Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

This week kicked off LBS 730: Managing & Evaluating School Library Programs. As far as I can tell, this course does not require blog entries. However, it looks like we'll have a ton of discussion posts/essays, and I'll post those here.

The question this essay addresses: How much have the issues surrounding school libraries changed?

Librarian at the card files at a senior high school in New Ulm, Minnesota, October 1974

Plus ça change...

I explored with great interest the articles in Module Two that cover the history of school libraries. And while I read the articles expecting to learn about the halcyonic days of school librarianship, where school librarians were recognized and lauded for their role in schools…”plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.”

For example, in “School Library: A Historical Perspective,” the following is written: “Although certification requirements were written, in many states, school districts often ignored them simply by not creating positions for school librarians. In most schools the library was administered on a part-time basis by volunteers or by classroom teachers, who were given release time.” (p. 8)

Sound familiar? It sure does to me. But this statement refers to the 1920s, not the 2020s.

On the other hand, one big, wonderful change is the actual content of school libraries. When school libraries were in their nascent stages, the “collections were usually unattractive to children [and] contained mainly textbooks or adult materials suitable only for a teacher’s use” (p. 2).

While many libraries, if not all, need to increase the width and breadth of their collections by including more books that are “windows, mirrors, and sliding doors,” (Links to an external site.) there is at least now an awareness that collections should represent diverse views. The Future Ready Librarian, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education, should “create inclusive collections that acknowledge and celebrate diverse experiences…”. 

Speaking of inclusive books — another similarity to today is that library books are coming under fire by those who are opposed to the message contained within that book. “School Library: A Historical Perspective,” refers to a landmark Supreme Court decision that was made in 1982.  The lawsuit was brought by students who objected to their school’s administration removing materials that were previously deemed acceptable for their school based on valid selection criteria (p. 13).

This problem is apparently a tale as old as time. However, in order to meet the issue head-on, the ALA has established the Office for Intellectual Freedom, which provides resources such as lists of frequently challenged books and a method for reporting censorship, and sponsors events such as Banned Books Week.

In the ALA Think Tank Facebook group I often observe librarians being faced with this very issue. A parent has called their school (or their town’s governance) to complain about the inclusion of a book in a collection. Commenters instruct the librarian to point to their policy. I totally agree, though I think school librarians should have the plurality opinion from the landmark case emblazoned on their walls: “Local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek their removal to prescribe what should be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion” (p. 13).

To end on a positive note: the article “School Library Media Centers: The Revolutionary Past,” published in 1982, remarked, “We have developed curricula of library skills that children neither enjoy nor need when taught in isolation from classroom curricular units; parading children through the library once or twice a week for forty minutes and teaching them a curriculum of our own design that has little relationship to classroom activities is of doubtful worth.”

That statement perfectly describes my experience as an elementary, high school and college student. Picture dusty books, a shushing librarian, and a table for studying: and that’s about it. The room might have been called a “media center,” but the only media available were books. That statement is also a big reason why my family and friends were dumbfounded when I declared that I wanted to become a school librarian. 

As “School Library: A Historical Perspective” puts it, “No longer the keeper of the books, [school librarians] became an integral part of the instructional process. They are the information literacy advocates of the school who have their own curriculum.”

The public’s gradual awareness of this expanding, encompassing, and modern role might be the biggest change of all in school librarianship.

Works Cited:

American Association of School Libraries. National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. ALA Editions, an Imprint of the American Library Association, 2018.

“School Library: A Historical Perspective.” Administering the School Library Media Center, by Betty J. Morris, Libraries Unlimited, 2010, pp. 1–10.

Bishop, Rudine Sims. “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors.” Accessed https://scenicregional.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mirrors-Windows-and-Sliding-Glass-Doors.pdf (Links to an external site.) on 19 January, 2020.

Loertscher, David. “School Library Media Centers: The Revolutionary Past.” Wilson Library Bulletin, 1982, file:///home/chronos/u-d816a54bc9a380eeeb7aa5345b60b254e6133d7b/MyFiles/Downloads/Revolutionary.Past%20(1).pdf.

“Future Ready Librarians®.” Future Ready Schools, futureready.org/thenetwork/strands/future-ready-librarians/.