Evening star., 1961-03-26

of a grade-school library or pc
Many Of them have never
a book or talked with a librar-
ian.
To make matters worse, only
if they're lucky will they get
much better acquainted during
their two years of junior high
school.
AS students in one of the Dis
trict'S senior highs, their school
will have one librarian but
she'll be serving as many as
1000 pupils with fewer than
1000 books. If the librarian
is lucky, she may have a few
books which she sincerely feels
will help or interest her stu
dents. But as things stand now,
she can count on one hand the
number Of volumes available to
each child.
How could this be?
The answer lies in the fact
that the District has so few
librarians and such a poor Sc
lection of books in its public
schools that officials say it
ranks last, or near last, in the
country in library facilities.
Vying with the District for the
bottom of -the-ladder status is
Rhode Island.
126 Schools Lack Librarian
To begin with:
l. Not one of the Districts
126 elementary schools has q
librarian. Most Of them do not
have even a library. About 80
OF the 126 have what could
loosely be called a collection
Of books, but most of these are
outdated and Shelved in the
various classrooms rather than
in a single library room.
2. The city's % junior high
schools have only II librarians
one for every two schools
While an effort probably will
be made next year to hire the
II Librarians on a permanent
basis, they currently are work.
ing on a temporary expert
mental" basis.
3. The II senior high schools
here have one librarian each,
The national average is two
at the senior high level.
4. Perhaps most serious of all
is the fact that the District
does not have an overall SUI
pervising director of school
libraries. This is considered by
most educators as q must"
If you hope to establish O
worthwhile city-wide or coun-
ty-wide school library system.
Actually. School Supt. Carl
F. Hansen says, the District
school system has never had
a library director, nor have
its elementary schools ever
had librarians.
Loans From Public Libraries
It dates back, the superin-
tendent explains, ito the DAYS
when city educators felt a IL
brary in every school was not
essential" Instead, he con-
tinues, an arrangement was
made whereby the city's public
libraries deliver baskets OF
books to various schools fol
use in the classroom" This
practice is still in effect today
The books from the public
libraries cannot be taken home
by the. students, and can be
used only in the classroom.
| DR.. Hansen says this is not
adequate. Many Of the books
are outdated. he points out
"and even if they are not, there
are too few of them"
For at least seven years, Dis
trict school officials--includinR
DR.. Hansen and the school
board - have specifically re-
quested library funds in their
annual school budget proposals.
Many groups, including the Ac-
ton Committee for D. C. School
Libraries, headed by Miss Bar
bara Nolen, contend that the
requests have been too small.
The argument, however, has
often proved academic because
the requests invariably have
been cut or eliminated entire
ly by the District Budget Of
flee, the Commissioners or Con-
gress. Only recently did they
approve funds for hiring the
II Junior high Librarians. Until
then, even the junior highs like
the elementaries now, had no
librarians at all.
The present status at each