Public Testimony Submitted for Spring 2000 Hearings by the Regents Commission on Library Services
Brentwood Public Library, April 13, 2000
Rochester Public Library, April 7, 2000 Additional Comments submitted to the Commission |
Herbert Biblo, Director, Long Island Library Resources Council, Stony Brook
I am sure that the purpose of these hearings is to help the Commission in the preparation of its final report, and it is in that spirit that I offer my comments.
While the six recommendations appear to be items one could hardly fault, closer examination shows a lack of specificity and a complete disregard of an important segment of the library community.
While we are cheered by the request for some legislative funding for NOVEL, the request was only for a sum to purchase electronic resources. It did not deal with the infrastructure necessary for shared catalogs, access to digitized collections, or high-speed connectivity.
I am familiar with the "foot in the door" theory. More often than not, it ends up with only the foot in the door. I am in the process of compiling data on those states that have developed true virtual library networks, many of which are less affluent than New York, and I will forward the information to you as I receive it.
The almost complete absence of academic and special libraries in your document reflects -- ignorance is too harsh a word, perhaps indifference is more suitable -- to the total library community. The contributions of New York's academic libraries, large and small alike, would be prized elsewhere. Your view of the future neglects them shamefully. It ignores the interests of 999, 428 students enrolled in New York's colleges (1998 NYSED statistics). It excludes from future planning the important special libraries, both not-for profit and corporate. It excludes libraries such as Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the world renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, home of genome research. It excludes our hospital libraries, our largest already shut out of one of the statewide database subscriptions -- for reasons unknown.
Also let me mention corporate special libraries. New York State spends many millions of dollars -- many -- to attract and keep industry in our state. Millions are spend to support incubator companies -- yet efforts are constantly made to exclude their libraries. This is not wise.
Many of my colleagues will be here to laud your efforts -- and so do I. What I am suggesting is that you need to review your efforts to create a document which is inclusive of all types of libraries and also to be more aggressive in building a New York State virtual library.
Clare Cohn, New York Institute of Technology, Wisser Memorial Library, Old Westbury
I would like to thank you for this opportunity to speak today. I intend to speak briefly on two issues. One is from the perspective of a professional librarian from a private academic institution and the second is that of a resident of a community without a library in its school district.
Where are the plans for academic libraries in the six-steps? The report as stated does not detail any plans to include academic libraries, except to marginally include them when citing the various types of libraries that exist. Academic libraries do not only support their own students, staff and faculty but they often also include service to the communities around them, who may otherwise have no access to these materials. Even the most private of academic institutions will usually allow a researcher onsite. access to their collections. Furthermore, agreements such as the Research Loan Program (RLP) allow onsite access to any university library collection for any member patron from any public library on Long Island. Academic libraries, whether state-funded or private do serve the public.
In these times of electronic information transfer, aid to academic libraries becomes more and more critical. Information literacy is becoming an integral part of an undergraduate education. Academic librarians have long tried to impart these skills to their students with little support from their faculty or the parent institution. It is now time for all levels of education to be involved in this. Too often students are arriving in college without these skills. Whether or not information literacy is begun in K- 12, it is still the responsibility of the academic library and ultimately its parent institution to ensure that these skills continue to be developed and fine-tuned to insure lifelong learning by the time a student graduates. It is therefore critical that the Regents' Commission include a plan which benefits academic libraries in creating programs which champion the critical thinking skills gained through information literacy.
Will academic libraries have adequate staff trained in information technology to deliver these technologies to students? Will all academic libraries have a building wired with an infrastructure to provide information technologies to all their students? There are many skilled technicians out there but they are going into the private sector rather than into the lower paying educational fields. Likewise academic libraries are in need of building renovation and modernization aide as much as public and school libraries are, perhaps even more so in order that they represent the model library to the public sector. Both urban and rural academic libraries also have a need to be upgraded to accommodate their diverse populations which more and more frequently are coming from the far corners of the globe.
Academic libraries are responsible for preserving their special collections but there is very little continuing education or training available for library staff from any type of library. Continuing education courses, focusing both on handling and preservation of the physical material as well as digitization, should be available to the staff of all types of libraries.
