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“When you remove a qualified librarian from the library, I believe that the library begins to cease to exist,” said Graig Henshaw, a librarian from the York City School District .

“When you remove a qualified librarian from the library, I believe that the library begins to cease to exist,” said Graig Henshaw, a librarian from the York City School District

“When you remove a qualified librarian from the library, I believe that the library begins to cease to exist,” said Graig Henshaw, a librarian from the York City School District.

while Pennsylvania doesn’t require librarians for public schools, it mandates them for private schools and prisons.

Former students

Kristy Oren said her high school librarian introduced her to databases and helped her prepare for university-level research

During Sean Gregory’s four years at Danville High School, he “noticed a subtle but steady decrease in that trademark ease of access” that he came to take for granted in the library when its staff was reduced and eliminated.

Representative Paul Clymer, who chairs the Education Committee, saying, “I was concerned to learn through the study that, on average, staffing, funding, access, and resources are inadequate for achieving optimal benefit from these specialized educators.”

The study outlined six recommendations, which included restoring the state-level Division of School Library Media Services in the Commonwealth Libraries and appointing a director; creating an information literacy curriculum; having an annual assessment of school library programs; making the state Guidelines for Pennsylvania School Library Programs available to administrators; and providing guidance in the selection of adaptive technologies for the visual disabled and materials in languages other than English

children, their culture, too.

children, their culture,

children, their culture, too.

children, their culture

children, their culture, too.

First of all,  no matter what the economic ups and downs may be at any given moment, public school libraries in destitute communities need not just sufficient but extravagant funding. If there’s a single thing our state and federal governments could do to stir up a love of learning in our poorest children, it would be to take a good big chunk of the massive sum of money that’s now being wasted on the testing industry and use it, instead, to flood our students’ lives with the joys and mysteries of authentic culture—and not only Western culture but, in the case of, for instance, Hispanic children, their culture, too.

no matter what the economic ups and downs may be at any given moment, public school libraries in destitute communities need not just sufficient but extravagant funding. If there’s a single thing our state and federal governments could do to stir up a love of learning in our poorest children, it would be to take a good big chunk of the massive sum of money that’s now being wasted on the testing industry and use it, instead, to flood our students’ lives with the joys and mysteries of authentic culture—and not only Western culture but, in the case of, for instance, Hispanic children, their culture, too.

If I had the power, I’d redirect another big chunk of the money that’s now enriching testing corporations and make certain that every inner-city school has its own full-time librarian, and one whose passion about books is contagiously exciting to young people.