9486 in the collection
As book budgets shrink, what's ahead?
Ohanian Comment: One reader commented not to worry about the absence of new books. There are hundreds of classics students should be reading. As a longtime teacher, I just remember the visceral excitement when the librarian unpacked those new books.
Hey, I read Kipling and Oscar Wilde and Beatrix Potter aloud to my third graders. But I was also quick to buy the latest Rotten Ralph, Amelia Bedelia, and so on. My students, 3rd grade and 8th, were always looking for what new book I'd pull out of my knapsack. I happen to believe that students need to know that books are living things, being created all the time--just for them.
By Matt Campbell
If a library stopped buying books, would anybody notice?
The Shawnee Mission School District will find out how important printed books are in the digital age after a budget decision to eliminate all new library book purchases this year.
The savings is moderate: $107,000.
But the impact is unclear. The library at Shawnee Mission East High School was brimming with students at 8 a.m. recently, but virtually every one of them was in front of a computer screen. Veteran English teacher Skip Graham was the only person in the "stacks," as shelves of books are still quaintly called.
Still Kathi Knop, librarian at East, thinks students will notice a dearth of new books.
"A lot of these kids, they really do still come in and check out fiction books," Knop said. "And we're not going to be able to buy anything new. I think what will happen is they’re going to go to the bookstore or the public library and I think it will mean kids may start using the (school) library less."
Senior Leyann Dahlgren of Overland Park already uses the public library more than the school library when she wants to check out a book. But she was using a computer in the East school library for a psychology class project.
"I think for some kids who do research in here or come here to read books, I think they’ve known that there’s not as many books and that there are not newer books coming in," Dahlgren said.
Knop estimated the average copyright date of the books in her library is around 1990. It should be 2000 at least, she said.
"We still have books on the shelves in every single library in the district," said Curtis Cain, associate superintendent for education services in the Shawnee Mission district. "We just aren't going to be able to replenish them in the manner we prefer."
Elimination of the book budget is part of a larger retrenchment that Shawnee Mission has experienced for the past three years due mainly to cutbacks from the state and an enrollment that has leveled off. Other Johnson County districts are under similar pressure, but are still growing.
Blue Valley spent $159,000 on print library materials last year and budgeted slightly more this year. The Olathe district spent more than $310,000 for new library books last year and cut back to more than $301,000 this year.
Shawnee Mission had considered doing without librarians in the high schools but patron reaction in a survey was against it. Still, general attrition has had an effect.
"It's dreadful," said Graham, who has taught at East for 33 years. "Not only not buying books, but they've cut back on how many (staff) people are in the library. We have to close the library while the librarian goes to lunch because there are no aides at that time. So kids can’t access the library, which is the center of the school."
As recently as 2007 each high school library in Shawnee Mission had a budget of about $33,000, of which $25,000 was to be spent on books, Knop said.
Her budget this year is $3,000 and she is expected to spend that on supplies and materials. Knop hopes to purchase an electronic database with the money.
School libraries have begun skewing what book purchases they can make toward fiction, Knop said. Non-fiction research materials become obsolete so quickly it-s better to rely on electronic databases that are constantly updated.
East High School has 22 desktop computers and three carts with 15 laptops each. Districtwide, Shawnee Mission boasts nearly 14,000 computers for students and staff.
"Today's student is going to be a consumer of information digitally," said Cain, adding that it will not completely supplant the need for print materials. "There's no question students need to be able to walk in both lands, so to speak."
Seniors Caroline Dodd of Leawood and Atiyeh Samadi of Prairie Village were also in the library at East recently using computers for a class. But they both said they still value printed books.
"I hate that technology is kind of taking the place of that, but it kind of is," Dodd said. "I still like reading fiction (in print), but for research it's just so much easier to have it online."
Dodd and Samadi said they prefer to buy books rather than check them out because then they can write in them.
"I like the idea of a full library with a ton of books," Samadi said. "I like libraries. I just don't use them."
But a lot of Shawnee Mission students do. Cain said more than 886,000 books were circulated within Shawnee Mission school libraries in the 2010-11 academic year -- in a district with an enrollment of about 28,000.
But more than 800,000 of those books were checked out in the elementary grades, Cain said. That's where educators say libraries are particularly important in the formation of reading habits.
Students at Pawnee Elementary are allowed to check out three books a week.
"I think they'd take home more if I let them," said Cheryl Roberts, librarian at Pawnee.
Normally, Roberts would probably buy 250 to 300 hardback books, but not this year. Instead, she and other librarians will have to rely on alternative ways to get new books.
Some PTA chapters help with grants. School libraries also loan each other books to spread new titles around. Some teachers and librarians also review children’s books and earn copies for their libraries that way.
Roberts has a book fair each year in which companies bring their books to the school for sale to parents and the library gets a percentage of the profit as well as some books to keep. All of that will help but won't completely make up for the cutoff of district funding this year.
"Kids will notice we don't have as many new books as we have in the past," Roberts said.
Librarians and district officials hope the elimination of new book purchases is a temporary budget problem, but there are no guarantees.
"“Next year they could give us no budget," said Knop at Shawnee Mission East. "Next year they could say we're not going to have librarians. We just don't know what’s going to happen."
— Matt Campbell
Kansas City Star
2011-08-30
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/08/30/3109486/as-book-budgets-shrink-whats-ahead.html#.Tl77Po4ROiw.twitter
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
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