New York City: “Number of Libraries Dwindle in N.Y.C. Schools”
From Education Week:
The number of school libraries in the city has plummeted—from nearly 1,500 in 2005 to fewer than 700 in 2014; the biggest drops have come in the past three years, according to the New York state education department. The libraries that do exist are so severely understaffed that the state education department in 2013 ordered the city to hire more librarians.
“[The city] department of education is failing our students when it comes to library services,” said Robert Jackson, the chairman of the City Council’s education committee at the time. “It is totally unacceptable.”
More than a year and a half later, the school district still doesn’t have a plan to reverse the trend, said Richard L. Hasenyager, its director of library services.
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Another challenge is measuring and defining the problem. New York City school officials, for example, didn’t collect information on how many libraries or librarians there were in the district before 2012, the city said in a response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Read the Complete Article (Approx. 1500 Words)
See Also: District of Columbia: “Unequal Shelves in D.C. School Libraries Benefit Wealthier Students” (March 9, 2015)
See Also: District of Columbia: “Charter Schools Less Likely to Have Libraries” (via Washington Post, March 10, 2015)
Filed under: Libraries, School Libraries
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.