Something's Gotta Give

Okay, so now the school has a half-time librarian: me. At first glance this seems like a major advancement to the school program and for the cause of literacy. But as I have come to discover, this may not be so easy.

First of all, I was surprized to find, when taken on a tour of the room by a librarian from two years previous, dozens of new books that never made it out onto the shelf. Purchased but never catalogued. Hardcover books needing dust covers which were never completed. Cupboards full of obsolete equipment and supplies.

And, as the first few days of classes unfold, I'm learning that just being in the library with kids doesn't guarantee anything. The opportunity to develop meaningful programming will be especially challenging, given the restrictions in the timetable placed before me!

Here's what I'm figuring:

The library is NOT open to all the students half the time. The library is open to one class at a time, three (sometimes four) periods a day. So, 75 kids get to go to the library each day, and the other 400 kids in the school don't.

Second, the library doesn't support the middle school program in any significant way. There are only a couple of middle school classes scheduled for "teacher/library" during the week. But not all MS classes are scheduled.

During the morning when I'm not in the library and teaching music at the other end of the school, teachers can't send groups of kids to use the library. They would have to bring their whole class. (After all, kids can't be in there unsupervised.) And, I wouldn't be there so the teachers would be on their own to circulate materials, etc. which in the past couple of years has meant: Nevermind, we won't bother. This means that the library can be of no use to any of the morning classes for enriching or supporting their program by pulling out groups of kids- e.g. reading groups. I've got a grade six "literacy" stream 6 periods out of 10 days, so even though I'm in the library, I'm preoccupied with this entire class.

Somehow the scheduling ought to be improved. As it stands, I'm locked into providing contractual release time for other teachers, which means I take their whole class. I don't get to have the liberty to receive smaller focus groups. Yet, this is where the EDUCATIONAL BENEFIT of the library kicks in.

Let's admit it. We have a half time- release time provider who is based in the library and who, in his after-school time and with a few volunteers, will do his best to manage and maintain the resource centre. But we do not YET have an available teacher-librarian who can provide enrichment and focused reading and research activities. We're getting there, but something's gotta give.