School Libraries That Welcome Students – and Those That Don’t

From the Marshall Memo #437

“What is it that makes one school library the heart of its learning community and another merely peripheral to the workings of the building?” asks New York City school library coordinator Olga Nesi in this Knowledge Quest article. “…What is the magic ingredient that can turn a library from a room where books are housed to the destination of choice in the school? Care.” Here are the ways Nesi has seen some libraries not demonstrating care toward students:

• Expecting them to be fully mature before it is humanly possible to be so;
• Acting like we have never in our lives returned a book late or lost one;
• Expecting children to do as we say, not as we do;
• Being dismissive of or indifferent to their concerns (verbally or in demeanor);
• Not really wanting children in the school library lest they undo our hard work by being children.
• Being impatient, short-tempered, and brusque;
• Building collections of books we feel they should want to read;
• Not being reflective enough about our work to admit when it has fallen short of success;
• Being reductive in our thinking and thereby perpetuating the falsity that inquiry is linear and lockstep, and easily taught and learned;
• Keeping them dependent on us by over-managing their learning and reading;
• Viewing readers’ advisory as an opportunity to pass judgment on a child’s personal reading preferences;
• Thinking we are teaching responsibility by being martinets.

“The Transformative Power of Care” by Olga Nesi in Knowledge Quest, May/June 2012 (Vol. 40, #5, p. 8-15), http://www.ala.org/aasl; Nesi is at onesi@schools.nyc.gov.