PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND SCHOOL LIBRARIES: PERFECT TOGETHER?

While capital projects abound, operating budgets are strained, so taxpayers, legislators, and other government officials are keenly interested in adopting new strategies to get the most "bang for the buck."

One obvious proposal is to leverage the public's investment in library facilities by combining public and school libraries.

As public entities that share some common goals, public libraries and school libraries seem natural partners for such an arrangement. But do the significant challenges of combining their different missions and disparate roles far outweigh any benefit that shared space might provide?

Here are some potential questions that could be posed and issues that would have to be addressed in evaluating the feasibility of a joint public/school library facility.

Q: A library is a library. Why not combine the public library with the school library?
A: All libraries are not the same. As the New Jersey Library Association and the Educational Media Association note in their document "Libraries Working Together" http://njla.org/statements/publicschool.html, public libraries and school libraries share common goals but have different roles. They differ significantly in many key areas.

Public libraries and school libraries have different missions and constituencies.

Public libraries are centers for community life and learning, offering people of all ages free and open access to information, resources, programs, technology and meeting space to support reading, lifelong learning, and a broad of array of leisure interests.

School libraries prepare students to become effective users of information and support the curriculum and instructional programs of their schools.

Public libraries serve everyone for their many diverse interests; school libraries serve students and staff for their school related needs.

Public libraries and school libraries have different collections.

Public library collections provide "for the interest, information and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves."1 In seeking to offer broad, deep and diverse collections that include "materials that reflect political, economic, religious, social, minority, and sexual issues"2 public libraries will necessarily include some materials that may be inappropriate for children.

Courts have found that public libraries must not limit their collections to only materials that are appropriate for children.

School libraries, however, bear the serious responsibility to act in loco parentis to monitor and limit students' access to only those resources to that are appropriate for their age.

Consider how these different approaches would be applied regarding access to the Internet. School libraries filter Internet access to protect children from adult content. Community preferences vary but most public libraries offer either unfiltered access or a choice of filtered or unfiltered to their adult patrons.

Attempting to reconcile such vastly different policies would significantly compromise children's safety, adult's free access, or both.

Public libraries and school libraries must provide different access to their facilities.

Public libraries must offer all members of the public full and open access with few permissible restrictions.

In seeking to provide the safest possible environment for children, schools impose significant restrictions on access to school buildings, including locked entrances, requirements for visitors to sign-in and present identification, a pass system for student movement through the building, and other measures.

Requiring public library patrons to meet school procedures for building access would violate the public library's role as a limited public forum.

Requiring school facilities to be as open as public libraries would compromise the safety of the school environment.

Public libraries and school libraries enforce different standards for behavior.

Public library policies governing the public's behavior in the library must, by law, be consistent with the library's role as a limited public forum while respecting individuals' rights to free speech, privacy, and standards for dress and behavior.

School libraries, however, are legally empowered to set specific standards for students' behavior and can enforce different regulations regarding privacy.

Attempts to reconcile these different obligations in one facility would compromise both.

Public librarians and school librarians have different, training, skills, certification, and roles.

Public librarians are trained and skilled to provide, information, collections, services and programs for people of all ages with a diverse range of interests. They assist those seeking information in all fields including health, law, business, and consumer issues. They serve job seekers and hobbyists, readers of bestsellers and writers of dissertations. They provide information to inform citizens about public issues. They support independent lifelong learners, from preschoolers to teens, young families to senior citizens.

School librarians are trained and skilled in teaching students how to find, evaluate and use information and they collaborate with teachers in meeting local curriculum and state and national standards for information skills.

The content of the master's programs for public librarians and school librarians are different and they must meet different requirements for certification. Different unions represent them. Many public libraries fall under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey Department of Personnel (Civil Service). School library staff does not. School librarians may qualify for tenure. The salaries, hours and other terms of employment for the two professions are markedly different.

As form follows function, public library and school library facilities are as different as their roles.

