ALA Offers Checklist on How You Can Help Save Library Funding
Former First Lady Laura Bush has said about libraries, "Libraries offer, for free, the wisdom of the ages - and sages - and, simply put, there's something for everyone inside."
Yet with a global economic crisis at hand, public and school library budgets are being drastically cut at all levels--preventing the wisdom, information, entertainment, and inspiration of the ages from being accessible to all.
Now that the debt ceiling crisis is behind us, we urge library supporters across the nation to focus on how we can save funding for public and school libraries. Deep financial cuts will be made as a result of the debt agreement and we must advocate for library funding with our elected officials and demonstrate why library finding is NOT the place to make these cuts.
Step 1
Contact your Congressional representatives' district offices to see if they have any town hall meetings coming up. You can quickly find contact information for your Representative and Senators here.
Step 2 Think of examples and stories of how your local library provides essential services to your community. Emphasize how these services are free to users and of a minimal cost to taxpayers. Show your elected officials how cutting library funding hurts the community, especially in this tough economy. The ALA Washington Office has resources you can use. For the latest issue briefs, click here. To visit the ALA Advocacy page, click here.
Step 3 Attend a town hall meeting to share stories and information with your elected official. As a bonus, you will not only be informing your official but also other citizens in the audience who may not know about all the resources a 21st century library can provide.
Step 4
Invite your elected official to visit a public or school library to show them firsthand the services libraries offer. Click here for the "Get Legislators in Your Library" webinar. And click here for a list of steps to take in setting up a Congressional visit of your library.
Lastly, be sure to check out the NCBLA's Become an Activist page for additional ways you can support literacy and influence policy and legislation on a local, state, and national level.
Read Charles M. Blow Op/Ed Piece in The New York Times:
The Decade of Lost Children
"A majority of children in all racial groups and 79 percent or more of black and Hispanic children in public schools cannot read or do math at grade level in the fourth, eighth or 12th grades."
Children's book author and long time literacy/library advocate Lin Oliver is the executive director of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, a national nonprofit professional organization dedicated to serving the people who write, illustrate, or share a vital interest in children's literature. With permission, we share with you Lin Oliver's excellent SCBWI Bulletin essay on the importance having educated, experienced state certified librarians in public schools. We hope it will inspire you to find out what is happening in your state, and to take action, supporting one of our nation's greatest treasures—our free school and public libraries- and the incredible librarians whose work enriches all of our lives, especially our children’s.
In these times of world-wide recession, everyone—from families to state and federal governments—has to tighten belts and cut spending. In our field, a heart-breaking casualty of this enforced budget slashing is the demise of public and school libraries. Across America, and in fact around much of the developed world, library budgets are being slashed resulting in shortened hours, forced closings, and personnel layoffs. Authors, teachers, and community activists are speaking out in support of library funding. Notably, in Oxfordshire, England, where the local community is facing the closure of 20 of its 43 libraries and staff is being replaced with volunteers and automated kiosks, noted children’s author Philip Pullman earlier this year made a plea to save libraries and librarians, citing their crucial value in a democratic society.
“I love the public library service for what it did for me as a child and as a student and as an adult,” he said in an impassioned speech. “l love it because its presence in a town or a city reminds us that there are things above profit, things that profit knows nothing about, things that have the power to baffle the greedy ghost of market fundamentalism, things that stand for civic decency and public respect for imagination and knowledge and the value of simple delight.”
Fine words. Who among us wouldn’t agree? Yet the budget slashing continues, and in what the SCBWI leadership and Board of Advisors view as a case of misguided priorities, libraries continue to be compromised by the hundreds. The public and school library system is failing, and with it, its librarians.
Take for example, the case of the approximately eighty-five middle- and upper-school librarians in Los Angeles Unified School District. As part of the district budget cutting, they all received pink slips within the past several months. In order to get them off the payroll, the district is arguing that librarians don’t teach and therefore don’t qualify for the seniority protections given to teachers. One by one, these librarians were called into a basement room and interrogated. “Do you take attendance?” they were asked by school district attorneys, with armed guards standing by. The point of the questioning was to discredit them as teachers, as if taking attendance is proof that one is fit for the classroom.
The SCBWI leadership believes that all librarians are indeed teachers, including and especially those in school libraries. For many children, the school library is their first, and often only, exposure to what a library has to offer. Certainly, the school library of the 21st century will look different. It will offer children not only books but computers, downloads, Internet access, and many other platforms yet to come. But its basic function of leading children to reading remains the same, no matter what the format. School librarians are teachers and the library is their classroom. They minister to the individual needs of students, and although they may not
teach specific subjects or take attendance on a daily basis, they teach the most important skill of all—learning how to learn. They teach their students how to gather information, to synthesize from multiple sources, and hopefully to form their own conclusions based on what they have read. They lead each new generation to the thoughts and words of previous generations, enabling them to stand on the shoulders of the great thinkers who have come before. In addition, and no small matter this…school librarians notice what kids are reading, and hand them the next book they might enjoy, point them to the right Internet site, encourage them to take the next step on the path to knowledge, education, and the immense joy that comes from reading.
