[CALIBK12] Closing all high school libraries - SOS

[Richard K. Moore]

from:

10 Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library [2001]
By Mark Y. Herring, Dean of Library Services
Dacus Library, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, South Carolina

Aren’t There Library-less Universities Now?
    No. The newest state university in California at Monterey opened without a library building a few years ago. For the last two years, they’ve been buying books by the tens of thousands because -- surprise, surprise -- they couldn’t find what they needed on the Internet. California Polytechnic State University, home of the world’s highest concentration of engineers and computer geeks, explored the possibility of a virtual (fully electronic) library for two years. Their solution was a $42-million traditional library with, of course, a strong electronic component. In other words, a fully virtualized library just can’t be done. Not yet, not now, not in our lifetimes.

But a Virtual State Library Would Do It, Right?
    Do what, bankrupt the state? Yes, it would. The cost of having everything digitized is incredibly high, costing tens of millions of dollars just in copyright releases. And this buys only one virtual library at one university. Questia Media, the biggest such outfit, just spent $125 million digitizing 50,000 books released (but not to libraries!) in January. At this rate, to virtualize a medium-sized library of 400,000 volumes would cost a mere $1,000,000,000! Then you need to make sure students have equitable access everywhere they 
need it, when they need it. Finally, what do you do with rare and valuable primary sources once they are digitized? Take them to the dump? And you must hope the power never, ever goes out. Sure, students could still read by candlelight, but what would they be reading?

from.........American Libraries, April 2001, p. 76–78.
© 2007 American Library Association.

Mark,

Are these paragraphs holding up?


 


Richard K. Moore, InfoSherpa
Huntington Beach, CA
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A poem represents the mastering, even if just for a moment, of the pessimism and the melancholy, and enables you - you the poet, and you, the reader - to go on. -- Philip Larkin
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-----Original Message-----
From: Becca Todd <Becca_Todd at berkeley.k12.ca.us>
To: calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu
Sent: Thu, 7 May 2009 10:52 am
Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] Closing all high school libraries - SOS










If anything, there is even MORE of a need for a collaborative space where
students from different small learning communities can communicate in an
educational setting. There is even MORE of a need for the resources that
can be provided collectively with funding from each of the SLCs, rather
than duplicating expensive resources many times over or going without
them. When I worked at a high school that moved to become small schools
rather than one big high school, our usage increased. The same is true for
Berkeley High, which has 4 small schools
 and 2 programs serving the 3400
students. We have 2 teacher librarians and one beautiful library that
serves everyone on that campus. Aren't the SLCs still sharing the
socer/football field? What about the cafeteria, the auditorium? 

Becca Todd, District Library Coordinator
Berkeley Unified School District
1720 Oregon St. Room 9
Berkeley, CA 94703
(ph) 510.644.4895
(f) 510.644.8933
Becca_Todd at berkeley.k12.ca.us 

"Debra Bohnett" <dbohnett at stockton.k12.ca.us> writes:
>Dear all,
>
>This is for the high schools utilizing the small learning community
>model. How have your library services changed utilizing this model? Do
>you see an increased need for school libraries utilizing this model, a
>decrease or the same?  Our district has moved to this model for all four
>of our comprehensive high schools and there is a movement to eliminate
>high school libraries because there is a perceived notion that libraries
>will not be necessary.  I am the teacher librarian at a relatively new
>high school that has been utilizing the SLC model since it opened so I do
>not have a comparison.
>
>
>Please respond ASAP – the district librarian is at a hearing today that
>may determine the fate of high school libraries in our district. . .
>
>
>Thank you,
>
>Debra Bohnett
>Teacher Librarian
>Cesar Chavez High School
>Stockton, CA
>(209)933-7480 ext. 8761
>




 

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