As a resident of the Elwood School District in Huntington, I am deeply concerned that the first library vote held last year to participate in the libraries of surrounding school districts passed by a narrow margin. This year, if the vote doesn't pass, where will I bring my child to borrow books? Where will I be able to go to get the popular materials that I don't have access to in my own academic library's collection? I couldn't pay for it if I wanted to. How is NY State going to GUARANTEE year after year after year that I will be able to have library services for myself, my family and my neighbors? Will I be able to have an electronic library card that you speak of in recommendation #1? And why should the formation of a public library district be voluntary? In the case of my library-less district, it should be mandated. No school child, no working adult and no retired or unemployed citizen should be without library services. I can't place the future of my family's information literacy into the hands of my neighbors who may think that libraries are not significant, and who would not vote for sufficient funding for this purpose.
Dr. Gerri Flanzraich, Wisser Library, New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury
Ladies and gentlemen, I am Dr. Gerri Flanzraich, Branch Librarian at the New York Institute of Technology and Coordinator of the Medical Library Services at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. I am speaking to you as both an academic and a health sciences librarian. I am concerned that there is very little mention of either in the preliminary statewide policy recommendations. Both types of institutions need state support.
Academic and special libraries are coping with the same issues that confront school and public libraries. All libraries are facing the challenge of integrating vast amounts of information in electronic formats and guiding users through this maze of resources. The needs of academic and special libraries also need to be addressed in any statewide policy for libraries.
The draft statement focuses on the role of school and public libraries in providing information literacy skills. Training in information literacy skills does not stop when one graduates high school. At the present time, universities are finding that many students are entering college without these skills. At least for the present, and probably for many years to come, academic institutions need state support to implement information literacy programs.
Health sciences, libraries also play a role in information literacy. We have all witnessed a rise in the demand for health care information and the need for consumers to become better informed about their health status and care. Medical libraries play a critical role in New York in not only making this information available but in training people how to select the best sources, extract relevant information, and evaluate the information. We are all aware of the possible dangers of inaccurate health information via the Internet. Medical librarians, frequently working one-on-one with patrons, provide essential training in using specialized resources and in giving consumers important skills to evaluate these resources. The draft report needs to address health care consumer information needs and the vital role medical libraries play in addressing these needs.
There are two areas in which the state can be especially helpful to academic and special libraries. One is for the state to provide leadership in reducing or supplementing the costs of access to commercial databases. The second is to increase support for resource sharing and interlibrary loans.
The state has begun to address the first objective by providing statewide access to the Health Reference Center and to Dialog@CARL. I applaud these efforts and encourage plans to continue this program and to work with the 3Rs councils, consortia, and other statewide organizations to continue efforts to bring down the costs of making commercial databases available on a statewide basis to all libraries. However, it is very discouraging to note that the state excluded large medical libraries in the contract with Dialog. On Long Island this has meant the exclusion of North Shore University Hospital
and SUNY Stony Brook from accessing Dialog@CARL. This is not acceptable. The state can play a major role in negotiating better contracts on a statewide basis, either on its own or through consortia, than individual libraries can negotiate. These efforts must be on the behalf of all types of libraries.
New York State has an excellent program that subsidizes the costs of interlibrary loans for health sciences libraries. I would encourage the state to expand this program to include other types of libraries. No one library can afford to collect all the resources needed to respond to patrons' information needs. State subsidies for interlibrary loans will greatly enhance the sharing of resources throughout New York.
I encourage you to give the same level of support and coordinated efforts to academic, medical, and special libraries as you have to public and school libraries. With statewide leadership we can improve library service and the quality of life for all residents of New York State.
Anne Fuccillo, Public School Librarian, P.S. 97, Woodhaven
My name is Anne Fuccillo and I am a librarian in a public elementary school in New York City. I have both a New York City License and State Certification as a Library Media Specialist. I am here today to speak about the poor condition of public school libraries.
During my twelve-year tenure as a librarian, I have resurrected two school libraries. Both of these libraries had been abandoned due to budget cuts and overcrowding. This is not a unique story. Conversations at our yearly library meetings are monopolized by the same kind of horrific stories of closed libraries or facilities with outdated materials.
Unfortunately, a license is not required for librarianship in the New York City elementary schools. There are only approximately 40 licensed librarians in our elementary school system. The remaining positions are filled by teachers who are not licensed in the field of library. Many library teachers have rigid schedules. They meet with a full schedule of classes without the classroom teacher present. The library teacher is unable to articulate instruction or adequately support standard based teaching & learning. These are not the optimal conditions for learning library skills or accessing information through a variety of formats.
New Visions For Public Schools is an organization previously funded by Dewitt Wallace / Readers Digest This organization has attempted to change the face of school library programs. This funding has now ended. An endowment from the Astor Foundation has helped to continue their efforts and preserve these rescued libraries. Without their interest and assistance, the condition of most school library programs would be deplorable.
