**update** somehow the wrong video got embedded. Seriously, I have no clue how that happened. Sorry! But, uh, the Batman fan film is awesome, if that's the post you saw first ;)
So, this school district suspended this kid indefinitely, just before graduation time, for posting things to his personal YouTube account...outside of school and outside of school hours. Way to be counter-productive, guys!
(Beware: curse words)
Showing posts with label funding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label funding. Show all posts
Monday, June 6, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Where in the world have I been? -or- What you can do for your library.
I wonder that too, sometimes. I was off at an interview for a very cool job (pick me! pick me!) and at a science fiction convention. Now I have returned, and it's time to talk about what you can do for your library!
Sure, I talk about what librarians can do to advocate for ourselves and our profession, but there're things you can do as well!
This post is inspired by a comment from a friend that he supports libraries but hasn't stepped into one in years.
There're tons of excuses: libraries don't have what I like to read, I can afford to buy it on Amazon and not have to worry about late fees, I haven't been inside one in so long I don't know where to start...
All easily solvable, my friends! For instance... don't know where to start? Ask a librarian. Be frank. Admit you haven't been in a library since your senior year of high school, AND your librarian was mean. Most of us are very nice, and extremely understanding of fallen-away library users. Tell the librarian what your interests are, so that he or she can direct you to the sections you'll find most useful. Wanna check out DVDs, games, and graphic novels? We can help. Most libraries have DVDs and graphic novels, and many have games available for checkout or low-cost rental. Want books about waste removal systems in antiquity? We can tell you what Dewey range will set your heart aflutter. We can show you how to use our online catalog and give tips for finding exactly what you want.
The second biggest excuse is that libraries don't have what fallen-away library users like to read. First... do you really know that for sure? Or are you basing this on the one library you walked into in 1991 that had a scifi section entirely littered with young adult fiction and TV tie-in novels? Did that comment hit too close to home? Yeah, I thought it did :)
Really check out your library. Wander the shelves. You may happen upon old favorites and new finds you didn't know existed, or forgot about ages ago. Don't see what you're looking for on the shelf? Try the catalog. It may be checked out, or on order. Really, REALLY don't see what you're looking for? I have two solutions:
1) Suggest the library purchase it. Libraries have tight budgets and may not be able to order everything patrons request, but are often very open to suggestions. Often when we do ordering, we do it based on what has checked out well in the past, and what we THINK will be a hit. Hearing directly from the patron's mouth that he or she would love to check out more George R. R. Martin books tells us EXACTLY what will check out.
2) If the library is unable to purchase the book, ask if the library participates in Inter-Library Loan. Yes, libraries borrow books from other libraries. WE LIVE IN THE FUTURE, MAN. Don't see Game of Thrones? If a library that participates in our ILL consortium does have it, we can usually borrow it at no cost to you. Some consortiums are county or state wide. Some exchange with other academic institutions, or can even borrow nation-wide. What're the odds that NO library will have the book you're looking for? Probably pretty slim.
Why bother with all of this stuff, anyways, you're asking me. You can afford these things on Amazon. The first reason is that you don't always HAVE to buy everything off of Amazon. Nor do you always have to wait. A lot of these books are sitting on the shelf in your library. We also have other stuff you may not be able to find on Amazon: periodical subscriptions, old records and newspapers, database and journal access, story time, author visits, community events, opportunities for enrichment and learning that can't be found in the pages of a book, and above all...friendship. You'll meet so many people at your library, both patrons and staff. Way more than you'll meet by clicking "checkout" on your Amazon cart.
But there's another important reason:
BY CHECKING BOOKS OUT OF A LIBRARY, YOU ARE HELPING TO SAVE THAT LIBRARY. Even if you don't need the library, your act of checking out materials is SAVING LIBRARIES for people who DO need that library, sometimes desperately.
Why?
Libraries live and die by statistics. One of the most important being usage statistics. Every book, video or Playaway audio book you check out counts as a checkout for your library. Every time you walk in the door, a record is being kept of another patron walking in the building. Every time you sign up for a card, or renew your card, you're being counted as another person in your area that USES the library. Every question you ask at a reference desk is being counted by someone. Every time you make use of the photocopier, every time you bring a child to story time. Every time you do all of these simple things, which your tax or tuition money is already paying for, you are helping that library obtain more funding for people, facilities and materials. HOLY CRAP. YOU CAN COME TO THE LIBRARY, USE OUR STUFF FOR FREE, AND ACTUALLY BE HELPING US BY DOING IT. Like I said, we live in the future, man.
