I am curious--what do the rest of you think about the WCBOE want more $ every year and hire more and more fluff positions, but we have not funded the libraries???
How are you supposed to have a WORLD CLASS education system if we cannot even provide the basic tools??

Is there really a need for libraries when you have Borders and the internet? Seriously, I don't know, but I sure wish the internet was available when I was in school and college. Well, technically, it was available, but useless as a viable research tool.

The internet is a means of communication and a quick resource for information. Information is a type of knowledge, but it generally does not confer understanding of concepts the same way studying in a library usually does. Also, books are a lot more portable than computers.

The internet is a lot more than just a means of communication and a quick resource. I have been on the web since 1994 and I would be willing to bet that I could find more up-to-date information on the web on almost any topic than I could in any library, and I could find it faster. How does a library help one understand concepts better than reading information on the web? Not sure I understand that.

Also, I would rather carry around my laptop than a armful of books. I DO remember lugging around a backpack full of books.

Conventional libraries as resources for information have been surpassed by technology and are outdated.

Anyone can post anything on the internet. Some of the info you get is credible, some isn't. No one is checking, most of the time. When a book is published, source material for any information in the book must be listed before a copyright can be obtained, and one can also check the author's authority on the subject matter. And suppose you carry your laptop to a place you cannot get a signal, and can't use it anyway? You don't need a signal to read a book........all you need is an IQ of room temperature or higher! Yeah...........I guess I'm a little old fashioned!

Yeah, but you just need to know where to look for information, that's all. I have so many bookmarks from over the years that I have to break them down into finite categories. It's mind-boggling how much information is out there.

Oh, and if you can't get a wireless signal on your laptop, you can just use your cell phone to get online.

Try as I might, I just can't get that "book smell" from my computer.

There's something wonderful about sitting in a quiet library, reading an old, dusty book.

My 16-year old son and I actually use the library for out "mom/son date" days, he and I both have a deep and abiding love of BOOKS. Pleasure-reading from a screen just doesn't get it.

I use my cell phone all the time to get online. It still is not the same thing as doing research for a term paper.

I would hope they're spending a healthy portion of our kids' library time teaching them how to weed through the information on the internet and figure out which sources are the most reputable, as well as proper online lit search skills.

IRL people rarely spend time looking at actual books anymore, except for entertainment. I am an avid reader of hard copy books for entertainment, but at work I spend hour upon hour doing research on the various tools at the National Library of Medicine's website and others. Even many of the reference books I use are now available and searchable online and in many ways more convenient in that format.

Do not know much about the school libraries. My kids did not complain. They got the usual research curriculum and orientation to reputable resources. It was not the only research arena they had. Many kids started out thinking Wikapedia was an actual source to footnote. But the media specialist (Librarian) straightened them out.

Downtown:
The Wash Co library offered my children free opportunities for Book/Discussion Clubs, Film/Anime Clubs (which included overnight lock ins and seasonal activities), and the Teen Room where they would meet to for activities, book discussions, or other programs that inspired actual READING. The youth outreach librarian was super. An unsung hero.

I often stayed downstairs and read so my teens would not have to wait for a ride. I did not want them at the library before or after the activity without supervision. It used to get dicey at the main library. It is much better. The security guard has increased his hours and patrols the restrooms which resolved one problem. Home-challenge individuals would use the rest rooms to give themselves sponge baths and change their clothes. It was not kid friendly. Like I said, much better now.

Anyway, I have lived in many places, some areas of the countries get block grants or arts grants and combine libraries with cultural arts. I recall one having a small theater w/ a small art gallery. One had community rooms for rental use or community focused activities. During an election year there were numerous speakers. So, the library had ways to bring in a little extra cash, while looking busy in a creative &/or informative way. I guess those funding sources are gone or outdated. Times have changed, it is a hard world. Out West (the cities where I lived) libraries were an intricate part and pulse of community life. There was SO MUCH going on.

