Hi Dun,

It's not that they WANT to lock the library up, it's that the staff positions have been cut so deeply that there isn't anyone available to keep it open.

I did learn from my AP today that they are arranging the schedule so that my library aide won't have lunch duty during either elementary or secondary lunch. That way the kids can get into both libraries for at least 20 minutes a day. Also, the elementary grades will be able to visit the library for one 30 minute block of time each week to do whatever it is they need to do, but there will be no one teaching them information seeking and evaluation skills.

I guess it's something.

I can't believe that the doors to the Libary are actually locked,what's next,book burning.I had too clean my attic out and move out all my books,boxes of them ,charity shop actually told me enough was enough,but to actually throw them out ,never.My heart goes out to you,libaries are magical places and libarians are too.

Thank you for your kind words, BlueEyedBrigadier

"Huh...not in my neck of the woods. Majority of the reference materials in my high school's library seemed like leftovers from a book fair or a elementary school's cast-offs. And the fiction section was insanely skimpy on anything more recent than 5 years previously."

Then I am terribly sorry for your high school that it doesn't have a librarian who is a professional.

I inherited my three school libraries after they hadn't had a professionally trained librarian for five years – they are all rural schools. The collections at all three schools were dated, tatty, unappealing, and disorganized. The first thing I did was to go through it and throw all the old crap out. Well, in all honesty, only half of the crap out because there isn’t enough money to replace them. Since then, I've worked really hard to beg, borrow or buy new materials.

You are right - if a library collection looks like crap, kids aren't going to use it. Middle and high school kids, especially, need relevant materials to get them to read. The manga and graphic novels I’ve brought in are very, very popular with my students now. So is all of the new Young Adult fiction.

On the other hand, the work I've put into my libraries has paid off: the kids have increased circulation be 75% so far this year, and in the next month they will go over 100% mark. They now know what databases are and why they are better sources of information than Googlepedia.

Of course, next year the libraries will be locked and "by appointment only", so all of the forward momentum I’ve made with the kids will crash to a stop.

Apparently, the only reading the kids need to do in the state of Nevada anymore is to read the test.

"Locking up the library, kids will have to use their city or county library system, which may be out of the way for them. The school library is one of the few places subversive kids can get information contrary to what they're being taught."


Huh...not in my neck of the woods. Majority of the reference materials in my high school's library seemed like leftovers from a book fair or a elementary school's cast-offs. And the fiction section was insanely skimpy on anything more recent than 5 years previously.

Still, I am terribly sorry for the job loss. I know what it feels like to lose one's job due to apparent cutbacks in an organziation where the money is there but not being passed around to the people who would need it most.

Locking up the library, kids will have to use their city or county library system, which may be out of the way for them. The school library is one of the few places subversive kids can get information contrary to what they're being taught.

If there's one thing to spend money on it's schools and infrastructure. I may not agree with how schools operate, the forced conformity to mainstream views, the pecking order nonsense, unflexible hours, and how the kids are treated/ treat each other, but education in whatever form it's available is always important.