A Long Look in the Mirror

A Long Look in the Mirror by Jennifer LaGarde.

            Jennifer LaGarde says that with all the budget cuts happening, programs that can’t show specific results , a lot of times get cut. The bottom line is that school districts will cut librarian positions because they don’t see the need for librarians. Volunteers and library aides can check out books and shelve, so why does a school need a librarian? They want to know how librarians affect things like reading scores, or raising reading levels or helping students who don’t have computers at home learn to use today’s technology. Librarians today are being asked to prove that they matter. We need to be the solution to their problems or they won’t support us. How to quantify the impact of librarians on student learning seems to be the sixty-four thousand dollar question.

            It’s time for librarians to become advocates, not only for their jobs but for libraries in general. No one else will do it.

            All the bloggers said that they agreed, but no one seemed to know how to quantify the impact of librarians on student learning. One blogger asked LaGarde what assessment tools she was using to quantify her impact.

            Personally, I don’t think much will change unless we adopt a model of librarianship much like the one Buffy Hamilton outlined in her blog article, “It’s Broken; Let’s Fix It.”

Citation:

“It’s Broken; Let’s Fix It: The Traditional Model of School Librarianship.” The Unquiet Librarian 27 Apr. 2011. Web. 27 May 2011. <http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/its-broken-lets-fix-it-the-traditional-model-of-school-librarianship/>.

LaGarde, Jennifer. “A Long Look In The Mirror.” The Adventures of Library Girl 8 Nov. 2010. Web. 27 May 2011. <http://lib-girl.blogspot.com/2010/11/long-look-in-mirror.html>.