One commonly proposed solution to reducing library budgets is to replace librarians with volunteers and inventory managing software. In this scenario, a kiosk would replace a librarian. How tragic this would be. The human hand of a trained librarian, a person who has cultivated the specialty of helping another person seek knowledge, would be lost. The humiliating interrogation of librarians in Los Angeles is an attempt to remove school librarians from the payroll. Surely, we can find ways to reduce spending other than to eliminate the keepers of the key to knowledge. A library without a librarian is a building. A library with a motivated, trained, interested librarian is a source of light and inspiration.
It has been said that closing libraries in a time of recession is like closing hospitals in a time of plague. Join SCBWI in support of funding for public and school libraries, and especially now in support of school librarians whose jobs are in jeopardy.
As of today, 77 high school librarians in question have had their pink slips rescinded, but the fate of the middle-school librarians is still in limbo. It is unclear at this moment whether or not the librarians will be returned to the library or will serve as classroom teachers.
Share Literature, Theater, and the Arts with Your Kids this Summer!!!
At the end of her seventh grade year, our oldest daughter Lizzie announced at breakfast that over the summer she was going to read all of William Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets.
“All of them?” we asked.
“Yep,” was her confident reply.
Her father smiled and went back to reading The Boston Globe sports page. I went immediately into mom worry-wort overdrive.
“Why don’t you pick five plays that we can read aloud together over the summer?” I asked. I was concerned that with such a large goal she was setting herself up for failure, concerned that the content and language in the plays would be overwhelming. I thought that if we read them together, I could offer guidance and explanation.
“I want to read them myself, without any help,” she said, walking to the living room bookcase, removing the three volume set of Shakespeare’s Tragedies, Comedies, and Sonnets off the top shelf, claiming it as her own.
Her father was unconcerned, thinking that Lizzie’s summer reading project would quietly fizzle out at some point, that friends and summer activities would eventually sideline her ambition. I was not so sure. Elizabeth had loved theater and opera since she was a very little. I well remembered the Thanksgiving she was four, when I turned the Macy’s parade on TV mid-morning to keep her occupied while I got the turkey into the oven. Fifteen minutes later when I checked on her, I found she had changed the channel to a PBS station and was watching a performance of Die Fledermaus, utterly engrossed. As often as we could, we took her, and her younger siblings, to children’s and adult local repertory theater performances. And when we could afford to, we splurged and bought discount “nose-bleed” tickets for a major Broadway play. I encouraged their imaginative play at home, filling a huge old bureau in the basement, not with store bought costumes, but with used “dress-up” clothes—worn men’s suits, old bride’s maid and prom dresses, scarves, beads, funny hats, high heels, and clunky men’s boots. Enthralled by every aspect of the theater Liz, with her friends and siblings, often raided that bureau, dressing up, engaging in imaginary play.
Elizabeth was a voracious reader, and she had a major stubborn streak. I believed she really was going to try and read all the plays over the summer. I managed to assuage my worries by borrowing a few young people’s books from the library for her that contained prose versions of the plays, thinking that then she would at least have basic plot and the character information.
And that summer before she entered eighth grade, she did exactly what she said she was going to do, she read every play written by William Shakespeare, and every sonnet, the Oxford three volume edition —totally on her own without parental intervention or motivation. She was driven by her own passion and curiosity. What we did not know, until months later, was that each time she finished reading a play, she sat down with her six year old brother and verbally told him the story.
Friday nights during the school year, we would make popcorn and pizza, push all the old sofa sectionals in the basement together creating a huge mega-couch, and all five of us would sprawl out to watch videos. On this particular spring night, the kids wanted to watch the recently released The Lion King. About thirty minutes into the movie, six year old Patrick jumped up shouting, “This is Hamlet! The Lion King is really Hamlet!” My husband and I looked at each other, in one of those moments when you know exactly what your spouse is thinking, in this case—my god, it is Hamlet!And how the heck does Patrick know about Hamlet? Only then did we find out about Elizabeth’s summer Shakespearean storytelling. Later when sharing this anecdote with a friend who worked in marketing for Disney’s Hyperion publishing, she told me that the original screen treatment, written by Thomas Disch, was indeed inspired by Hamlet.
Magic had happened in our house—magic that can happen in your house, too, when you make an effort to expose your kids to theater, the arts, and literature! We live in small three bedroom, one bathroom house—yes only one bathroom. (You can imagine the drama created by that situation!) Our kids are highly imperfect, wonderfully weird, average in most things, smart in some things. They all attended our small town's public schools. We have had enough money to survive, but not a lot for many extras. But we decided that as parents we would try to expose our kids to as many different things as we could, trying to give them experiences and opportunities that we did not have as kids. It was our hope that taking them to the library, to museums, to theatrical and music productions and events, to sporting events, to parks and historical sites, would not only compensate for whatever their formal education lacked, but would enrich their lives, expanding their own personal and future professional life choices. Besides, doing things together, exploring, sharing experiences with them, was huge fun—and now we have so many amazing family memories to share!