While both public and school libraries provide space for collections, computer access and patron seating, each must also include other features.

Public libraries are community activity centers and so offer meeting rooms and exhibit space for both library sponsored programs and community meetings.

School libraries must include classroom seating for instruction as well as for group projects. Most adult public library patrons avoid groups and prefer individual seating.

The school environment is based on structure and group supervision; the public library setting is open, flexible and geared toward independent individual activities.

Young people are often enthusiastic - but noisy - users of libraries, while adults prefer a quieter setting.

The best location for a public library is in the busiest part of town; schools are best suited for quieter neighborhoods, away from commercial activity and traffic.

Public libraries and school libraries have different hours of service.

Public libraries are open 50-70 or more hours per week, year 'round, including evenings, weekends, during the summer and many holidays.

School libraries are usually open only during school hours, and are not open nights, weekends, or during the summer and school breaks.

Restricting public library service to a school library schedule would severely diminish service. Extending school library hours to public library norms would require the addition of many more staff to cover the additional hours of service.

Public libraries provide public parking; school libraries do not.

Public parking is a common amenity at most public libraries. Schools generally offer very limited parking to accommodate staff and a few visitors.

Public library law regulates public libraries; school law regulates school libraries.

Public libraries are regulated by statute, governed by a Board of Trustees, and funded principally by local government.

School libraries are regulated by school policy and law and governed by the school district Board of Education.

Administering a joint public/school facility with two vastly different sets of regulations, governing authority, and funding sources would be complex, cumbersome and potentially rife with conflict. The two Boards would face serious challenges in establishing policies and priorities for programs and services, personnel matters, facilities, finances, and operational issues.

School districts have no legal authority to operate a public library. A public library board could not operate a school library. There is nothing to preclude the formation of a separate joint board but it would still have to apply two sets of regulations to the joint facility.

Q: But what if all of these problems could be solved? Statutes can be revised, buildings can be remodeled, and attitudes can be changed. I've heard that these joint facilities have been tried and that they work elsewhere, why not in New Jersey?
A: The notion of joint public/school libraries has been debated and projects have been attempted since the '60's. Surveys and studies have shown:

While joint public/school libraries are often proposed, "most communities reject this idea after study as not being feasible or desirable."3

Most joint facilities have been unsuccessful. Those that do succeed are ones in areas that are vastly different from New Jersey.4

Joint public/school library facilities seem to work best in small communities (under 5,000 population) where there are no library services, or in large geographic areas that are thinly populated.

New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation. Our 8 1/2 million residents are currently well served by 311 public libraries and 2,295 school libraries.

It is very unlikely that a community that currently supports separate public and school libraries will offer better service in a combined facility.

Experience has shown that the compromises required to meet the formidable challenges cited above, result in significant diminishment in the quality of service that the separate facilities provided.

Opportunities abound for our public and school libraries to cooperate, coordinate and collaborate on providing the best possible service to the people of New Jersey. There are better and more cost effective ways for libraries to work together than joint facilities. Here are some examples of how some public and school libraries are working together to achieve quality service for their communities.

Public Libraries and School Libraries: Working Together to Serve the People of New Jersey

Technology

The Union Public Library and Public Schools share an integrated online library system to purchase, catalog, and check out library materials. Students and teachers can request books from the library and have them delivered to their schools. Students use one library card for both the school and the public library. The public library initiated and manages the project; the school district contributes to the costs; all library patrons benefit. The Atlantic County Library provides Internet service to public schools in Atlantic County.

Cooperative technology projects like these extend public libraries'expertise and investment in technology to the wider community.

Homework Clubs

The Newark Public Schools support homework assistance centers at the Newark Public Library's Main Library and ten branches. Club Success provides students with a special space, computers, reference resources, and assistance from tutors (Newark teachers hired with grant funds). Fairview Public Library's FLASH (Fairview Library After School Help) offers homework help to over 50 children each week. The Lakewood Branch of the Ocean County Library provides homework assistance to students from elementary to high school, assisting over 1,000 students each school year.

