The Price You Pay

The sheer amount of books, multimedia, and databases for young people is growing faster than the hole in the ozone layer. We’re well aware of this since a large part of what we do at School Library Journal is evaluate and discuss this burgeoning world. That includes our authoritative Book Review and Multimedia Reviews; Reference and E-Reference reviews; and our monthly Focus On section, which considers timely topics in specific subject areas.

Many of our columns, like “Up for Discussion,” also delve deep into books and their connections to young people. The monthly “Under Cover” column profiles both familiar and emerging authors (and their books)—we’ve even launched a video version of Under Cover at www.slj.com/undercover.

Our features regularly chart publishing trends—like this month’s cover story, “Graphic Novels for (Really) Young Readers” (pp. 56–61)—and offer ways to use these books. Curriculum Connections, published twice a year, revisits our reviews through the prism of the classroom. Even “Extra Helping,” our weekly e-newsletter, includes a read-alike column, “Remarkable Reads.”

Yes, it’s a lot of work, but not half as tough as your job: making sense of this big, information-rich world and developing the right collections for your learners and readers. And the job is tougher than ever. Library budgets are flat or declining. There’s pressure to purchase multiple languages and formats to serve different learners. Digital content needs to be a part of the educational landscape. You want to encourage reading for pleasure as well as support the curriculum.

To make matters worse, book prices for preschool to grade four and nonfiction for grades five and up have risen sharply (although some adult prices have declined). But why point the finger just at publishers? Collection budgets also go toward many resources, like databases, for which we don’t have comparable data.

There’s no quick fix for an inadequate library budget. But the more you can measure your impact on learners—and get that message heard—the better off our school media centers and libraries will be. Which is another part of what we do at SLJ—highlight the ways librarians document their impact, from evidence-based practice in our January issue’s “Overwhelming Evidence” to this month’s “The Final Hurdle?” (pp. 62–64), which describes a new test from ETS that measures information literacy. As we see it, it’s the information you need to continue to make a difference in kids’ lives.

Brian Kenney
Editor-in-Chief
bkenney@reedbusiness.com