An elementary library can be an exciting place to be!  And the librarians working there have the opportunity to help instill the love of reading into young minds, collaborate with teachers, teach lessons, read books aloud, and help students find the perfect book for that week.  But what happens when you are in charge of three elementary school libraries?  The duties drastically change and students’ library time looks very different.

One elementary librarian I had the chance to observe is in my former Ohio school district.  This district is one that I thought does everything right and cares so much about students … has three elementary schools and one elementary librarian.  One.  For three schools.  It didn’t used to be like this, but here we are with budget cuts affecting school libraries.

What I saw was an overworked, stressed out, fully endorsed and experienced school librarian who is not really a librarian in this district.  She is basically a manager of volunteers and splits her 5-day week amongst three schools.  One day here, one day there, and the other three days are half-and-half days.  She is new this year so she does not know any students by name, and hardly knows the teachers.

She desperately wants to do the things she used to be able to do in another district but there just is not time.  She acquires volunteers, trains them, arranges a monthly schedule for each school library, and then travels among the three schools sometimes able to read a story to the kids, but mostly spends her 30-minute time with each class helping them find their two books to check out.  While in the library I observed the two volunteers shelving, straightening, helping the kids find books, and checking out those books at the circulation desk.  She showed me how she makes the schedules at each school and what happens when volunteers do not show up or call off. 

The volunteers run the libraries every day for free.  It breaks my heart that my beloved school district seems to be on the verge of not having an elementary librarian at all and just utilizing parent/grandparent volunteers.  The kids are really missing out on what a school library experience can be.  The kids and teachers are missing out on great collaborative lessons and activities.  The librarian feels like she could be doing so much more but is trying to keep the libraries open all day and staffed by volunteers.

Next week I go to a different elementary library where I live – it will be interesting to see the differences in the kids’ and teachers’ experiences there since it is fully librarian – led.