Until recently, my students have been unable to do research utilizing the Internet. Consequently, I have been unable to implement programs critical to adequately provide them with the tools necessary to compete in the 21st century. Our children are really missing out on great opportunities without these resources. In addition, a school librarian is expected to meet the needs of approximately 1000 students or more in a school, single-handedly without the benefit of clerical assistance.
Quality and high standards in school libraries are necessary everywhere, in every New York City school. Our students deserve the same quality as every other student in our state.
Jeanne L. Galbraith, Health Sciences Library, SUNY Stony Brook and Chair, Long Island Library Resources Council's Committee on Services to Health Sciences Libraries
My name is Jeanne Galbraith and I am a librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Last year I gave testimony at the Regents hearing on behalf of hospital libraries in my role as chair of the Long Island Library Resources Council Committee on Services to Health Sciences Libraries, a role in which I continue to serve this year. That afternoon at the hearing it was not a surprise to be outnumbered by those speaking on behalf of public, school, and academic libraries since they outnumber special libraries, but I was confident that the hearing was fair and the outcome would genuinely be a document that recognized the contribution and value of all types of libraries in New York State.
However, I am very dismayed to see that the Preliminary Statewide Policy Recommendations to the Board of Regents from the Regents Commission on Library Services mentions medical and other special libraries in only a token manner, as an apparent afterthought when some proofreader recognized their omission. That there is no substantive mention of medical libraries and the value of their contribution to the informed health care of New Yorkers, when every New Yorker is a consumer of health care, when 10% of the accredited medical colleges in the United States are located in New York State,[1] when there are medical libraries in schools of pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, hospital administration and management, and other specialties of the health care field in academic institutions across the state, and, when the 267 accredited hospitals in New York State[2] are mandated as a requirement of their accreditation to have access to library services, demonstrates a clouded "vision for library services for the 21st century and a plan for ensuring the widest access to information for all New Yorkers," in my opinion. Furthermore, this document comes at a time when Governor Pataki is frequently seen in commercial spots on television touting the state's interest in providing health care for all New Yorkers. Still, there is no mention of the importance of any type of library to the health of New Yorkers, let alone the enormous contribution of the medical libraries to practitioners, students, patients and their family members, or to users in the greater library community across New York State.
I recognize that it is difficult in a document such as the Preliminary Statewide Policy Recommendations to be inclusive of all the intentions and desires the Regents may have for libraries. It is standard to have broad language rather than detailed specifics in such documents to allow flexibility. And, it is not uncommon when looking to the future to fail to mention the successes of the present. It is unclear, for example, whether the Regents intend that successful programs for cooperation, such as the Hospital Library Services Program, will continue. Support for document delivery is another good example for medical libraries. No library can afford to own, store, and preserve all information pertinent to its users regardless of format or cost. Medical books and journals are expensive, digital databases are even more expensive and the cost of the infrastructure to support them, and the expertise to use them, is costly to libraries. Thus, the fact that neither support for document delivery nor the inclusion of medical libraries is included in the vision presented in the draft document seems to portend an adverse effect on the access to medical information that is vital to the good health of all New Yorkers.
The Regents have established an admirable framework in their first six recommendations aimed at providing "Quality Library Services to All New Yorkers, " by enumerating support for funding, facilities, and qualified librarians for school and public libraries. There is support for information competency, for equalizing the base level of support for public libraries and providing library districts in rural areas where there are no public libraries, and for support for "strong school library media programs." There is support for a statewide electronic library program (which is long overdue and could go much further) and for building technologically advanced facilities. But the vision seems confined to this core group of school and public libraries, with no mention of how they will link with New York's numerous public and private academic institutions, to corporate or nonprofit organization libraries, or to medical libraries, whether in academic settings, hospitals, or other institutions. Even in the brief sketch of the incentive program, NY EXCELS (New York's Excellent Library Service) Program, the mention of cooperative efforts across types of libraries and library systems speaks only to preparing standards.
Health sciences libraries in hospitals, academic medical centers, and other facilities recognize the importance of these recommendations and especially, the need for fulfillment of these recommendations. Medical libraries also recognize that few of their number are in publicly supported institutions. However, it is important to recognize that hospital and other medical libraries provide an important link in the information chain for all New Yorkers. The vision presented in the draft is not inclusive of all types of libraries. Even the proposal for NOVEL (the New York Online Virtual Library), much like EmpireLink, omits any inclusion of our medical libraries.
