Libraries fading as school budget crisis deepens

hosted ^ | Jun 24 | DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP

[JoeProBono]

BELLEVUE, Wash. (AP) -- Students who wished their school librarians a nice summer on the last day of school may be surprised this fall when they're no longer around to recommend a good book or help with homework.

As the school budget crisis deepens, administrators across the nation have started to view school libraries as luxuries that can be axed rather than places where kids learn to love reading and do research.....

[JoeProBono]

[Mere Survival]

I hope the local libraries survive. I just started using mine again for the first time since I was a child . . . to get books for my child : )

Getting a book every couple weeks for myself as well.

[pnh102]

So schools always target the useful stuff first.

[Mr. K]

The Administrators and Assisant administrators and all the people at the top will be the LAST to lose their jobs- but who will they be the boss of?

[allmost]

administrators across the nation have started to view school libraries as luxuries that can be axed rather than places where kids learn to love reading and do research.

The problem has less to with the teachers, students, or even money than it has to do with the 'administrators'. Generally over-paid bureaucrats. Multiplying as we speak. You want to find the waste in education across the nation? Fire half the bureaucrats. Give all the teachers a hefty raise.

[nina0113]

Keep the librarians. Ax the administrators.

[Venturer]

Things have changed a lot since I was in schoo. The English teacher had the library in her room and she took care of it. Of course it wasnt much of a library.

With all the Computers in schools now is a library really a necessity? Reference’s are pretty easy to find in Computers.

[Reeses]

Do they still have books on how to make buggy whips?

[allmost]

Digital information is great until the power goes out or the censors kick in. A basic hard copy of human knowledge is fundamental IMO.

[Stand Watch Listen]

The Administrators and Assistant administrators and all the people at the top will be the LAST to lose their jobs- but who will they be the boss of?

Does it really matter?. Most school districts are extremely 'top heavy'. Many administrators do not really supervise others now. This condition can be attributable to the continued social/economic engineering that is so prevalent in our schools' curriculum nowadays.
I would warrant that so many school administrators would just be satisfied with continued salary/benefits/pensions.

[Mere Survival]

If you are implying that books are passe or that libraries are, I disagree.

[Darkwolf377]

While reference works can be found on computers, that`s a rather short-sighted view of libraries. In my work I see the reading and writing skills of teens, and the Internet is aiding in the destruction of both. [Teachers who allow these incredibly low standards do their part.]

Libraries are where people can sit and read and contemplate--and think. Online sources by their very nature are helping lower our patience with reading long, detailed works.

We are getting dumber and dumber, and the rise of the Internet, while providing ample sources of factoids and gotcha! journalism, is training our young people to be sheep. The inability to sit and read and pause to think is not a good thing.

[Reeses]

or the censors kick in.

Libararians are often leftist censors. You won't find any books on the shelves that offend any politically correct fashions during the past 100 years.

[Persevero]

Local churches could start a library and staff it with decent books and no-porn computers. Help with homework, give the gospel, de-program.

[exhaustguy]

Our librarians are media specialists (they also take care of the computers).

[exhaustguy]

Our librarians are media specialists (they also take care of the computers).

[allmost]

I found a few in my high school library that might defy that description. I’m nowhere near a senior citizen in chronological age. The school is in a liberal stronghold.

[Reeses]

I live by a large libarary. There are 3 union staffers for every patron, partly to monitor for pedophiles. My yearly property taxes are 4% of property value and rising twice the rate of inflation. I love books but no thanks.

[Reeses]

We are getting dumber and dumber, and the rise of the Internet, while providing ample sources of factoids and gotcha! journalism, is training our young people to be sheep.

The dumber part is because of unions destroying the education industry. People leveraging the internet are much smarter than they would be otherwise. Give an average person 2 extra hours and an internet connection and they could ace the SAT.

[re_nortex]

I live by a large library. There are 3 union staffers for every patron, partly to monitor for pedophiles. My yearly property taxes are 4% of property value and rising twice the rate of inflation. I love books but no thanks.

What real value do we get from public, tax-supported libraries? IMHO, I think the lending of books would be better performed by the private sector instead of the current model of soft socialism.