There's been a steady decline of school librarians employed in schools in the United States. School librarians do more than just supervise the students in the library. They also do more than help with research projects and organize the stacks. School librarians are one of the most important teachers of information literacy, they develop programs to help students learn, and play a major role in the overall education of the students. They hold a leadership role and work hard to positively influence the culture and curriculum in their schools.
The common misconceptions stated in the above paragraph are probably what make school districts that they can cut back on library staffing, which can be detrimental to the well being of the school. The article “Ignoring the Evidence: Another Decade of Decline for School Libraries” tells us that adequate staffing, resources, and foot traffic are linked to increases in student achievement. Libraries not only play a huge part in the school system, but also in the community as a whole. If students are taught that libraries aren’t worth the effort to maintain, then they will apply this knowledge to the rest of their lives, and following this snowball effect, libraries as a whole will get ignored. (Oberg abs.)
While some parts of the world are definitely cutting back on school library funding, like Canada and the United States, some countries in Europe are actually putting more effort into their school libraries. These are the changes we should be making as well. Supporting school libraries are supporting our future.
Librarians teach us about information literacy, and that is something that we as students carry with us for the rest of our lives, and it makes everything so much easier and better. So why ignore the people that worked so hard to get us to where we are today?
To hear librarians talk about the importance of school libraries (and to see a man with tape on his forehead), watch this video made by real librarians!
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