I encourage the Regents to recognize the importance of the medical libraries in New York State and the role they play in promoting the health of all New Yorkers by making the vision more inclusive of all types of libraries, including the medical libraries in the hospitals and academic medical centers of New York. Enable them to participate in a meaningful manner to the lifelong information competency of our citizens. Enable our qualified medical librarians to participate in your vision "for ensuring the widest access to information for all New Yorkers."
Thank you.
[1]Medical School Admission Requirements United States and Canada. 2000-2001 edition. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Medical Colleges, 1999.
[2]AHA Guide to the Health Care Field. 1999-2000 edition. Chicago: Healthcare Infosource, Inc., 1999, pp. A281-A301.
Mrs. Jane Herbst, School Library Media Specialist, Babylon Junior-Senior High School
First, let me applaud the Commission for their accomplishment in presenting an integrated vision and implementation plan to provide library services statewide to New Yorkers. As a media specialist, I especially appreciated your wording which reflects our basic goal: "The library of the early 21st century exists to assist users in locating the best source to meet their information needs -- print or electronic... [and] provide timely and convenient access to a complete range of electronic information sources... " I speak also as a liaison and Council member of the Western Suffolk BOCES School Library System. I am also a part-time public librarian and a resident of the State, so I am a member of the public served by the libraries you address in your draft.
In reading through your recommendations, I would like to suggest areas which may need clarification, either in your draft or in the final presentation to the Regents, in order to make your vision attainable for all. To simplify matters, I will fist them in order of the recommendation number.
Recommendation 1. The establishment of NOVEL and the recommendations for shared purchases of electronic resources statewide as well as digitization of unique resources, with a suggested startup fund of $12 million, brings two questions immediately to mind:
- Will the startup fund, whether by formula or by some other means, be used to acquire resources, supplement present budgets for all New York State libraries, or to embark on the digitization process; or will it be used to fund only specific activities in districts identified as lacking other funding? The sheer numbers of libraries would tend to suggest that an equitable solution would be to determine a formula (combining need based on present collection holdings and present funding levels with need based on the level of resources presently available to the population served).
- Is there a plan for determining priorities for digitizing unique collections in New York State libraries of all types (school, public, academic, and special), using a specific definition of "unique" that will allow digitization based on value to the largest number of New Yorkers as well as on the present condition of the resources? (An additional scenario might be constructed where libraries without equipment or sufficient funding might, in addition to sharing catalogs of other libraries, share access to digitization at an agreed-upon rate.)
Recommendation 2. Ensuring information literacy by providing school library media programs with "appropriately certified professional staff, adequate resources, and technology" also raises two areas in need of clarification:
- In order to provide "appropriately certified professional staff" at a time when the number of library schools in New York offering school library media programs have been substantially reduced, an incentive should exist to attract people to this field as well as to increase the number of American Library Association (ALA) certified school library media programs, and to compensate mentors. And more importantly, to ensure that these certified professionals are kept in the libraries where they are needed, will the Board of Regents mandate a school library media specialist in each elementary school to ensure that students there receive precisely the kind of training in information literacy that will give them the ability to function in the world of electronic information, as presently is done in secondary schools?
- The School Library Media Program Support Aid to public schools will need some specific formulaic composition to ensure equitable distribution of funding for information literacy, but it will also need some flexibility in how it may be applied within each school receiving it, so that schools with appropriate technology, but insufficient electronic resources, may obtain resources, and other variations on that theme, to prevent aid simply to computer labs without "appropriately trained certified staff" or with staff other than certified library media specialists to teach information literacy skills. (For the difference a certified librarian makes, see "Dick and Jane Go to the Head Of the Class [Research Shows that Good School Libraries Make for Smarter Students]," School Library Journal, April 2000, pp. 44-47).
Recommendation 4. Promoting equitable services through a need-based formula and promoting service excellence through aid tied to performance measures also brings two questions to mind concerning the establishment of EXCELS:
- If the funding will be taken from "state and local sources," what ownership of this program be felt by those communities already feeling burdened under tax loads, like Long Island?
- Standards for information literacy services have already been fleshed out in Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning (American Association of School Librarians and Association for Educational Communications and Technology, ALA, 1998). Would the Commission base the standards for excellence on these already accepted standards?
