Are school libraries a thing of the past?

Decline in available space and book circulation leads to ideas of changing library’s focus

Are school libraries a thing of the past?

How many times have you gone to the library without going in for class? As of now, the library is not as occupied as it used to be. In recent years, along with changes in the librarian position, there has been a decrease in the number of books checked out per school year.
Asking the only certified librarian, Blaire Lasko, in this school if the library always been this abandoned, she said, “No, absolutely not. This is my tenth year at Freedom and when I started here, there was a full-time librarian who was there all the time and a library aid that was there all the time, so we had two full-time people working in the library.”
Since having a full-time librarian in the library in 2010, there has been a significant decrease in books checked out of the library. In the 2010-2011 school year, there was approximately 3,200 books checked out over the course of the year ranging from fiction to reference. In the next school year, there was a change in librarians as well as a major decrease in checkouts,with 1,695 books being checked out. The library was only open during red days during third block. The budget also decreased to around $2,000 a year compared to the $4,000-$6,000 budget from the 2011-2012 school year.
In the 2012-2013 school year, there was a total amount of $0 in the library budget. The book circulation also decreased in this school year; it went from 1,695 books checked in the 2011-2012 school year to 1,371 books checked out in the 2012-2013 school year. When William Deal became the principal of FHS, he now has a total of $4,000 dollars in the budget in recent years. Currently, $2,000 dollars go to maintenance and supplies and the other $2,000 go to new books and, as of Nov. 9, 2016, a total of 196 books were checked out of the library during the 2016-2017 school year.
The last librarian that the high school had was Lasko. The library has had a variety of librarians, as the school is unsure how to handle the lack of support. When Sara Heiman was transferred to the middle school after working as the high school librarian for the 2011-2012 school year, Lasko took over the library until the end of this past school year, when she went on maternity leave. Lasko is not covering the library this year because of her full schedule. At the moment, there is no librarian. Aaron Fitzpatrick, a high school English teacher, covers the library once every other day with the assistance of senior Lauran Wylie.
Asking Fitzpatrick how he came to obtain the position to take over the library, his response was, “When I got my schedule for the school year, it was based on the ability of the courses that I teach and wherever the blocks that I taught fell.”
The other teacher that uses the library as frequently is Dr. Brian Wargo. Asking Wargo what his involvement with the library is, he commented, “All the students from my physics courses have to read a science books throughout the year.” Wargo believes that the library is fading away because of the access of phones. “The reason why I force my students to read a textbook like this is to slow down because, when you use these little devices, it tends to shorten your attention span. Have one long line that you can’t skim through increases their attention span.”
After the loss of the librarian position and a full-time faculty member to manage the space, administration has been making the library into more of a technology center for students to go when they want to study and to do homework. There are now computers in the library for the CAD and Secondary Computer Application courses. With this idea in mind, the purpose of the library space may change in the future.
Asking Deal about the future for the library, he answered, “I would like to see that become a little bit more of a technology hub and center. We took that move this year by moving the

CAD Lab in there, so I’d like to see it a little more of a usable study space for other classes.”
“I’d like to believe that there is still hope and there is still uses of the books that we have. Even though it is the way of the future, there is definitely still value in reading,” Fitzpatrick said.
With the decline of books being checked out, possible plans for the library space to become a technology center and changes in librarians and faculty members watching the space, what does the future hold for the FHS library?