WV School Librarians May Get the Ax
RSSDistrict superintendent proposes to replace media specialists with parent volunteers
By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 04/01/2006
Every school librarian in West Virginia’s Wetzel County School District may get the ax and be replaced by parent volunteers in the 2006–2007 school year.
“I will be proposing some reduction,” says District Superintendent Paul Barcus. “Whether totally, I don’t know.” Barcus admits that he initially proposed eliminating all librarian positions and replacing them with parent volunteers after what he calls the largest one-year decline in student enrollment. This year, Wetzel lost 163 students, leaving a little more than 3,000 students in the district, he says. However, following an outcry from the community and staff, Barcus agreed to reconsider before making his final decision this spring.
“We’re finding at the high school [level] fewer and fewer students going to the library,” he says. “Nearly all classrooms have computers where students can go online and get access to more resources than our library has.” Only one of the eight schools in the Wetzel School District has a full-time certified librarian on staff, says Barcus. Three other schools have half-time librarians, and the remaining four schools keep their libraries staffed with aides.
West Virginia is part of a trend involving volunteers replacing librarians. While the American Library Association doesn’t keep statistics on library positions lost, districts across the country, from Iowa to Maine, have seen parents staffing school libraries.
“There is language in No Child Left Behind that says librarians are support staff,” says Beth Yoke of the Young Adult Library Services Association. “And as districts cut budgets, they can cut support staff.”
