BUDGET+CUTS++2009

Martha - Based on the information shared at Panera Bread Tuesday, the intense feelings shared in subsequent emails, comparison between local realities and the ideals and values shown valid by the Baumbach study and more, it appears that an explosion of message needs to occur to match the speed of events happening. Library media specialists have jobs unique to their location, their principal's priorities, and more. To the extent that there may not be any "standardized library media specialists" in the county. Dealing with the situation needs to be at least twofold: internal and external. For those curious, see the value of multiplying the base in the face of opposition: You Tube “Pay Attention” shares the potential for using technology to reach large groups all at once. Go to [|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M_336pDWoM] to view this. Then go to [|http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers] and sign up for free access to the MEDIA wikispace. Read posted comments and contribute your own there beginning with [|http://duvalmedia.wikispaces.com/] I will forward links to other blogs tomorrow. Remember the economic prosperity of our area is completely dependent on workforce quality and capability. This correlates directly with education and training experienced which begins at the beginning in elementary school.Schools with functional library media centers, as opposed to conceived "revised delivery" media centers, have proven themselves to deliver capable students into the workforce all across the nation in every study conducted the last 20 years.Schools with partial library media services score poorly and contribute negatively to their area's ability to thrive economically. Florida recently announced it cannot wait for tourism to recommence and needs to attract business and manufacturing. Education is critical to being thus attractive.Budget costs of providing education cannot be the main argument because the cost of illiteracy is astronomical and, if not resolved in elementary school, becomes more and more expensive as an individual matures beyond elementary school. Look at the increased demand for community colleges [also in state budget] to teach much of what was not taught already in public schools. And the cost-totals grow further when the costs of corrections are included since a large percentage of those incarcerated are functionally illiterate and cannot take care of themselves. The least-cost and most efficient use of tax dollars is to start children off on the right foot. Media specialists are trained to meet the needs of administrations, parents, teachers, and students while they manage their centers and collections and programs. 20 years ago the United Way donations dropped because agencies were not delivering tangible results for funds invested. Donors saw decreased value and accordingly decreased their donations. Noting a correlation, the United Way started holding their agencies accountable for delivery of actual products for the funds provided and donations increased. Some similar deliverable value system needs to be devised for education since more dollars have proven ineffective to meet core literacy needs. Budget shortfalls are real and other methods of promoting literacy can be found. Unfortunately, none of them will succeed unless they contain the core value, the heart of literacy, the one trained to collaborate, coordinate, and help all stakeholders succeed: the library media specialist. Currently some media specialists have increased their task loads to 2 or more media centers and work for more than one principal with remarkably different task loads. Serving more than one master has recorded failures since the beginning of history whereas a single leader supervising more than one subordinate is the model of success. In business, prices are driven down when the same job is performed multiple times. This is economy of scale. Wherever there are change orders, prices increase. Thus media specialists working for more than one principal in the private sector would command higher salaries than one working for a single principal. Library media specialists serve all education literacy stakeholders. Few others do likewise. To keep the heart of literacy beating, recommend keeping the library media specialists and the media centers running and place the administrative staffs over one or more schools which would flatten the bureaucracy by at least one layer and save significant dollars. In this manner efficiency becomes the focus of "revised delivery", literacy grows, scholars are created, value for personal discipline and responsibility reappears, trust is regained, and the system rebuilds itself to last.The management, care and nurture of the media center is also important. A university-trained media specialist knows what to do with the center. Others do not. If surgery is needed, does one expect a receptionist to perform the surgery successfully or do the job of reception? If flying across the country, does one want a baggage attendant to fly the plane safely or attend to the bags? If education is needed, does one expect someone untrained to know how to lead forth [from Latin ex ducare] in a multimedia high-spirited manner or order them to be good little carbon footprint zombies learning nothing? Then there is risk management. Some library media center collections are valued as low as $100k while others exceed $500k. Who is accountable when the facility is no longer managed by a trained professional as is the case today in several county schools? There is a loud protest when public library hours are reduced. What will be the parents' and students' and teachers' and concerned other taxpayers' responses when they learn their school libraries are no longer staffed, or open, or both and that no one is held accountable for the collection? It seems to me that devising a new system of evaluation is warranted, one which takes into account the number of hours student-services are provided, the number of hours parents/teachers/administration are collaborated, the amount of education and other professional investment is required to accomplish the tasks, etc. No one in the school serves the masses the way library media specialists do. Thanks for listening. joe (remote access)
 * Internally, library media specialists need to decide who they are, what they need to do, and go after that. Nothing is impossible. The system is where it is because all involved have done what they have done up to now. For a system to change, each individual must first change their self definitions, their doings, and their feelings/ visions/ expectations to that they foresee when all is ideal. Immediately everyone notices that things have changed.
 * Externally, we talked briefly about being newsworthy and getting individuals involved. Actually that method is too slow today. An information explosion is needed immediately and possible only using blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and the like. An information explosion takes on a life of its own, creates newsworthy items, and then editorials, opinion writers, elected officials, etc. become involved. Just as there has been an explosion of emails in the past 2 days, such an amount will be small when folks leap on wikispace / other blogs.