Last year, before I left school for the summer, I handed over two orders: one for the majority of my databases, and the other for 260 books for my library. I don't know that I should get into specific dollar amounts, but let's just say these two orders make up 69.44% of the total money I spend for the year.
These two orders were handed over to my school secretary, so that she could send them to the state of Pennsylvania this summer, and they would be filled used grant money that I obviously desperately rely on to supply resources for my students each year.
But now that money may not come through.
On top of the grant falling through, PA is also trying to cut the library programs throughout the state by 73%. The main problem for many libraries with this is the loss of a valuable group of databases known as the POWER Library. Every single library in the state has access to these, including school, public, academic, and special libraries. Every single library in the state is in danger of losing their access to the POWER Library, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't have a budget to replace these valuable databases.
If the state budget passes WITH the POWER Library being cut, and my grant doesn't come through, I will be in a place of utter despair. I know that sounds dramatic, but this is what it would look like:
1. my students could lose 25 databases, and be left with only 4
2. my book order of 260 books will not come through, and I do not have money to replace that order
3. I have no idea what my students will use for research, being as all they will have left is one online encyclopedia, one science database, one history/geography database, and one general database
Number one on that list especially makes me want to cry. How can I prepare my students for college if I can't teach them about database searching and research? They need a variety of resources, not FOUR.
Number two I am still worried about, but a tiny bit less because I have a fundraiser/used book sale in mind; it would be so, so much work, but something I need to do. I can't stand the thought of not keeping up with new books and having these in my library.
Number three, which is basically the same as number one, scares me.
If you are reading this and you live in PA, please make your voice heard. I ignored it for too long, because I am terrible with snail mail, but I got an email not long ago that said I could quickly email a PA official. I did, and I actually got a response back!
Please click here to help save libraries - the letter is already written, all you have to do is sign your name and email it!
And please, if you have any ideas or help for me, share.
4 comments:
That is really upsetting. I haven't seen cuts that drastic yet in NJ and in my dstrict, but I definitely feel the purse strings tightening. I'm starting to think about grants I can apply for to hedge future cuts. Here's one I just heard about this week: http://www.legochildrensfund.org/Guidelines.html
It is distressing. Libraries are getting hit everywhere. I don't know if they'll care about a letter from Utah, but I sent it anyway.
Thank you for the Forest Born nomination! You made my day.
Shannon, you are SO welcome! :) It made my day to be the one to nominate your book!
If it makes you feel any better (and I doubt it), I don't subscribe to any data bases. We do a lot of teaching on how to search for reliable web sites through search engines, and the local public library donates encyclopedias to us. But no new books-- that's appalling. Hopefully you have enough glue and tape to hold the books you have together for a while.
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