Expanding Your School Library - Brief Article

Black Issues Book Review, Sept, 2000 by Khafre Abif

It's back to school time, and hopefully your children have had a fun and active summer that included reading. The beginning of the school year is always filled with orientations, parent-teacher conferences, and parent organization meetings to discuss upcoming fund-raisers and curricula. During this time request a visit with the school library media specialist. See what your school's library looks like. Does it have resources and materials to assist and support students--all students--in their efforts to successfully navigate the year's curriculum?

Well-endowed school libraries can provide even more than curriculum support. The school library can provide young people a wide-open window to a world of infinite options. Nearly 30 years ago, as student populations in urban schools began to turn from ethnic white to black and brown; many cities started to dismantle their school libraries. Libraries in many elementary and middle schools continue to operate with little to no money to build strong collections, and their students suffer and get turned off to reading by the often outdated and torn books. While families in some of the wealthier neighborhoods have raised private money to build collections and hire highly trained librarians, parents in the poorer neighborhoods often do not have the funds or free time to do this. The unfortunate result is that children who are already most likely to find good books in their homes find even more at school, while the children who may have less to stimulate their reading at home find much less at their public schools.

My charge to you this fall is to take an interest in your school library, if not for your child, then for the child who does not have a home filled with stimulating books. Keep in mind that books remain the clearest windows to a world of expanded vocabulary, imagination and a variety of enticements. If our children are denied this opportunity to grow through books, it can never be returned. As a parent myself, the sweet look on my child's face, full of eagerness and expectations for the future, tells me the time is now to start making those young dreams come true.