There are currently more than 160 Chicago public schools without libraries, according to CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond.
Bond said in a phone interview recently that while most schools without libraries do have a “books section” in the classroom, they do not have access to a librarian.
While having librarians in all the schools would be beneficial to teachers and would help to balance their workload, the school system’s current financial restraints would not allow for it, she said.
“There are so many constraints right now with budget cutbacks,” she said. “We’re doing pretty good to even have a teacher available to monitor and to be in the classroom and multi-task.”
Currently, Bond said, students do generally have access to computer labs and online technology, but it is their teacher, and not a designated aide or librarian, who monitors and assists the students online.
In one of the more prominent battles currently being waged against CPS, parents and residents at Whittier School in Pilsen continue to protest by refusing to leave a building on school property that they want converted into a library. On Oct. 7, the city council ordered CPS to halt demolition of the field house. The protesters had been appealing to CEO Ron Huberman with no results.
Ald. Patrick J. O’Connor (40th) said if necessary, Chicago public libraries would suffice in place of a school library.
“It wasn’t designed that all schools had to have huge libraries because we actually have a library system that is located geographically to serve a lot of schools,” he said. “So I’m not sure that whether or not there is a library in the building is an indication of whether the building is a good educational center or not.”
He went on to say that having a library was not necessarily key to the success of a school.
“I think the real issue is if they’re going to be looking at school improvements as we have been in the past, you put what they need … It might not be a library they need. They might need a lunch room; they might need an activity center,” O’Connor said.
But Gail Bush, director of the Center for Teaching Through Children’s Books, said libraries are crucial in schools.
She said the way students obtain and sift through knowledge has changed dramatically compared to when O’Connor was in grade school.
“When he was a student, he had to answer the question. Now the students have to question the answer,” she said. “Sources he used were vetted … now sources are vetted by students.”
Bush said this is where younger students need the most help: expanding their research skills, both online and off, developing appropriate online behavior, and determining the credibility of a source. These are all valuable skills that Bush said teachers just don’t have time to focus on.
“In many ways the librarian has become the technological instructor,” she said. “Teachers can no longer close their door and think they can teach students everything. That door has to be open to the librarians whose job is more critical than ever.”
In November 2009, the Illinois attorney general’s office conducted a Cyber Safety Survey of nearly 4,200 Illinois youth from 3rd to 12th grades, in an attempt to better understand what communication technology they use and how they use it.
The results indicated that students were an average of 12 years old when they started their first MySpace/Facebook page and an average of 11 when they received their first cell phone. Nearly one-third said they had Internet access on their cell phones.
Beginning with the 2009‑2010 school year, the Illinois School Code states that “a school district must incorporate into the school curriculum a component on Internet safety to be taught at least once each school year to students in grades 3 through 12.”
But Bush said teachers are overwhelmed as it is, and this additional Internet safety teaching will be difficult to accomplish without the assistance of a librarian.
“They (teachers) already have the curriculum they need to cover, so who’s going to do it? It’s not going to be fully developed if you don’t have a school librarian helping to implement it,” she said.
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