So, be a friend to your library! Come in, use our bathroom, leech our wifi and check out DVDs that exist soley for the purpose of rotting your brain cells. Check out a comic book. Photocopy something. Ask us about ancient toilet design. In fact, ask us pointless questions. No, really. Ask us pointless questions--the more, the better. In fact, walk away for a few minutes, then come back and ask us another, so we can count it as two reference interviews. We like it like that, because THAT IS HOW WE ROLL.
And maybe, if you want some help with research regarding a disease you've been diagnosed with, or are looking for old newspaper articles from that time when you were in the high school musical, or just want to know about sewage treatment in antiquity because it's been bugging you for a while, ASK US. We would be thrilled and honored to help!
SAVE YOUR LIBRARY. USE THEIR STUFF.
Sure, I talk about what librarians can do to advocate for ourselves and our profession, but there're things you can do as well!
This post is inspired by a comment from a friend that he supports libraries but hasn't stepped into one in years.
There're tons of excuses: libraries don't have what I like to read, I can afford to buy it on Amazon and not have to worry about late fees, I haven't been inside one in so long I don't know where to start...
 |
| LOOK, ROMAN TOILETS! |
The second biggest excuse is that libraries don't have what fallen-away library users like to read. First... do you really know that for sure? Or are you basing this on the one library you walked into in 1991 that had a scifi section entirely littered with young adult fiction and TV tie-in novels? Did that comment hit too close to home? Yeah, I thought it did :)
Really check out your library. Wander the shelves. You may happen upon old favorites and new finds you didn't know existed, or forgot about ages ago. Don't see what you're looking for on the shelf? Try the catalog. It may be checked out, or on order. Really, REALLY don't see what you're looking for? I have two solutions:
1) Suggest the library purchase it. Libraries have tight budgets and may not be able to order everything patrons request, but are often very open to suggestions. Often when we do ordering, we do it based on what has checked out well in the past, and what we THINK will be a hit. Hearing directly from the patron's mouth that he or she would love to check out more George R. R. Martin books tells us EXACTLY what will check out.
2) If the library is unable to purchase the book, ask if the library participates in Inter-Library Loan. Yes, libraries borrow books from other libraries. WE LIVE IN THE FUTURE, MAN. Don't see Game of Thrones? If a library that participates in our ILL consortium does have it, we can usually borrow it at no cost to you. Some consortiums are county or state wide. Some exchange with other academic institutions, or can even borrow nation-wide. What're the odds that NO library will have the book you're looking for? Probably pretty slim.
Why bother with all of this stuff, anyways, you're asking me. You can afford these things on Amazon. The first reason is that you don't always HAVE to buy everything off of Amazon. Nor do you always have to wait. A lot of these books are sitting on the shelf in your library. We also have other stuff you may not be able to find on Amazon: periodical subscriptions, old records and newspapers, database and journal access, story time, author visits, community events, opportunities for enrichment and learning that can't be found in the pages of a book, and above all...friendship. You'll meet so many people at your library, both patrons and staff. Way more than you'll meet by clicking "checkout" on your Amazon cart.
But there's another important reason:
BY CHECKING BOOKS OUT OF A LIBRARY, YOU ARE HELPING TO SAVE THAT LIBRARY. Even if you don't need the library, your act of checking out materials is SAVING LIBRARIES for people who DO need that library, sometimes desperately.
Why?
Libraries live and die by statistics. One of the most important being usage statistics. Every book, video or Playaway audio book you check out counts as a checkout for your library. Every time you walk in the door, a record is being kept of another patron walking in the building. Every time you sign up for a card, or renew your card, you're being counted as another person in your area that USES the library. Every question you ask at a reference desk is being counted by someone. Every time you make use of the photocopier, every time you bring a child to story time. Every time you do all of these simple things, which your tax or tuition money is already paying for, you are helping that library obtain more funding for people, facilities and materials. HOLY CRAP. YOU CAN COME TO THE LIBRARY, USE OUR STUFF FOR FREE, AND ACTUALLY BE HELPING US BY DOING IT. Like I said, we live in the future, man.
So, be a friend to your library! Come in, use our bathroom, leech our wifi and check out DVDs that exist soley for the purpose of rotting your brain cells. Check out a comic book. Photocopy something. Ask us about ancient toilet design. In fact, ask us pointless questions. No, really. Ask us pointless questions--the more, the better. In fact, walk away for a few minutes, then come back and ask us another, so we can count it as two reference interviews. We like it like that, because THAT IS HOW WE ROLL.
