[CALIBK12] UK Authors fight to preserve school library]

[Millam, Joy]

That is terrible-- I hope the fight is successful.  

One author, Alan Gibbons, summed it up well-- 'No amount of googling and copying and pasting can replace the intellectual flexibility developed by reading whole books.' 

Joy Millam

YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers Chairperson (2009)

District Library Coordinator/Library Media Teacher
Valencia High School
500 N. Bradford Ave.
Placentia, CA 92870
714-996-4970 x3250
jmillam at pylusd.org 
 
http://www.vhstigers.org/library/mrs_millam.jsp?rn=1816497
http://librarygoddess1network.ning.com/ 
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu [mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of Sandy Schuckett
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 7:04 PM
To: CALIBK12
Subject: [CALIBK12] UK Authors fight to preserve school library]

Interesting article from 'The Guardian' in Britain.....see below.

ss
Sandy Schuckett
California School Library Assn.
Liaison to CTA
2312 Claremont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323-665-9811
aq061 at lafn.org
----- Original Message ----- 
UK Authors fight to preserve school library]

>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject:  UK Authors fight to preserve school
> library
>
> Philip Pullman tells head her comprehensive will be a 'byword for
> ignorance'
> if closure goes ahead
>
> Guardian, UK: 2008 November 23
>
> Philip Pullman, the bestselling author, has warned a school that it
> will
> become a 'byword for philistinism and ignorance' if it goes ahead
> with the
> closure of its library.
>
> The comprehensive in Chesterfield has become the focus of an authors'
> campaign since it announced that its librarian will be surplus to
> requirements after Christmas, when the school is to become a 'virtual
> learning environment'. Pupils will be encouraged to read at break
> times and
> at after-school clubs, but its traditional library will go.
>
> 'The idea that fiction is not worth looking after properly and does
> not need
> a qualified librarian runs contrary to every experience I have ever
> had,'
> Pullman wrote in a letter to Lynn Asquith, headteacher of the 759-
> pupil
> Meadows Community School. 'Are you going to relegate the whole
> activity of
> reading fiction to the status of a trivial and innocuous activity,
> like
> stamp collecting or playing with a Frisbee?'
>
> 'A library with a dedicated and professional staff should be at the
> very
> heart of any institution dedicated to learning,' he continued. 'I am
> deeply
> dismayed to hear of the decision, which cannot be in the best
> interests of
> the students. Nothing can replace a proper library, with its resources
> centrally available and with the expertise of a qualified librarian
> to guide
> the students in the best and most productive ways of research.'
>
> The author has joined Michael Rosen, the Children's Laureate, and
> children's
> writer Alan Gibbons in a campaign to save school libraries, which
> they say
> are being eroded up and down the country. 'This school is the tip of
> the
> iceberg,' said Gibbons, who argued that without a librarian there
> could be
> no library. 'Forget the blather about virtual and interactive
> learning. This
> is cost-cutting, pure and simple.
>
> 'There's one secondary school, which shall be nameless, where the
> headteacher was going to throw all the non-fiction books into a skip
> to make
> way for computers,' he said. 'We're witnessing a new wave of virtual
> philistinism.'
>
> Rosen says he highlighted the cuts in library provision when he met
> Children's Secretary Ed Balls and Schools Minister Jim Knight last
> week.
> 'The [Meadows] school is a local problem, but it is a national
> tragedy,' he
> says. 'Cuts are going on everywhere. I met Ed Balls and Jim Knight
> and they
> were saying that they were committed to supporting reading for
> pleasure. But
> on the ground there isn't the staff, the time or the money to
> support it.'
>
> Public library spending on books fell by 1 per cent to £76.8m in the
> year to
> March 2008, or just 8.7% of overall library expenditure. Spending on
> audio-visual materials such as DVDs rose 4.2% over the same period.
> There
> were 38 public library closures last year, up from 35 the previous
> year.
>
> The campaign to save the library at Meadows Community School was
> started by
> its pupils, who began a petition when they heard that their
> librarian, Clare
> Broadbelt, had been told that her post was no longer required
> because of 'a
> move towards the relocation and redistribution of non-fiction and
> fiction
> resources in the light of the new developments in a virtual-learning
> environment and interactive learning'.
>
> A string of famous authors have joined the battle since then.
> Broadbelt was
> told that the library was not being removed, but would be operated
> in a
> different way, with curriculum leaders managing the resources from the
> internet. Fiction material would be maintained in a new reading
> centre for
> use in break times and at after-school clubs, but it would not need a
> librarian.
>
> Asquith said little work had been done to improve the library since it
> opened in 1991. 'It is not big enough to accommodate the number of
> pupils
> who want to use it during peak time and some areas are not
> accessible for
> all pupils,' she said. The school's governors had approved a £90,000
> redevelopment programme, she explained. 'This is a great opportunity
> to
> develop a new learning resource centre for the benefit of all pupils.'
>
> Gibbons, who visits 150 schools a year, says that 25 local
> authorities in
> England spend less than 1 per cent of their library budgets on books
> for
> children. 'No amount of googling and copying and pasting can replace
> the
> intellectual flexibility developed by reading whole books,' he said.

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