Sure if you let libraries ROT, Borders does look better. Around the country there are many versions of libraries. Nothing like a library to motivate READING. And a great way to meet other kids who also like to read & use their imagination. We utilized the public libraries, Borders, Barnes Nobel & Wonder Books. Of course, Amazon has anything in a pinch. We use whatever works for that assignment.

My kids are pursuing careers in the Arts and IT. So the library did not hurt them technologically. Maybe there was a good balance.??? Whose to say. I will let you know in a few years.....I do not consider a media specialist/librarian a FLUFF position.

What do you mean by "fluff"? With Rockland Woods opening in the fall and the expansion of Maugansville Elementary, most of the new money requested by the BOE is going for staff at those two schools. Have you ever read the Master Plan or the detailed BOE budget?

Chief--I was referring to the 'staff' positions which keep being created by the WCBOE..those are 'fluff'.

I appreciate most of your posts Texas, I enjoy your insights. But I do not consider a librarian/media specialist(School term for librarian) fluff. We can agree to disagree on that one point. Its all good.

Y'all do not finish the sentence. I believe in FUNDING THE LIBRARIES, NOT ADDING more admin. positions on the WCBOE office & so forth..Teachers are needed. more staff positions which are created at the board level are not...have you looked at the # of employees in the WCBOE lately? Since Morganna took over, it has increased exponentially every year...

I can't talk about any other school library other than the one my daughter goes to...

Old Forge Elementary School has a fantastic library system and one of the best Library Staff/Media Specialists/Teachers I have ever met...
She goes out of her way to teach the kids about using the library, about books in general and also the use of the other media available for their use..
On top of all that she finds time to publish a separate school website for Old Forge.

They instituted a Reading Counts program where the kids read books, take a computer quiz on the book and earn points (points are based on the difficulty level of the books)...
If they reach a certain point level they get prizes. Nothing fantastic, but it is an incentive... and it works...

I don't know if they have the number of books that the Maryland Dept of Education says they should have, but my daughter never has a problem finding a book that she wants to read and she is in 4th grade and has a 9-10 grade reading level and finds books that are interesting to her...

They are definitely doing something right at Old Forge...

sirius, I meant using your cell phone's connection... not actually researching on your phone. You can have your laptop use your cell phone's data plan to access the web, I've had to do it before in remote areas. You just have a special cord that goes from your phone into a USB slot on your laptop. Anyway, that's beside the point.

I don't think libraries are a bad thing, I just think that they've done a very poor job at embracing technology; I'm sure that the main cause of this is dollars and cents.

Griz, is the media specialist (I know they hate being called librarians) still Mrs. Bacon? She was there when I went to Old Forge.

I also don't think that school libraries need more money. There are plenty of computer labs. Students hardly ever use books for research. 4 years ago we did, now when I went to observe high school, the English teacher was showing her class how to look for credible sources on the internet. Even four years ago the reference books were outdated, and those are the most expensive type of books for a library to buy. If you are talking about funding those, I don't agree. We don't need more reference books, it can all be found on the internet. If we want to force students to use credible source we can fund a subscription to a article database or something, not buy expensive reference books. There are certainly enough literature/reading for fun books in the library, so I think everything is good.

Also, whoever said they need to hire more teachers...they WANT to, good luck finding them though, especially math ones If they would make the college programs nicer, or pay teachers more...but I don't want to get into that.

Media specialists are helpful to fix the copy machines and show you how to use that really expensive projector that is in every classroom. I think someone mentioned the technology aspect. Did you know there is a document camera and a projector in every room in our high schools? A document camera, in case you didn't know is a device that shows a sheet of paper, or anything (its a camera) on the big nice projector screen. So now students can bring up their work and it's nice and big for everyone to see, and teachers don't have to make transparencies, they can just use regular notebook paper. Don't know where I was going with all that, but there it is.

Thanks, that helped alot. I did not understand that the #s are different than years ago due to the transfer of media.

Yes it is... she is fantastic.... could not ask for someone better to lead our kids in that area...

Wow, she's been there a long time them. I was there in the 80s.