Class visits to the public library

Many local public libraries welcome class visits to provide students with an introduction to the services available to them. Students in Atlantic County receive instruction in research at branches of the Atlantic County Library system .The Newark Public Schools supports a citywide program for all pre-K classes to visit their local branch of the public library. Eight and ninth graders visit the Main Library for a tour, to register for library cards and to get hands-on training in the use of the Internet to support their school work.

Public librarians visit the schools

Public librarians promote their service to the schools by visits, programs, and publicity. Clifton public library staff visits every fourth grade class every year. Newark focuses its attention on the eighth grade. The Waldwick Public Library encourages younger students to use the public library by sending a storyteller to provide programs in the schools. Ocean County librarians visit the schools to promote Children's Book Week and Teen Read Week. The Atlantic County Bookmobile makes regular stops at schools throughout the county.

Many public libraries cultivate close relationships with teachers by providing special services such as extended loan periods, bulk loans of materials, and assistance in meeting their own and their students' information needs. Fairview Public Library, as well as many other libraries, promotes services to teachers in presentations at teachers' meetings and with promotional packets.

Collections
At many public libraries teachers can request that materials be set aside in reserve for the use of classes doing group projects. The Clifton Public Schools purchase multiple copies of paperback books on students' required reading lists and makes them available during the summer at the public library. The Newark Public Schools provides funds to the Newark Public Library for the purchase of library materials to support student' homework projects. The Atlantic County Library provides copies of school textbooks and workbooks for students to use in the library.

Professional development
Ocean County Library offers teachers a series of programs each summer on a range of topics from using graphic novels in the classroom, to online resources and multicultural materials. The Newark Public Library developed a series of three-day Library Research Skills Institutes for Newark teachers and school librarians. Participants received in-depth instruction in Library resources, strengthened their research skills and learned how to encourage information literacy in their students. Staff of Clifton Public Library and Atlantic County Library offer both in-service training and programs at the library for teachers. Many public libraries are Registered New Jersey Department of Education Professional Development Providers. Participants receive CEU credits for attending these programs. In Fairview teachers also receive CEU credits for their collaborative projects with the public library.

Tutoring
Clifton Public Library recruits and trains volunteers to tutor elementary school students who benefit from individual attention.

Extended hours
Saturday hours at the Newark Public Library's ten branches are made possible by support from the Newark Public Schools.

Joint projects - not joint use facilities: support for local and statewide programs

Public libraries and school libraries are natural partners in the educational life of their communities. The model projects cited above are but a few of the hundreds of examples where public and school librarians work together to achieve common goals. Joint projects like these provide clear evidence, though, that cooperation works best when school district funds support public library initiatives for joint projects.

In addition, library services for all the people of New Jersey could be greatly enhanced by support for the Virtual Library Initiative, a statewide program to provide full text electronic information all day, every day, everywhere there is Internet access - in the library, home, school or office.

The Virtual Library Initiative, would support the education, career and business needs, health care, and personal interests of all New Jersey residents with

• Rich curriculum-related resources for elementary and secondary school students.
• The latest research journals for college students and faculty.
• Sales, marketing and management information to help business people grow their companies in New Jersey.
• Critical health care and personal information for seniors and residents of all ages.

Support for these local and statewide initiatives would accomplish much more than problematical joint use facilities.

Adopted by the NJLA Executive Board November 19, 2002
1 - American Library Association. Library Bill of Rights
2 - American Library Association, Diversity in Collection Development
3 - Combined School and Public Libraries: Guidelines for Decision Making http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dlcl/pld/comblibs.html
4 - Fitzgibbons, Shirley A. "School and Public Library Relationships: Déjà vu or New Beginnings?" Journal of Youth Services in Libraries 14.2 (Spring 2001): 3-7

Last Updated : Tue, 26 Nov 2002 22:06:07 GMT