School Libraries Struggle With Layoffs

Although there are no official numbers on the severity of the situation, the American Library Association confirms that an increasing number of school librarians nationwide have been axed over the last year.

At Hale Middle School in Stow, MA, 27 parent volunteers have been manning the library in two-hour shifts since September 2002, when the Nashoba (MA) Regional School District was forced to eliminate media specialists in all six schools, save the high school, due to a $1 million budget shortfall.

Parent organizer Mary Kerr says the media center is being run strictly as a lending library that is advised by volunteer professionals, including Susan Farr, Hale's former librarian, and Ann Luxner, a retired school librarian who read about the school's plight in the Boston Globe.

Still, the volunteers don't meet the requirements of a trained librarian and the many services they provide, Kerr says. Students no longer receive instruction on important research tools and teachers must go without Farr's valued partnership on lesson plans.

Moreover, all of Hale's library materials funding has run out. And although Kerr has collected parent donations to pay for magazine subscriptions and books on teachers' wish lists, she says that volunteers don't have the expertise to make book-buying decisions.

Severe budget cuts have also left the Springfield (IL) school district grappling with the loss of 11 elementary school librarians and 15 assistants over the last six months. District spokesperson Carol Votsmier says, in most cases, volunteers are filling in for certified media specialists.

However, some of Springfield's schools aren't fortunate enough to have strong community leaders or parents who are able to volunteer. As a result, many Springfield media centers have been closed since September 2002, or are accessible only to teachers who check out books for classroom use. Still, there's no librarian or even a trained volunteer to track book circulation or help with book selection.

Julie Vanderwater, former director of Springfield's school libraries, says that the district has paid for the upkeep of the Follett automation system in all school libraries, but the volunteers don't know how to use it. Vanderwater is currently the librarian at Springfield's Lincoln Magnet School for two hours a day, and the balance of her time is spent teaching language arts.

Vanderwater's mother, Gerry Havenar, comes in once a week to shelve books, but Vanderwater is otherwise reluctant to use volunteers. She, like many librarians, fears that if volunteers are perceived as capable of running a library, full-time media specialists won't be reinstated.

Parents in East Lansing, MI, who recently volunteered at their elementary school libraries—shuttered due to budget cuts—got into trouble with the union that represents library aides. The East Lansing Educational Support Personnel Association contends that volunteers who replace paid aides take their jobs away. Five paraprofessionals laid off last spring are still without jobs. Now parent volunteer Marsha Bristor works in the Glencairn Elementary School library only when an aide is present.

Nancy Zimmerman, president of the American Association of School Librarians, says the lack of library services shortchanges students, particularly those who don't have access to good materials at home. "And if the library is closed, they have no access at all."