First My Job Disappeared, Now My Whole Profession Is Going

It didn't surprise me when I learned that after I retired from my job as a school librarian, the school committee had decided not to replace me. As a cost-cutting measure, the position of school librarian was eliminated.  I had been the first professional librarian they had, and, as it turned out, I was the last.

I have worked as a children's librarian in several public libraries in the United States and Canada. But I was a school librarian in only one school system. In order to be a school librarian, you must have a Masters Degree in Information Science and a Masters Degree in Education. A lot of time and money goes into preparing to be a children's librarian. But, the greatest preparation comes from the voracious reading that all librarians do, and we are an amazingly well-traveled and active group. We have a lot of experience under our belts.

With all the school fiscal belt-tightening going on right now in school districts across the country, one sees the usual cast of characters falling by the wayside: art, music, and libraries. Some other time I might blog about why art and music matter, but today I want to talk about libraries - my world.

Kids would come to the school library once a week for a class. I would teach them about literature, what authors do, how they do it. What makes a book "good."  How to find trustworthy sources of information, how to phrase your question so that you stand a decent chance of finding an answer. I introduced them to the literature of their cultural tradition - the works you should know because for the rest of your life other people will be referring to them and expecting you, as an educated person, to be familiar with them.

I love doing research. Like most librarians, I am an information junkie. My "need to know" is boundless. I always tried to impress on my students that one ever stops until one gets a true, trustworthy answer to a question. You don't just stop your quest because you keep running into people who tell you they don't know the answer to your question. You persist. 

 I always introduced children to authors who handled the English language in an especially deft manner. That is not to say that we didn't read the literature of writers from many other countries, we did. But, of course, we read their books translated into English. I looked for creative and rich choice of words, ideas that were deeply developed, well thought out, clearly expressed. I wanted them to  build a base from which they would be able to recognize quality when they saw it. Quality of ideas, language, graphic representations, art. I wanted them to be able to recognize authors who showed good thinking, and who arrived at well documented and valid conclusions. Authors who indicated that more thought, more research were needed, and that nothing is cast in stone. Our knowledge is always growing and changing. Authors who can make children excited about a topic, and want to explore it further.

A school librarian works in close association with all the teachers in the school, supporting the curriculum by supplying whatever other materials are necessary to enrich or further develop and explore the lessons being taught.

Well, I guess it's "mission accomplished." All across America, school committees are jettisoning their school librarians. Our work is done. Children have, apparently, arrived at the enviable cultural apex of knowing how to navigate the many diverse roads to knowledge: internet included.

So I say to those school committees, "Bravo. What brilliant children you have."

A really good librarian and a really good school library provided the laboratory for exploratory thinking, but I guess our goals are being met in some other way.

I woke up every day (even the snowy days) so eager to get to work. I always thought that since I was going to be teaching something I would do it in a way that made it fun and interesting for me as well as for the kids. And it was. We had some good times together.