When you run a marathon (I don’t know this but so I’ve been told) there’s always the part of the race where you think you can’t finish, and want to stop.  But then someone cheers you on, or you get a second wind, and you know you can keep going.

This school year has seemed more like a sprint for many libraries–trying to salvage their programs in the midst of a state budget catastrophe.

Behind the scenes and in the hallways, this year’s Texas Library Association conference was filled with stories of libraries under siege.  In every informal conversation I had, I found myself speaking with a librarian who had either been laid off themselves or lost librarians in their district.   The verses were different, but the chorus remained the same–Texas school libraries, once the jewel of our state, are being decimated due to draconian state budget cuts coupled with poor decisions in some local school districts.

Some of the verses I heard:

• districts cutting their district librarian position
• a district cutting back from 21 librarians to 5; hiring NEW clerks to run the libraries
• a district cutting from 21 librarians to 2 librarians; using pre-existing clerks to run libraries
• a district cutting all library staff and closing ALL the libraries
• stories of librarians supervising multiple schools, upwards of 5,000 students, visiting a school once a week, with nonexistent materials budgets, etc.

Story after story of programs that serve our students being decimated and of experienced, dedicated staff being cut.   Story after story that sadly demonstrate how often districts consider libraries warehouses for storing and retrieving books, rather than dynamic places of learning that support the schools’ missions.   And this in a state where the SAT scores are 45th in the nation and high school graduation rates are 43rd in the nation.(Texas On the Brink report)

It’s clear that we must continue telling the story of what libraries actually are–not warehouses of information, not silos of books, but part of the instructional learning community of our schools.

What We Know

Study after study conducted by Keith Curry Lance and many others confirms the importance of school libraries and librarians to student achievement and success.   A new publication from Mansfield University, School Library Research Summarized, effectively sums up the findings of over a decade’s worth of studies which have shown that students in schools with librarians perform significantly higher on achievement tests, have more success on research assignments, are better writers, and more.

According to the Mansfield summary, 22 different studies have found that:

The relationship between the presence of a full-time, certified librarian and student achievement on PSSA reading scores is significant at all three grade levels. (Pennsylvania 2000)

Elementary students in schools with certified SLMSs are more likely to have higher ELA achievement scores than those in schools with noncertified SLMSs. (New York 2010)

The presence of a school librarian was the single strongest predictor of reading enjoyment for both grades 3 and 6 students. (Ontario 2006)

Higher library staffing levels are linked to higher reading performance for elementary, middle, and high schools (increases of almost 13 percent, over eight percent, and more than seven percent, respectively).

At elementary and middle school levels, the positive relationship between better-staffed libraries and writing performance is even stronger (increases of more than 17 and 18 percent, respectively.) (Illinois 2005)

Proportional differences in the impact of school librarians on the lowest achievers indicates that school librarians at the elementary school level can play an important part in closing the achievement gap. (Colorado 2010)

When comparing school with and without librarians, the study indicates that the presence of a qualified school librarian can make a tremendous difference in reading achievement. This difference ranges from eight percent for high schools to 35 percent for elementary schools. for instance, schools with librarians have 35 percent more fourth graders who score proficient or above than schools without librarians. (Michigan 2003)

Schools without trained library staff tend to have lower achievement on the grades 3 and 6 reading tests (both in terms of average achievement and attaining level 3 or higher.) (Ontario 2006)

Somehow this information is not getting to (or being believed by?) the decision makers in our districts.   The Texas Library Association has led a powerful effort to train administrators with their Strong Libraries, Strong Scores institute  just for administrators, and this has had a positive impact on those who have attended. (Did you know you can invite your administrator to attend?)   But how do we reach out to other administrators around the state?

Some of the librarians I spoke with seemed resigned to the situation or didn’t seem to be feeling a sense of control or ability to educate their stakeholders, and it certainly is difficult to impact the budget cuts once they start happening.  It can also be very demoralizing to have to fight for the importance of a service so vital to students’ education and literacy.

Gearing Up

But it’s a fight we have to gear up for and to keep plugging away in.  We need to share our own work, as well as documents, videos, pamphlets from studies like Keith Curry Lance’s and Scholastic’s School Libraries Work and the Mansfield materials with our decisionmakers (even if our programs are being cut.)

Because it’s not just what happens this year, it’s how we fight our way back from this year.   Every one of us can be an advocate.  We can write letters to our legislator, share these materials, even AFTER this budget session is over.  We can invite a legislator, school board member, superintendent, principal, or other administrator into our library to see it in action. We can suggest they attend a library conference or meeting.  We can send materials like the above studies to our principals, superintendents and school board members.   We can turn this printed content into youtube videos that make the information easily accessible.   We can share this same information with teachers and parents in our districts.

The Power of Story
In his book Enchantment, Guy Kawasaki speaks to creating an enchanting vision for those you are trying to persuade.  We can take out our paintbrushes and dream alongside our administrators of what our library could become and is capable of.     We can tell memorable stories of success with one student or one teacher or parent.   Similarly, in their book Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath emphasize the power of story to make an idea memorable.   How can we tell our story in a memorable way?  If you had two minutes to tell a story that epitomized your library’s services to children, what would you say?

Fighting an Epidemic

It is difficult when you are weary, feel downtrodden, feel demoralized and are tired of fighting forces that seem beyond your control to fight back.  Cuts are happening to educators of all kinds around the state.   But we have to remember, it’s not just our one school or our one library.  It’s an epidemic.

Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg coined this the “broken window effect.”  When grafitti was allowed to stay on the walls of New York City buildings,  then that gave tacit permission for further vandalism and lack of care for the community.   When the city made a concerted effort to clean up the physical spaces of New York City,  crime rates went down and community involvement increased.

We’re observing the broken window effect in libraries.  When one district cuts their library, the neighboring districts are aware of it.   It creates a standard that everyone agrees is “acceptable.”  Likewise if large districts make efforts to save their librarians, it affects the decisions of other districts nearby.

If we don’t ALL fight back, we are giving tacit permission to not only our district to cut our positions, but to other districts in our state, and in other states.

It’s a marathon

It’s hard not to feel bitter when other programs aren’t having to fight for survival–but in this budget climate, we need to remember that many programs are in the same boat.  And districts are having to make tough choices.   The best thing we can do is be professional, bring the data to our district, show our value, invite others in, and continue to share the information even after we have had positions cut.

This isn’t just a sprint–it’s a marathon.  What we do this year may not fix this year, but it may affect more positive changes next year (as schools see the effects of not having librarians).  The data we share now may inspire positive changes in the future.   We have to continue to find ways to make our voices heard.

Why?

Because it’s not really about our egos, our dismay that maybe our work isn’t considered meaningful by decisionmakers, etc.  It’s really about the students we serve.   What we are fighting for can’t be “our jobs.”  It’s got to be their future.  It’s got to be about our students and the marathons they face.

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