A library is a traditional space for a school. It’s a room warmly lit and filled with books. A quiet researching and reading space. A nice person sitting at a desk who smiles as you enter. A library is a relaxing space for students to come for safety from the stories that line the shelves.
Bringing back the library has been on my mind for quite some time. It is useful for many different things, such as reading, researching, and just a peaceful place to focus. During the remodel of the high school in 2013-2014, the school decided to use the library space for other reasons. Most of the books were very outdated, some as early as the 1960s. They decided to turn the space created by eliminating the library into an interactive media center. The library itself was replaced with smaller libraries in each language arts teacher’s classrooms. Not only did the books leave, the librarian also ended up leaving for other career opportunities.
A library is for growing your knowledge, researching for a project, and often just a space to recharge and read. The classroom libraries our library was replaced with just aren’t the same. There aren’t many options for books compared to a large public library, and not everyone has the ability or access to the public library. Students miss having a large library at school. Although classroom libraries work for some students, others crave the available selection of a bigger library and its environment. Classroom libraries can be noisy and chaotic resulting in distraction and stress because students may not finish their work or be able to focus on reading in the classroom.
I believe that students need a place to read and research and find their peace. Our classroom libraries do not provide this space because it is usually always loud and you are never able to focus. Bringing the library back can help students with grades, and better performance and interaction with their classmates and classroom activities.
Freshman Kennedy Gregory finds a large library very beneficial and has seen the impacts that libraries have had in past years. She misses what was offered at previous schools that is not available here.
“I think that it’s [having a library] a very good idea, because it would give students more resources, and the students who have libraries at Crossroads and Highlands definitely enjoy it,” Gregory said.
Some school environments can be chaotic and aren’t always the best in which to be productive. Gregory believes choice in work location options for students are important.
“It’s kind of a place for people to hang out and get work done, especially if they don’t want to sit in the classroom and do it,” Gregory said.
History teacher Mark Thrall has seen the impacts that non-electronic research has on his students. Closing your laptop and putting down your phone is often a struggle. Thrall believes a library could help shutting that screen by giving access to other research options.
“I just think it [having no library] made it more difficult to find a space to allow people to research with using something other than electronics,” Thrall said.
Many teachers, including Thrall, utilized the library for various purposes such as a studying space, researching place, and the safe space of working at a table together instead of sitting at the classroom individual desks.
“As a history teacher, I used to like that space to be able to work on projects. We used to do a court simulation class where I would take people in there,” Thrall said, “Then the lawyers would research stuff about the court case and then they could use media other than the internet to find research and then be able to use that effectively in the in the simulation we did.”
KAPPAN K-12 professional magazine is a magazine about K-12 education and provides a civil forum for honest debate on how to control and improve our country’s public schools. Sociologist, Keith Curry Lance, and librarian, Debra Kache,wrote an article published on Kappan proving their hypothesis that libraries truly benefit high schoolers.
“Data from more than 34 statewide studies suggest that students tend to earn better standardized test scores in schools that have strong library programs. Further, when administrators, teachers, and librarians themselves rated the importance and frequency of various library practices associated with student learning, their ratings correlated with student test scores, further substantiating claims of libraries’ benefits,” Lance & Kachel said.K
This study shows that libraries help with a student’s test scores, improving their knowledge. This is important because this proves a school library can be better than a classroom library since it has more options and more of a space for these school activities.
A nice calm learning environment is something that can benefit our students. Especially when a classroom is too loud for the student, a library could offer the quieter environment they may need. A library could be very useful for the school and even teachers, not just students. We should have that space for assistance in the assignments and projects that lie ahead. A once great mind that is known for knowledge, Albert Einstein, said, “The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”
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