Joyce Valenza’s Neverending Search

The lists and the blogs were rampant with stories for us to digest relating to libraries and books and schools.
The New York Times printed Lock the Library! Rowdy Students are Taking Over.

Every afternoon at Maplewood Middle School’s final bell, dozens of students pour across Baker Street to the public library. Some study quietly. The Baker Street library in Maplewood, N.J., near a middle school, will soon close from 2:45 to 5 p.m. Others, library officials say, fight, urinate on the bathroom floor, scrawl graffiti on the walls, talk back to librarians or refuse to leave when asked. One recently threatened to burn down the branch library. Librarians call the police, sometimes twice a day. As a result, starting on Jan. 16, the Maplewood Memorial Library will be closing its two buildings on weekdays from 2:45 to 5 p.m., until further notice.

As a former public librarian I read this piece with conflicting feelings. We work so hard to bring young people into our libraries. We want to grow adult citizens who value libraries. But not all latchkey kids belong in our libraries for the three long hours between school and dinnertime. In our schools we may have a little more influence over the teens we meet and how they behave in our environments. I hope the Maplewood community can work together to find a solution that doesn’t involve closing doors on all young users.

Forbes asks the question: Are books in danger? Encouraging and surprising answers come from the likes of Barbara Tuchman,

Margaret Atwood,

Ray Bradbury
Vint Cerf
Roger Ebert
Neil Gaiman
Peter Gethers
Daniel Goleman
Sebastian Junger
Chip Kidd
Stan Lee
Amy Sedaris
Tavis Smiley
Lemony Snicket
and others! There’s lots of cool stuff here about: current-day book burning; trends relating to copyright and downloading; technology and publishing; and the Internet and reading.

And eSchoolNews reported on New York City schools’ ban on cell phones

New York City school officials are taking some heat for a proposed solution to the city’s controversial ban on student cell phones in schools. The proposal would have students leave their cell phones in special lockers outside their schools, and students likely would pay 25 or 50 cents to use the lockers each day. Critics of the plan say they don’t see how schools will be able to accommodate the lockers–and they balk at the idea of charging students for their use.

This story and the stories of resulting parent lawsuits should be interesting to follow.