Advocacy

I found a new blog from SLJ written by Sara Kelly Johns, librarian at Lake Placid Middle/High Schools.  Her post was about advocacy for the library in schools.  She starts by talking about an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about fewer schools having trained librarians.  I know California is having budget issues but the state is making a huge mistake replacing librarians with aides in schools. According to the article "California has 6,000,000 students, 9,000 schools, and 895 credentialed librarians in the 2010/2011 school year".  That works out to be 6703 students per librarian in the state. And I thought I had a lot to keep up with!

Her article goes on to talk about the importance of advocacy.  She says, "Everyone working in a school library needs to step back, reflect on what your program and you do for your students, how that relates to the needs of your school, and make a plan…a promotion and marketing plan.  It’s our job to market and promote our program, no one else’s."   Words to remember!  And she gives some links to some of the tools available to us from ALA to help make the job easier.

Texas isn't as bad as California yet......and that's the key point. YET.  We are easily headed that way and  we need to be advocating now.  I know it's hard....this year I've lost staff and gained responsibilities so I know what lack of time means. And this article was the perfect reminder of what my priorities should be.
 
Thanks Sara for the great post and I look forward to reading more in the future!