affected by the demise of school libraries.