Here we go again - libraries and budget challenges

For over 40 years, I fought and helped others fight a persistant battle - strong library programs vs district budget cuts. Due to COVID related challenges, this year seems especially dire for many school districts - and school libraries - as evidenced by both newspaper articles and personal emails to me from concerned librarians.

One of the reasons I took a job in 1984 with the ARAMCO schools in Saudi Arabia was that the small rural district in which I was  junior-shigh librarian was reducing its secondary library staff - due to a budget shortfall. West Branch (IA) was going from a full time high school librarian and half time junior high librarian to a single librarian who would be responsible for both buildings - despite having built a brand new school and state-of-the-art school library the prior year. A year after taking the job in Saudi, the library supervisor position for the schools was cut. The camp in which I was serving as the school librarian closed the following year, so the school and its library was being moth balled as well. And jobs were tight when I came back to the U.S. in 1989. I was beginning to think I may be a library jinx!

For the 23 years I supervised the libraries in the Mankato Schools, rarely a year went by without having to defend library budgets. Happily, the program grew throughout my tenure there - but it was always a conscious effort and librarians added to their plate of responsibilities each year. Especially in the area of technology integration and teach PD for teachers. In my 5 years with Burnsville, I did not have much success in rebuilding the elementary library program which was already run by paras. I did manage to get a district-wide materials budget and a professional library supervisor in place, creating more district-wide equity of access to all students in the distrct. But again, each year I was part of a process that looked at budget cutting and library programming was always on the table.

Over the years, I tried to share strategies that seemed to help me not just protect, but grow, school library programs. In general, these included 1) having a voice in the decsion-making process by serving on committees, 2) building voices of advocacy from parents and teachers, 3) understanding the district's budgeting processes, and 4) actually having a clearly described  budget and program to support. I have no clue if any of this advice helped a single program.

In retirement, I have purposely stepped away from offering my "wisdom" to others in my profession, expecting that younger, smarter, more energetic, and more effective library advocates will step forward to guide the profession. That they will be able to accomplish something I never could - find a fool-proof method for protecting students from library budget cuts. 

I look forward to seeing their efforts and genuinely wish them success.

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For what it's worth, a few selected articles and columns from ancient history on the topic. All my writings can be found on my website..

 Articles

• Budgeting for Lean Mean Times, MultiMedia Schools Nov/Dec 1995
• Minnesota Can’t Afford to Skimp on School Libraries Minneapolis Star-Tribune, April 7 1994
• Politics of Money for the School Library Media Professional Minnesota Media, Fall 1994
• Results of a Survey on Library Media Professional Staffing Cuts. np. September 2002
• Shy Person’s Guide to Lobbying, Minnesota Media, 2007
• Using Planning and Reporting to Build Program Support The Book Report, May 1992
• When Your Job is on the Line [MEMO’s Strategies for Assisting Library Media Specialists Whose Positions are in Jeopardy] Minnesota Media, 2004 and Library Media Connection, Feb 2005

Head for the Edge columns

• Rules of Advocacy, March/April 2012
• The Power of Parents, November 2006
• Whose Voices Are Most Powerful? November/December 2004
• No Principal Left Behind, March 2003 
• Advisory Advice, October 1997

Comments

[AMY SIEVE]

Thanks for writing this, Doug. Perhaps with the state's newly found surplus our schools' programs might be spared. But, to illustrate the trend (even under the supervision of "media ally", Matt Hillmann) we build one new elementary school this year and did a complete remodel of another. The new school's Media Center is 1/4 the size of our Middle School (you may remember the beauty and brightness of the middle school Media Center) and the remodeled school, with a brand new Media Center is just as small.

Our annual budgets are 3,000.00.

Clearly, the trend is away from Media "Centers". I remember the late, great, Fran McDonald referring to the Media Center as the "Hub of the School". That doesn't seem to have been the mantra when the powers that be designed and build these new spaces.

Thanks for your reply to me, also!

Amy