“Longitudinal data of 25,000 students involved in the arts, conducted at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education by Dr. James Catterall, shows that consistent participation greatly improves academic performance and significantly bumps up standardized test scores. Students who make time for the arts are also more involved in community service, and less likely to drop out of school. And we’re not just talking about upper middle class kids. These facts remain, regardless of a child’s socio-economic background.” Danielle Wood, Editor-In-Chief of Education.com
Kids need time to explore things they are passionate about on their own; they need to flex their mental muscles and their imaginations. And getting involved in the arts gets them off the couch, and away from electronic screens. Kids who read great books, draw, paint, dance, sculpt, play a musical instrument, participate in theatrical productions or create their own backyard theater, expand their imaginations and also learn essential critical and creative thinking skills, skills that will help them in their science and math studies.
Take time this summer, and throughout the school year, to introduce your kids to great books, theater, and the arts! Your local neighborhood library not only has all the information and books you need about the arts, it also has books that have arts activity suggestions and ideas for your kids—as well as plays that your kids can perform on their own. Your library has music CD’s and DVD’s and videos of professional theater performances that you can share with your kids. And many of you neighborhood libraries will have free passes to museums, parks, events, and children’s theater that you can reserve for your family.
Mary Brigid Barrett is the president and executive director of The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance. She is the author of the recently released children’s picture book Shoebox Sam(HarperCollins: Zonderkidz), and is the editor of, and contributor to, the NCBLA’s award-winning publication Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out (Candlewick Press). She is also the creative editor, along with Geri Eddins, of the NCBLA’sforthcoming publication The Exquisite Corpse Adventure, an adventure story game created originally for the Library of Congress www.Read.gov website.
To find museums and theaters near you with special programs and events for children and teens, check at your local library and your online city newspaper listings. Many cities also have special parent newspapers and websites that can aide you in finding interesting art, literature, and theater experiences for your kids.
Shakespeare books for kids:
You can find many wonderful editions of Shakespeare’s original plays, prose versions of the plays, books about Shakespeare, plays written especially for kids to perform, and books with dramatic activates for kids, at your local neighborhood library and bookstore. Do not hesitate to ask for help if you cannot find what you need!
A few specific suggestions:
«Shakespeare for Kids: His Life and Times, 21 Activities For Kids by Colleen Aagesen and Margie Blumberg.
«Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield and Michael Foreman.
«Tales from Shakespeare by Tina Packer, President and Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company theater and theater education group.
«Shakespeare with Children: Six Scripts For Young Players by Elizabeth Weinstein.
«Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare by Peter Vennema, illustrated by Diane Stanley.
Registration fee includes admission to the museum.
No food or beverages provided. Please bring your own lunch and eat at the museum with other attendees.
Schedule
10:00–10:30 Registration and Networking
10:30–12:00 “My Biggest Career Challenge and How I Solved It”
Panelists: Jacqueline Davies, Kathryn Lasky, Lois Lowry, and Bill Thomson
Four children’s book creators discuss the most significant hurdles they’ve
overcome in producing their work, selling it to publishers, and promoting it to educators, booksellers, and the general public.
12:00-1:00Bring a bag lunch and eat with other workshop attendees
1:00-2:30“My Biggest Writing/Illustrating Challenge and How I Solved It”
Panelists: Jacqueline Davies, Kathryn Lasky, Lois Lowry, and Bill Thomson
Four children’s book creators discuss the struggles they’ve faced while producing the children’s books we know and love. Their stories will inform and inspire writers, illustrators, educators, and children’s bookenthusiasts.
2:30 – 3:30 Book Sale and Signing
Meet Jacqueline Davies, Kathryn Lasky, Lois Lowry, and Bill Thomson and have them sign the books they created
Jacqueline Davies has written four middle-grade novels and three picture books. Her newest title, The Lemonade Crime is a sequel to The Lemonade War, which was a Massachusetts Book Award Honor winner.
Newbery Honor-winning author Kathryn Lasky is both prolific and versatile. Her more than one hundreds books for children include nonfiction and picture books as well as historical fiction and fantasy novels.
During her celebrated career, children’s book author Lois Lowry has explored such complex issues as racism, terminal illness, and the Holocaust. She won the Newbery Medal in 1990 for Number the Stars and again in 1994 for The Giver.
Billl Thomsonhas illustrated three picture books and is the creator of the award-winning wordless picture book Chalk.
This program is free and open to the public and will be held at the Kresge Auditorium on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A book sale and autographing event will follow the presentation.
Suggested audience: young adults and adults.
After the event, limited tickets will be available for a special Wine and Cheese Reception to benefit The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance.
Check back here for more details in the coming months!
