re: Wallace Greene on Libraries:
It frankly depends on what you mean by "traditional library."
If you mean a warehouse of books, then no, I don't think anyone (librarians included) will argue that that is as valuable as it once was. (Though the best age appropriate resources [particularly for elementary -> Middle school] are generally not found online found in book format rather than digital).
I think more important than the library "space" though is actually having a librarian (or someone with the skillset as a librarian) who is capable of supporting students in the ethical use of information as well as sharing strategies for accessing, evaluating, and synthesizing informational resources for use in their work. Your initial email seems to see this as a burden rather than a benefit -- but who in your school is going to give your students the tools to ascertain that martinlutherking.org (even though it's a .org) is a hate site run by neo-nazis. Or that jewwatch.com (a site that used to be the number one search on google for Jew, and is still in the top 10) is or isn't a reliable source of information? Or to understand what's actually happening at come-and-hear.com a website that bills itself as "an educational forum for the examination of religious truth and religious tolerance" and has a full translation of the gemara, but also has essays by anti-semites. Who's going to help them parse the edit wars and documented anti-israel bias throughout wikipedia, un azoy veiter...
Some teachers certainly have this ability, but school media specialists (i.e. librarians) are explicitly trained in this craft, and have been for years, it's their bread and butter.
Finally, as a NYS school you'd be forfeiting the $6.25 per student allotment you'd otherwise be entitled to under NYSLIB annually. It's not a ton, but usually enough to buy a new reference set that's usable for 2 or 3 grades worth of students or some bookbins/guided reading programs that could be shared for enhancing literacy throughout the curriculum.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2016 07:56PM by mlb.
