[ISLMA-Share] District Librarian

Email list for the Illinois School Library Media Association islma at list.railslibraries.info
Thu Jan 12 10:01:12 CST 2017


Wow-what a drastic decision!
I am not a certified librarian but was working as an assistant in our MS/HS
library for 3 years prior to our district cutting our only librarian and
placing her back in a classroom. Our district has only 2 buildings (an
elementary and a MS/HS ).  This year another assistant was hired for the
elementary library so we are each taking care of our own buildings.
I cannot imagine 1 librarian taking care of such a huge district with so
many facilities. The extra work of researching what to purchase, purchasing
then barcoding the new books and placing them into the system takes A LOT
of time and that does not include the daily work of checking in/checking
out, trying to track down overdues, and ordering supplies, etc. I would
certainly hope they would consider at least initially trying to keep a
couple librarians so that all the assistants can be trained in all they
will be expected to do. If your school values reading (our elementary and
middle school have Accelerated Reader scores as part of the students'
grades) I would think they would see the need to have a well-staffed,
up-to-date library with current materials.
Good luck!
Lura Weatherford, Library assistant, Argenta-Oreana MS/HS library

On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 10:09 PM, Email list for the Illinois School
Library Media Association <islma at list.railslibraries.info> wrote:

> Librarians,
>
> I need your help.  My school district’s administration proposed on Monday
> the cutting of 7 of our 8 librarians for next year in order to save money.
> The one remaining librarian would serve as the District Librarian and would
> be stationed at the high school.  Their daily schedule (4 block) would be 1
> block in the library, 2 blocks teaching in a content area, and 1 block for
> prep.  Based on this schedule, the District Librarian would only have ¼ of
> their day to maintain the collection for the entire district.  The district
> is comprised of 4,500 students in 5 elementary schools, 2 junior highs, and
> 1 high school.  The other 7 school libraries will be staffed with aides who
> will be tasked to check in and out books to students and complete a yearly
> inventory.
>
> I am looking for anyone who is a District Librarian to share with me their
> current job description.  I am also looking for any data that you have
> concerning how only having 1 librarian for this size of a student
> population impacts reading ability, test scores, delivery of instruction,
> etc.  If you have any suggestions on what we can do to save our librarians,
> please share.  I would need this information by Friday as our board will be
> voting on the matter on Tuesday.  Please email me at
> jccampbell07 at gmail.com.  Thank you in advance for helping me on this
> matter.
>
>
>
> Jen Campbell
>
> Galesburg High School
>
> Galesburg CUSD #205
>
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-- 
Lura Weatherford
Librarian assistant
Argenta-Oreana MS/HS
lweatherford at argenta-oreana.org
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