My name is Sarah Thornbery and I am expressing my concern over the current state of

school libraries in our school district. I currently serve as a teacher-librarian (also known
as a certified school librarian) in a local school district. I serve on the Board of Directors
of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and am a past President of the
Ohio Educational Library Media Association (OELMA), which is the association for
professional teacher-librarians in Ohio. I would like to state that any comments are
entirely my own and do not represent these associations. Before I begin to list my
concerns regarding school libraries, I would like to give you some of my background. As
a fifth-generation Middletonian and a 1997 honors graduate of Middletown High School
with two graduate degrees, I am invested in this community. My grandfather was a wellknown teacher and administrator in Middletown and both of my parents spent the entirety
of their careers as teachers in this district. I still choose to live in this community.
School libraries should be the heart of the school, especially in this time of Common
Core-based instruction. This is particularly evident in the shift in the Language Arts
Curriculum to focus more on informational text. If the district does not have a library
open where students and staff can access these materials, how do they access these types
of resources?
School libraries today are not just a warehouse with books. In the 2003 Ohio Study on
School Libraries with data from 13,000 students, Drs. Ross J. Todd and Carol Kuhlthau
state that an effective school library is not just as an information place, but is also a
knowledge space (Todd, 2001). It is where students develop the appropriate cognitive,
behavioral, and affective scaffolds to enable them to engage meaningfully with
information, to make decisions about the information they encounter in terms of its worth
and appropriateness, and to restructure pertinent information into appropriate
representations of their newly acquired understandings. An effective school library is not
just informational, but transformational and formational, leading to knowledge creation,
knowledge production, knowledge dissemination and knowledge use, as well as the
development of information values (Todd & Kuhlthau, 2005, p. 85). Is this something
that should be provided to the students and staff of the Middletown City Schools? I
would say yes.
In 2011, the District chose to reduce services in many areas, including library services. At
that time, I contacted the current superintendent, Mr. Rasmussen, regarding my
concerns. At that time, the district kept 1 credentialed teacher-librarian for the high
school and eliminated 1 certified teacher-librarian as well as the library managers by
staffing libraries with volunteers. Since that time, the district has brought back many
services, but only brought back the library managers in grades K-8 for 10 hours a
week. Obviously, I would prefer to have teacher-librarians full-time in each building, but
staffing the libraries in the elementaries for 10 hours a week for an entire school only
allows for books to be shelved.
I also am concerned over the current funding situation for the district libraries. It is my
understanding that the district is not funding the libraries with monies to purchase much
needed resources. This is particularly needed for students that are economically

disadvantaged. The only funding that has been provided has been through Title I grants,
which not all schools qualify, and through fundraisers, such as Scholastic Book Fairs.
Referring students to go to the public library is not an answer that is acceptable because
public libraries are very different places than school libraries. The public libraries should
not be used as a replacement for school libraries as our public libraries have funding
issues of their own.
I truly understand that all schools in public education are having funding issues
now. However, I feel that is a matter of priorities. I have seen some of the expenditures
that have been approved at board meetings, particularly ones for software programs that
run in the five figures or technology that is in the six figures. It is unconscionable that
this district is not providing funding in materials and staffing even at a very basic level,
but then spends large amounts of money in other places. As a taxpayer in this
community, I would like to know the reasoning behind this decision.
I did submit a public records request on January 15, 2015 to the Treasurers office, but as
of today, I have not received any documentation on either library staffing or funding. I
look forward to discussing this situation further. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Sarah J. Thornbery, M.Ed., MLIS
References
Todd, R. J., & Kuhlthau, C. C. (2005). Student learning through Ohio school libraries,
part 1: How effective school libraries help students. School Libraries Worldwide,
11(1), 63-88. Retrieved from http://www.iasl-online.org/pubs/slw/jan05-toddkuhlthau1.htm