School libraries losing ground; book allotment down to $8 a student
Naoibh O'Connor
Vancouver Courier
Friday, October 19, 2007
On Wednesday morning Grade 2 French immersion students at Trafalgar elementary sat in groups writing down their thoughts about "la bibliotheque" on sheets of white paper.
"J'aime les livres de la bibliotheque," scribbled one, "La bibliotheque est formidable et excellent," scrawled another.
It's exactly how teacher librarian Elly Werb hopes the children feel about their embattled school library, which she believes is key to student academic success.
"Numerous studies show that a school with a vibrant library and a teacher librarian to teach information and research skills score much higher academically," she said.
Her enthusiasm seems reflected in the reading habits of Trafalgar. Its circulation of books and materials stood at 72,500 last year--the highest such number among the district's elementary schools. Werb credits parent volunteers and the school's parent advisory committee for supporting literacy.
"My motto is I don't want to see the books on the shelves--I don't think that's where they belong," said Werb who encourages students to take out 10 to 12 books at a time.
Trafalgar's library--the school has both an English and French immersion program--includes English and French books, as well as small Chinese and Japanese sections.
Popular authors include J.K. Rowling, who writes the Harry Potter series; Darren Shan who writes titles like Lord of the Shadows; and Geronimo Stilton who writes funny stories about mice.
"The strange thing is in kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2, they're crazy about non-fiction--rockets ships, whales, you name it," added Werb.
French and English graphic novels are also popular. Some critics question their value, but Werb maintains they encourage students to pick up books, especially those with learning problems or those trying to pick up the English or French languages since the pictures help them understand the text.
Students note down books they want Werb to acquire, and she does her best to comply.
This week, Werb was preparing to celebrate National School Library Day Oct. 22, which calls attention to the importance of school libraries. But she worries about how budget cutbacks have affected libraries in this district. Aside from checking out books, teacher librarians focus on improving literacy, set up projects, and instruct children about how to do research and how to avoid pitfalls like plagiarism--increasingly common in schools and universities because of the Internet.
"The only thing that breaks my heart is with cutbacks there's less time in the library and less time to do collaborative teaching," she said.
In the 1980s, Werb said $20 per student was allocated each year to buy books, a figure that has now dropped to $8.
"You can't even buy a paperback with that anymore. The price of books is skyrocketing and we're really suffering because of that," she said.
While all schools were affected by budget cuts, since libraries are funded in a budget that includes the language assistant, ESL and special needs programs, certain schools suffered more than others. In Trafalgar's case it needs both French and English language assistants and has a high ESL population.
"All Vancouver schools had a budget cutback in their resources, but because libraries are lumped in with language assistants and ESL that's where the differences happen," explained Werb. "Some schools have only French language assistants if they're entirely French, and some schools have English language assistants if they're completely English, but we are both so we have to spread those cuts over more people. Also, we have huge numbers of ESL students whose needs are very different. Some schools don't have ESL students or very few. That's why we were hit by a double whammy and some other schools were as well."
Werb must fill in for teachers during their prep periods the equivalent of two days a week, which cuts down on the time she focuses on the library. Only a few years ago Trafalgar was entitled to one-and-a-half library positions.
Mary Locke, a teacher librarian at General Gordon elementary, agreed budget cuts are a problem. The district has lost the equivalent of five full-time elementary teacher librarian positions since last year, she said, with some school libraries down to one day a week.
"Administrators have to make very uncomfortable decisions about which they need more. Do they need an LAC [learning assistant] teacher, do they need an ESL teacher or do they need a teacher librarian?" she said. "Because they're only given a certain number of [full-time equivalent positions] to cover those three [areas] and to take care of the needs of special needs children. I know the board does try to take into consideration these kinds of things--they have a formula but it never seems to be enough."
Locke is planning an author visit next week to mark National School Library Day, and added that Surrey school librarians have challenged the province to stop whatever they're doing Monday at 1 p.m. to read--a challenge she plans to accept.
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