Librarians are worth the price

March Madness is over, all baskets made and championships won. However, for the springtime budget war for schools in the Mat-Su, it’s the fourth quarter with no timeouts left.

We debate base student allocation, predictable funding, one-time emergency expenditures and funding to the cap. Our schools face additional staff cuts above and beyond what they faced last year. No wonder this time of year is called breakup and not springtime.

The budget crisis is real and big problems reverberate within the halls. With this year’s woes layered upon last year’s band-aids, our school librarians become increasingly threatened with cuts, and that worries me.

Even before the predicted cuts for next year, Mat-Su schools have already reduced their library staffs. There are six libraries without certified librarians and one elementary school in the district without a librarian at all. One middle school makes do with a part-time librarian, and a part-time drama teacher is in charge of the library with the largest elementary collection in the district.

I sympathize with these schools and the tough choices they have had to make. But riddle me this: I need to be highly qualified to teach an exploratory art course, but not to run a library, the center and heart of any school?

New schools opening up — public, charter or private — will attest to the importance of a library despite that it is a gargantuan task and an equally expensive investment. What irony that established libraries face reduction when their brethren work so hard to establish one, especially since our librarians are worth test scores in gold.

One recent study shows students who visit staffed libraries with collections connected to cataloged databases averaged a 6.2 percent improvement on the ACT exam. Another study by RSL Research and the Library Research Service found a direct correlation between the numbers of elementary librarians within a state and improved reading scores. In states that hired librarians in impoverished schools, students gained an average of 2 percent in their reading scores compared to a mere .5 percent in states that lost librarians.

School librarians help meet the needs of English Language Learners (ELL) in developing a library collection specific for the ELL reader. So, it isn’t surprising to find ELL scores decreased 2.8 percent in states that lost librarians compared to a general decline of 1.4 percent in all states.

Even my sub-par math skills can see that is twice as bad for a demographic growing twice as fast.

Over the years, libraries have migrated away from the Norman Rockwell image of matronly librarians and stacks of books. Libraries have become a Mecca of technology: computer banks have replaced card catalogues and web searches trump a book’s index for direction. The Internet shares a plethora of instant information, especially for students equipped with the tools to read it. If we let our librarians go, who is going to teach this important information literacy?

Librarians are the most qualified staff that can help students and teachers cross over to the Internet for safe and accessible information. They are the only ones who can also preserve the bookcases, which give a depth of learning that the snapshots of Google will never replace.

Don’t misunderstand, the Internet hasn’t replaced our need for school librarians; indeed, it has made them indispensable. Our times are complex and increasingly global. The need for well-staffed and well-stocked libraries is as critical now as it ever was.

The most influential people in my career have been librarians. More than any principal or teaching peer, it has been librarians who have shared with me the magic show of learning. Each librarian pulled the rabbit from out of the hat, released the dove and tied the beautiful scarves of reading together for students. If I have learned anything in my years of teaching it is that librarians do a lot more than just check out books.

The snow is melting quickly. It is my hope that our community and our schools break up and out of this budget rut with respect for librarians.

Emily Forstner teaches Language Arts at Wasilla Middle School.