This week is National Library Week, with Tuesday (April 25th) being National Library Staff Appreciation Day. Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton recently met with Central Illinois public and school librarians at a librarians tea. And one thing Stratton later shared with Neuhoff Media was how important librarians have been to her four daughters, such as introducing them to perfect books at the right time; such as Charlotte’s Web.
AUDIO: I read it to my youngest, who’s just seven. And she; it was probably the first chapter book that long that she wanted to sit and listen to. But it was a librarian that really helped us to think about what would be an appropriate book, in consultation with me, and we talked that through.
For Executive Director Jennifer Hess at the Danville Public Library, times are good as far as usership and amount of library card applications. And recently, a story about someone who may be choosing a career.
AUDIO: We actually had a parent of one of the teens that hangs out at our teen zone tell our teen librarian that he was considering going to school for librarianship, because of our work with him.
And “librarians of the future” is a very important issue for Danville District 118 Certified Librarian Jacob Roskovensky, who participated in the librarians tea with Lieutenant Governor Stratton. Roskovensky says a better pipeline is needed, especially for students that want to be school librarians. Because right now an undergrad degree in school librarianship does not exist, which causes prospective students who know what they want to take a bit of a detour.
AUDIO: If a student would like to become a school librarian, they would need to get an undergraduate degree in any teaching area, and then go back and get a master’s or get a certification at the graduate level. So, to me, that is our biggest hurdle. The kids have to study something else as undergraduate, even though they know they want to become a school librarian.
Lieutenant Governor Stratton says there’s an overall librarian shortage as well as a teacher shortage, so access to education is more important than ever.
