LIVINGSTON CO. SCHOOLS

Will school libraries soon be gone?

Abby Welsh Alusheff
Livingston Daily

Teachers and librarians from across the state gathered in Howell Township over the weekend to discuss how to advocate funding for a new legislation that could affect the future of school libraries.

Students took the M-STEP for the first time this past spring. The results are in statewide.

Over the past 15 years, school libraries have suffered due to the No Child Left Behind Act. School library funding was left out of the act, said Kathy Lester, former president of Michigan Association for Media in Education.

In 2015, Congress passed a new legislation called the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act. While the new law has been signed into law at the federal level, states are now coming up with their own plans, which are expected to be available next year.

School districts want to make sure they are prepared to have funding options to keep school libraries.

Here is the Michigan ESSA State Plan. Story continues below document.

However, as a result of the lack of funding from No Child Left Behind, several districts have been forced to close libraries or asked teachers to pick up those responsibilities.

"This has hurt the state and schools because school libraries aren't supported in the state of Michigan," Lester said. "Currently, only 8 percent of libraries have a full-time certified librarian staffing them."

The decline first started in 2003 and has steadily been on a downward slant ever since, Lester said.

"This hasn't been a good thing for the state because Michigan currently ranks 41st in literacy and 47th in terms of funding for school libraries, which is low," Lester added. "The reason Michigan ranks so low in its support of school libraries is because the need for them hasn't been recognized."

School libraries aren't the only ones that haven't been recognized. Some public libraries have had to fight to stay in business or figure out how work operate differently.

The Fowlerville District Library introduced a new program to Fowlerville Junior High School called Pop Up Library.

“I want children to understand what libraries have to offer, so I brought the library to them,” said Beth Byrne, Fowlerville District Library librarian.

Byrne brought dozens of books, book bags and bookmarks for preteens to look at.

RELATED - Library program encourages youth to stay involved in libraries 

“This is the age where kids lose interest in reading, and may not know what else the library has to offer, so Darla Hibbard (the school's media center director) and I talked about how to get the children more involved and came up with this idea,” Byrne said.

Byrne would typically come and speak with students about reading once in a while, but she wanted to do something more with the kids to keep them involved.

“I figured this would be a great opportunity to educate them about all of our services and keep them involved with reading for fun, not just for school,” Byrne said.

The Cromaine District Library in Hartland Township had a rough road the last couple of years. The library's Crossroads branch fought to stay open to cater to younger people when it transformed from a classic reading library to a study and computer area.

The branch contains iPads, computers and DVDs for customers to use.

"With the closure of Crossroads, the fund used to operate that facility will be used to continue the renovations to the main branch," said Cromaine District Library Director Ceci Marlow. "A library isn't just an area for people to read, they have so much more to offer, which is why we hope to see both public and school libraries maintain growth."

RELATED - Future of Cromaine District Library

The renovations at Cromaine will include study rooms, small meeting rooms, a youth-only program room and a separate teen area.

"These are 'people' spaces — places for the community to gather, connect, learn and build," Marlow said.

During last weekend's workshop at the Livingston County EMS facility in Howell Township will be one of many meetings hosted in the upcoming months to figure out the best way to gain funding for school libraries.

"It will be a long road back to advocate for school libraries because it's been out of sight, out of mind for so long," Lester said, who noted that 30 other states are also hosting workshops to discuss funding for the new legislation.

Legislation is expected to be in a place in Michigan sometime in 2017.

Contact Livingston Daily education reporter Abby Welsh Alusheff at awelsh@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @abby_welshLD.