From Bust to (Almost) Boom
Staff -- School Library Journal, 5/1/2000
Throughout the 1990s, school librarians in Columbus, OH, watched their collections stagnate as the district put money into technology instead. Now Columbus's school libraries have far too many out-of-date books. "Some people haven't weeded--they're scared to weed because then they wouldn't have anything," says Brenda Gonzalez, the district's supervisor of instructional information services. Fortunately, a new superintendent arrived three years ago determined to improve students' reading ability and, according to Gonzalez, with an understanding that good libraries would help. The superintendent, Rosa A. Smith, ordered a systemwide audit that showed some elementary schools to have only four or five books per student. And follow-up visits revealed that schools with higher numbers of books needed to get rid of most of them. The result? Columbus will spend $630,000 this year to buy books for libraries in 66 of its 142 schools. The district decided to spend the money on low-achieving schools and schools with fewer than 10 books per student. The $630,000 figure reflects the cost of one book per student at current prices (SLJ, March 2000, p. 99). Gonzalez says she didn't know that libraries would be included in the audit. If she had, she would have told librarians to start some aggressive weeding. Now they're doing just that, in the hopes of getting more book money for all students next year.--A. G.