Recommendation 5. Support for construction, expansion, and renovation of public libraries brings to mind two areas that need to be addressed:
- This program should also be extended to school libraries, since they also fall into that "two-thirds of library buildings [in] need [of] major improvements. The requirement of ongoing local support should still exist in that case, since many school libraries are at least 30 years old, and may not have sufficient electrical wiring to allow new technology to be used, or may have other physical features that would not promote equitable access to facilities or resources.
- A requirement should be added to include a Long-Range Technology Access aspect, so that facilities could be updated in a manner which would allow further technological advances to be easily incorporated into the new or renovated facility without the additional expense of further physical changes.
Recommendation 11. Networking and advocacy training need to be conducted with a proactive stance, so as to increase the opportunity to build on success, rather than to play "catch up.
Recommendation 12. The reinstatement of the New York State Library to a leadership position through enhanced funding and additional staff will also need to be reinforced through additional funding in the future so that the lapses which may have occurred may be made up, and advances made.
I thank you for this opportunity to express our perspectives on the statewide vision of equal access to a vast resource bank.
Marie Orlando, Youth Services Coordinator, Suffolk Cooperative Library System
The children's and young adult librarians in New York State and the Youth Services Coordinators at New York's public library systems applaud the work of the Regents Commission on Library Services and the recommendations which are the result of its eighteen months of study. These recommendations reflect a clear understanding of the dynamic role of the library in our society and its enormous potential and concomitant need for support to fulfill that potential. We particularly appreciate that Policy Recommendation #2 recognizes the school library as a critical element in the education of our children and young adults.
We believe, however, that several important aspects of library service to children and families is missing in the policy recommendations and hope that this can be rectified in the final document, In the last several years, we have seen the ascendancy of the public library in nurturing emergent literacy and supporting the goal that children enter school ready to learn. From Mother Goose programming for infants, to preschool storyhours and opportunities for parents to learn skills which bolster the receptivity to literacy in their young children, the public library has assumed a primary and pivotal place in a child's education. Throughout our state, libraries have made this a priority in their mission and have attempted to stretch scarce resources to accommodate staffing, programming and material requirements to meet these needs. Further, the public library has traditionally extended the learning environment for the school age child after school hours and continues to augment the child's in-school experience with materials to support curriculum needs, after-school programming, and access to technology for learning. And they have been quick to respond to the school's need for help in its efforts to prepare students to meet New York State learning standards and higher levels of achievement.
For these reasons we urge the Regents Commission to reconsider the language of its policy recommendations to acknowledge this critical aspect of library service. Our suggestion is to amend Policy Recommendation #2 to read "Ensure that all New York's children enter school ready to learn by supporting public library programs that foster emergent literacy and further to ensure that all New York's public school students are information-literate by providing strong school library media programs and public library after-school programs that include appropriately certified professional staff, adequate resources, and technology."
It is interesting to note that Implementation Recommendations #1, 3 and 4 of the document already reflect language to support this amendment of Policy Recommendation #2. However, we believe it is vitally important to identify the public
library's role in the education of New York State's children for the implementation recommendations to have an impact on the support it will receive in fulfilling that role.
Supplemental information should there be questions about what form funding should take:
A mechanism is already in place to support the emergent and ongoing literacy efforts of public libraries in the form of Parent and Child Library Services Grants from the State Library. However, this program, which is dependent on the State budget, is sorely underfunded with less than $300,000 available each year. Not only does the figure need to increase dramatically but funds must also be made available to public library systems so that projects such as the exemplary programs already funded may be replicated on a wider scale. Libraries need financial support to hire and retain adequate youth services staff. Further, the need for coordination of efforts statewide necessitates the reestablishment of the full-time position of Youth Services Specialist at the State Library.
Ellie Paiewonsky, Nassau BOCES BETAC, Massapequa Park
In preparing my remarks, I inevitably had to reexamine my thoughts on the role of the library in the circle of life and experience within a learning community and its function in forging creative links with its clients and the larger society. I was struck by a refrain by someone who once said that the end of reading is not more books but more life.
If the function of books, as Aldous Huxley believes is to multiply the ways in which we live, to make life full and interesting, then we cannot ignore the many ways in which people live, their belief systems, interests, hopes and even despair. Are libraries to represent the voices and images of those who use them or solely the vision of those who create and maintain them?
BUT LIBRARIES ARE MORE THAN MIRROR IMAGES OF OURSELVES, THEY REALLY create the self, for what is reading but a silent conversation. Many students consider the library a refuge, a source of sustenance. Should we welcome only those who come? Or should we also invite those who are not coming?
