Librarians have become a popular target as school administrators look for ways to cut budgets. A quarter of [Minnesota]'s librarians have lost their jobs in the past decade, with 767 remaining to serve the state's 1,992 public schools...More at the StarTribune link. A sad commentary on our times.
The cuts come at a time when information overload is the rule and, librarians say, though their jobs have changed, the need for them is greater than ever. Navigating information for a report on Frederick Douglass, for example, can be dizzying for a 10-year-old...
Librarians say media centers are often manned by parent volunteers, who aren't certified and rarely become involved with such things as updating book collections or teaching research skills to students.
Librarians, once a staple in schools, don't come cheap. Most have two, sometimes three, master's degrees. Their average annual salaries generally can range from $50,000 to $70,000. The exodus has been steady since Minnesota legislators in 1996 got rid of a statute that required districts to have a minimum of one librarian per school. It has accelerated in the past five years as schools have tightened their budgets. Librarians are funded through discretionary funds -- or all the money left over after they pay for teachers, administrators, secretaries and literacy coaches.
It's even sadder when teachers' unions respond by trying to shut students out of the libraries completely rather than allowing volunteers to run them.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.boston.com/yourtown/budgetblues/2010/10/who_is_against_library_volunte.html
Very Sad!
ReplyDeleteI remember a scene from a movie of HG Wells "The Time Traveller" where he finds a museum rotting and unused that stirs a similar emotion.
I wonder... is it the loss of the physical written word (& the people who manage it) we find sad, or the loss of the proper respect for information?
But have you ever asked a librarian to help you find information on a recent event? What happens when you asked about including emotional reactions to the event?
Great blog! Love reading it!
"Librarians, once a staple in schools, don't come cheap. Most have two, sometimes three, master's degrees. Their average annual salaries generally can range from $50,000 to $70,000."
ReplyDeleteYou don't see this as one of the problems?
"their average annual salaries generally can range from $50,000 to $70,000"
ReplyDeleteWhich is on the average about 3 times the salary of librarians I know.
Evan - there are many interesting things in that quote. Which are you referring to as a problem?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'm concerned that people with 2 or 3 masters degrees aren't being paid more, are librarians the dregs? I say this as someone unqualified, under 25, who gets paid the equivalent, depending on the exchange rate.
We're entering a digital age. Physical media are becoming obsolete. The people who tend those media will join them in obsolescence. It's sad, in a way, but it's important to remember that the knowledge in those books isn't vanishing. It's being liberated. To not have to go into a library, thumb through cards, look in indices... to just look it up and have it and learn it... revolutionary. Some people say this cheapens information, makes it too accessable. I'm sure people said the same when we first started writing.
ReplyDeleteThank you blitherypoop - "Some people say this cheapens information, makes it too accessible." Those people need to find other things to worry about.
ReplyDeleteHowever, a lot of the information that is freely available is cheap - not related to the quote above, but the expensive information, the kind that in previous ages, and even now, is bound in reference texts, the kind that the kids should really be reading for their research, is not yet as easy to access as, well, the cheap stuff. It will happen, but there is a lot of catching up to do in the educational arena. Including how to get people to pay for it. Until then, throwing away your libraries and librarians is rather premature.
"We're entering a digital age. Physical media are becoming obsolete. The people who tend those media will join them in obsolescence."
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid this is an outmoded perception of librarianship. Librarians know that their job is to help people find the information they need, no matter what format it takes. Our librarians are constantly updating their skills to reflect the new ways information is being stored and shared. There's still a place for books, but I believe most librarians know that their focus should be on content, not form. And as we are moving into a 'digital age'*, it seems that more than ever we need people who are trained in showing us how to structure our search to our greatest benefit, retrieve information from a variety of sources and then evaluate the information we receive.
*yeah, 'cause none of us have any paper on our desks anymore...
Doh. Amy beat me to it.
ReplyDeleteAs I was looking into applying for an MA in LIS, the vast majority of the curriculum seems to be up-to-date with technology (as much as that is possible, these days) even including programming courses, ways to maximize use of different search engines, etc.