“A typical middle class child enters first grade with approximately 1,000 hours of being read to, while the corresponding child from a low-income family averages just 25 of those hours, such differences in the availability of book resources may have unintended and pernicious consequences for low-income children’ long term success in schooling.
M. Adams, Beginning to read. (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1990)
This quote comes from a tremendous article by by Theresa Walsh Giarrusso, which you can find here. Her article provides inspirational information about reading, but the most compelling fact is her information came from a librarian.
Librarians matter. Mark Moran the CEO of Dulcinea Media wrote “Young Learners Need Librarians, Not Just Google” to explain this truth.
Equally compelling is an opinion piece in he New York Times by Jessamyn West, in which she makes the case for the changing role of librarians. Here is how she describes the change…
“In older models, the librarian was more of a selector, protector and a preserver of resources. Now a librarian, or school media specialist, is more of a discerning cultivator and a matchmaker between people and the widely varied resources that meet their information needs.”
Before reading these articles I was unconcerned about librarians. After all, I am a believer in the power of personal technology. What enlightened me on this subject was the twitter feed of the New Leaf Learning Conference.
I am convinced teachers need as much support as possible in teaching our children, and librarians, especially those of the 21st century variety can be difference makers.
Librarians clearly matter!