And maybe, if you want some help with research regarding a disease you've been diagnosed with, or are looking for old newspaper articles from that time when you were in the high school musical, or just want to know about sewage treatment in antiquity because it's been bugging you for a while, ASK US. We would be thrilled and honored to help!
SAVE YOUR LIBRARY. USE THEIR STUFF.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
I have an awesome idea: lets cut funding for school libraries!
I mean, we're in tough times, right? There have to be cuts everywhere. And the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program gave money to under-funded schools, usually in poor and under-privileged areas, many serving minorities. Who needs those folks, right? Education isn't free, you know. And most schools derive their funding from property taxes. If you want your kid to be in a better school, with a better-stocked school library, you'll just better yourself, make more money and move to an area with higher property taxes and better schools. It's not the federal government's problem that your kid's school can't afford decent, or modern or remotely interesting books. NO ONE USES LIBRARIES ANY MORE ANYWAY, SINCE ALL INFORMATION IS NOW ON THE INTERNET. Also, we do not care if these are schools that can't afford computers for every student, or a descent internet connection. Make more money and move to a better area. THIS IS A MERITOCRACY, AFTER ALL.
Ok, back to reality. I truly do believe in giving kids the joy of discovery and the thirst for knowledge that will carry them through the requirements of an assignment into true enrichment and learning. School gave me the building blocks, skills and general background I needed to learn, but libraries gave me the fire to keep learning outside of the classroom. I believe every kid deserves to go to school in a district that meets certain minimum standards for education and learning, so that they have the ability, if they're wise enough to utilize it, to grow into productive members of society.
I believe that is the purpose of both parenting, and education: to release into the world young adults capable of taking care of themselves. This, for me, includes being educated enough to get along in the world, and turning students into independent researchers. Who cares about independent researchers? Most adults aren't going to write academic papers for peer-reviewed journals.
But there're problems in every-day life that can be met by being a life-long learner with the ability to research. Are you looking for support for a health condition? Are you simply looking for information to see if your symptoms are something you can try home remedies for first (such as dry skin), or if you should get to a doctor's office ASAP? Have you or a loved-one been diagnosed with an illness that your doctor was unable to provide sufficient information about? Knowing where to look for credible information can help you find the correct questions to be asking your doctor, the correct procedure for taking care of yourself or your loved one, or even which specialists are the best for your condition.
Got a home project that you vaguely remember helping dad with as a kid, seemed simple enough, and you don't have the money to pay someone to do? The Internet gave me instructions for removing the trap from my kitchen sink without damaging the rest of the piping. Heck, sometimes I need a refresher video for changing out the weirdly-designed windshield wiper blades for my car.
Knowing which books to go to for help (car manual, 2006, in my case--which my library carries), and how to tell how credible information is on the internet, and where to FIND the credible information are invaluable skills, since sometimes relying on the experience of friends and family isn't always enough.
Ok, how did we get from federal funding for school libraries to the fact that I have trouble changing my windshield wiper blades in just a few paragraphs?
Because a well-funded and well-stocked school library is one of the ways we combat America continuing to slip in competitiveness in the world arena. It's a way to help students learn how to fend for themselves in an age where we don't suffer from too little information, but not enough curated, verified information. It's a way to get a kid excited about independent learning. It's not enough to tell a kid that the answers are out there, and its their responsibility to find them, if we don't give them the answers close-at-hand during those early formative years.
They may not get computer time at home. If they're from a disadvantaged area, they may not have a computer, or computer access. So Google isn't always at the fingertips of the students we're cutting this essential funding from. They may not have a local public library that is accessible to a kid without transportation. These are what make the school library so beautiful--those resources are in the same building where kids spend most of their day. But an ill-stocked library without Internet access, and access to credible databases tells a kid that the answers are out there, but library doesn't have them for you. It tells kids that the library is a place where old books go to die and librarians are irrelevant faculty members holding on to a bygone era, instead of the information professionals that can help you become an independent learner.
We may tell kids explicitly over and over that learning and education are important, but ill-funded libraries (and schools) tell kids implicitly, through subtle or not-so-subtle snubbing that libraries, books, reading, independent learning and information independence are all unimportant.
I think the government wants education to improve. But I think they're going about it wrong in many ways. Defunding vulnerable libraries is not going to help ANYONE. It may balance a line in a budget this year, but usually once a program goes away for monitory reasons, it seldom comes back when times are better. That is another thing I worry about: all the the things we're stopping now, due to our current financial troubles, and the long-term impact it's going to have on our workforce, and socially, and on our tax revenues in the future.
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