I chose to visit the Gladeville Elementary School library, located in the school I currently teach. While I have been inside this library for various reasons, I have never spent time focusing purely on the setting, purpose, and achievements of this library. As I dove into my visit, I learned some great things, as well as some disappointing things.

The school website is https://www.gves.ccpsd.k12.va.us/en-US. The digital access for the library is almost non-existent, and what is there is not up to date enough to be useful. The only mention of the library at all is the picture of librarian listed under the staff tab and a basic searchable catalog for items located in the library. Using this searchable catalog on my school computer, I found only one book out of ten that were listed as available. When I asked the librarian, she said the records have not been updated in many years, and those books were probably lost or tossed, due to damage. Also noteworthy and extended upon in the physical space summary, is the disorganization. If the books were there, they might not have been shelved properly, or at all. I found this extremely disappointing. It proves to be very limiting, when the catalog is not updated or accurate, or when books are just stacked on shelves.

The library is located in the center of the building, with two access doors. One set of these doors remains locked, so students and staff use the entrance closest to the main office. The physical space is very small and cluttered. One of the main working issues of the physical space is the larger class sizes. As you can see in the photo below, a beautiful mural provides a background to the direct instruction and read aloud section, with sit-upon steps below that would typically hold about 16 students. Since our class sizes have grown to up to 28 students in grades fourth and fifth, and 23 students in kindergarten through third, it actually proves to be counterproductive.

Though the school serves many students with accessibility needs, I don’t see any evidence of resources. It would be difficult for a student in need of wheel chair access to navigate between the shelves, tables, and help desk. The shelves are low, which does help younger students access materials. The library does not have any meeting rooms, and only allows sitting space at small round tables. There are three computers on the side of the library, and these computers are connected to the only printer in the school. Other than daily classes, there are no special programs currently being offered.

The library is organized in several different ways, and this can make it difficult for even me to locate a book. The nonfiction section uses the Dewey Decimal system and encompasses the entire selection. Once you get to the fiction section, the confusion sets in. Organized by grades prek-1, 2-3, and 4-5, the fiction section is alphabetically arranged by the author’s last name. However, there is no signage that shows which sections are for which grade levels. Also, many of the authors overlap, and it can be difficult to locate which section to look. If I weren’t familiar with the recommended grade levels for certain authors, it would take a lot of time. As noted before, the lack of about a third of the books being shelved at all, makes this library difficult to use. I think it reflects a librarian who is overutilized and has little time for shelving and library needs.

This library serves about 300 students in grades prek-5, some of which are special needs students. There is one librarian, and she sees classes all five days of the school week, for 40 minutes each. She does have several extra planning periods, and on Friday evenings, she only has two classes in the morning. The students do not have the option of coming to the library, unless it is their designated class time, or they are accompanied by an adult for testing purposes. For the most part, the library is not used by any students outside of their weekly 40 minute class or during SOL testing.

I do not note any special collections in this library. The only equipment that is available to check out are overhead projectors and Chromebooks for staff members. Other than print books, there are no other resources available to students.

Though I have worked around this library for nearly a decade, I am surprised by how disappointed I felt. I think it is clear this library serves an elementary school population, but it is also clear that the librarian needs help and more resources. Rubin and Rubin (2020) state “only 56,000 school libraries (61%) have full-time librarians” (p. 175). Even with one full time librarian, I can see that Gladeville’s library could use a hand. Before budget cuts, there was a part time position, devoted to shelving and general clerical tasks. Some pertinent questions I have are, now that we are not in a county budget crisis, would they consider this job again? Also, who is in charge of updating the digital catalog? Would the school be interested in audiobooks, to better serve students? While I do think my personal connection leads me to hold this library to a higher standard, I think there are many areas that could be improved upon.

Resources

Rubin, R. E. and Rubin, R. G. (2020). Foundations of library and information science (5th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.