Public School Library Media Jobs (accreditation, university, principal, costs)

[soonerguy]

As a public school librarian, I am beginning to seriously wonder about the amount of time I have left. Library jobs are usually among the first to go and I know several states have been cutting aspects of the position or cutting them completely. In my state, it varies by district, and some districts have cut the librarians, gotten rid of assistants at those schools that already have less than full time librarians, and/or cut budgets down to nothing in some cases, etc. We were recently reclassified, from being a "teaching position" to a "non-teaching position", which many of us feel is the death knell.

Just wondering what exactly is going on around the country and looking for insight. Please share.

[sirron]

We've a high level administrator at our state-run university who isn't really sure that we need libraries so much any more. A branch campus is run with one librarian and one part time technician. The rest of the time they utilize student workers, which is fine, but there have been many times that a librarian or staff person was needed.
Just because most everything is online doesn't mean students, or even faculty for that matter, know how to find it.

[North Beach Person]

My system in MD just fired half the school Media Specialists (it's MD so that's the fancy name for Librarian) and cut all the elementary schools back to part time coverage according to school population with the ones who were left.

It looks like a "good" move in the Central Offices but here's the rub: when Middle States, or whatever the accrediting group is in your area, comes in and sees a part-time librarian then the school will fail one of the 12 Standards for Accreditation. If you fail one you fail them all and accreditation is denied. That really impacts your kids wanting to go to college. Same if the school has an IB program, loss of IB accreditation. Unfortunately those administrators that make these decisions, including building level Principals, rarely think of those things and then have to figure out ways to delegate blame.

[Dutchman01]

My last superintendent actually told me once he had no idea what librarians actually did. I found that rather odd since he had been married to one for some 25 years.

I've been a librarian for the last four years. It seems to me most teachers don't know what librarians do either. At times I feel just a little redundant. All of our classroom teachers have classroom libraries already. This in addition to a reading specialist complete with her own extensive library.

Having said all of that I haven't seen any movement in arkansas to eliminate school libraries. Of course my state isn't running a deficit, we actually have a surplus at least at this point.

[Carrie On]

I was considering becoming a school librarian, but I honestly believe they are going by the wayside. Many elementary schools now just have an aide running the library (costs half as much as a librarian!) and I think when budget cuts happen, the librarian will be at the top of the list. I have heard it is not much better in the public sector, though.

[formercalifornian]

Originally Posted by Carrie On

I was considering becoming a school librarian, but I honestly believe they are going by the wayside. Many elementary schools now just have an aide running the library (costs half as much as a librarian!) and I think when budget cuts happen, the librarian will be at the top of the list. I have heard it is not much better in the public sector, though.

My elementary school recently went to battle for our librarian and managed to save her job through a little creative staffing. Ironically, our community has an absolutely extraordinary and well-used public system, so we probably could have managed without her, but parents around here wouldn't stand for it. We love our school libraries!