Increasing numbers of culturally diverse students are entering classrooms throughout the US. The suburbs are becoming urban centers. Educators are taking steps to reflect the diversity of contemporary society in the materials they choose for teaching, along with the approaches and strategies they use to teach children, addressing racial, cultural and second language diversity. Racial and cultural differences do exist and are becoming more prominent in society and certainly in schools, throughout suburban areas of the state.
The NY Times Long Island section of Sunday, April 9, 2000 included an article entitled, " So Much to Read, Too Many Who Can't Read." It focused on how hard it is to believe that we, here in the suburban (urban) centers of Long Island, have a significant literacy problem. The article mentioned that "about 200,000 adults in Suffolk County can scarcely read or write English at all." Literacy volunteers try to assist in an effort to promote literacy for all. However, this is not enough. Literacy centers must be created in all libraries containing English as a Second Language materials so that children and adult second language learners can practice listening, speaking, reading and writing in English. Native language and multicultural materials should also be part of the inventory of materials available. Additionally, research shows that strong native language skills correlate to better readers, as skills transfer from the first to the second language. Clients should also have access to technology and training to use it.
In fall 1996, 221,000 public school students statewide were identified as limited English proficient (LEP). These students, speaking 172 languages, represented 7.8 percent of all public school students. Over 80 percent attended school in New York City; another 5% attended schools in the other large city school districts. In Long Island there are 9,500 LEP students in Nassau County; 9,000 in Eastern Suffolk County and 2,000 in Western Suffolk County. That adds up to 20,500 LEP students on Long Island, speaking 77 languages. This number does not include the number of parents/guardians and family members who are also striving to learn English. The number of students and languages is growing.
There are still other students who need literacy support. They are, former LEPs; students who come from English speaking Caribbean Creole islands and are not considered to be LEP, but who speak a variety of English, which is different than the American form. There are also students who have experienced interrupted or nonequivalent formal education in their native country but speak English and are not designated as LEP.
Second language learners and low literate students have to meet the same high standards and pass new assessments in order to graduate from high school, as do their English-speaking counterparts who have been in our school system since kindergarten. They need your support.
Suburban area libraries need to:
- support the high standards and expectations embraced by the educational community
- have appropriate materials in the native languages - to promote access and equity foster strong English literacy development aligned with high standards
- address literacy and cultural issues for all language groups, as part of their stewardship of the educational enterprise
- identify useful, culturally relevant, educationally challenging texts, which reflect the voices of all stakeholders in the school and community
- promote a welcoming climate so that all groups benefit from the special services a library has to offer
- expand parent/family and community involvement in library-related activities for diverse communities
- sanction training so that librarians can become knowledgeable about how cultural diversity affects a school's climate and culture as well as impacts instructional approaches.
Libraries represent a common forum, which can promote intercultural awareness and unify a diverse student population. Let us also not forget that students from the dominant culture, when confronted with unfamiliar faces, behaviors and perceived value differences, struggle to capture the essence of those distinctions and place them into the context of their own understandings of the world. Unmediated efforts often result in misunderstanding, friction and ultimately explode into confrontation when students cannot modulate their fears of the unknown and unfamiliar. Discussion is an exchange of knowledge, argument an exchange of ignorance.
Libraries must make available books, which reflect an ethically sound view of the human experience, those which fairly and accurately portray differences so that students have an opportunity to examine the world from multiple perspectives and be receptive to a world that does not exclusively resonate with their preferences. Libraries validate change by preserving order amid change and change amid order. They foster soliloquies, which eventually can become fruitful dialogues.
Research is highly suggestive that first language competency promotes and accelerates the learning of English. Any opportunity to use the first or second language increases facility of language use, understanding of its role and transfers to the learning of new languages. Ultimately, it allows children and adults to live life as a continuum of experiences, to access prior knowledge, to realize that their being is intact, that it is safe and desirable to feel comfortable with who they are and what they feel and remember - and many feel alone, isolated and even depressed - regardless of where they live or what their new life will be. Let us not forget that language and personality and ultimately a sense of well being are intimately linked.
Libraries are not only a repository of knowledge, they help their clients become consumers of that knowledge. By promoting reading, they germinate thought. Thoughts to be useful must be shared with others. Ultimately those incipient experiences turn into wisdom when we realize that we have something to offer others and they have something to offer us. The library thus becomes an important human exchange, an oasis of hospitality and possibilities. It tells us who we are and what we accept. By welcoming and assisting diverse learners, it affirms our humanity.
Updated 9/11/2000 -- asm