In New Zealand, “Library Book Cuts Hit Schools Hard”

From the Stuff.co.nz/Sunday Star:

Student access  to specialist non-fiction National Library books will be cut from July.
Shocked teachers say they weren’t consulted about the move, expected to hit rural and technology-poor schools hardest.
Last year, 16,000 teachers made 40,000 requests for almost a million hard-copy items via the National Library’s curriculum topic support service.
That service is being dumped from term three, in favour of directing students to “curated online resources”..
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Geraldine Howell, National Library’s director of Literacy, Learning and Public programmes, told the Star-Timesstudents were increasingly looking online for resources.
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Howell said the 16,000 who accessed the service last year represented only one-third of teaching staff. Another prong of the new National Library strategy would give all schools access to “reading engagement” packages of up to 450 fiction and non-fiction books.
Michelle Simms, library manager at Hamilton’s Te Totara Primary School, said these “reading for pleasure” loans would require extra administration, and “if a book is really good, all schools would want it. Would National Library buy thousands of copies?”

Read Complete Article
Direct to Full Text of Open Letter From School Library Association of New Zealand (Mentioned in Full Text Article)
Direct to National Library Services To Schools Transformation Programme – Questions And Answers (via National Library Of New Zealand)

Filed under: Libraries, National Libraries, Resources, School Libraries