Ukiah High library in dire straits

Anonymous Patron writes “The Ukiah Daily Journal Online says Ukiah High library is in dire straits. The Ukiah High School library is short of books, and many of the ones it does have are more than 20 years old, according to its librarian.”

May 21, 2005 by Uncategorized 3

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3 Responses

  1. mdoneil says:
    May 22, 2005 at 1:02 am

    Why is this a surprise
    It seems that a lack of planning has caused them a short term emergency. Car washes and bake sales are not the answer.

    A school library is an integral part of the school, moreso than band, or athletics, or drama club or any extracurricular activities for which the Ukiah school district seems to be able to find funds.

    According to the school district (their report card can be found here) they are funding library services- as well as the other things I mentioned.

    It seems someone, the principal, the librarian, someone has failed to make clear to the administration that their library is substandard. It also seems to me that the librarian should be just that a librarian, not a librarian and reading teacher. The librarian should have time in his or her day to evaluate and apply for additional funding. My God this is in California and they couldn’t squeeze a few bucks out of Bill Gates. Grant writing has become a function of librarians and it seems to me that little of it is being done at Ukiah High.

    A failure to plan is a plan to fail.

    Reply
  2. Walt says:
    May 22, 2005 at 1:33 am

    Re:Why is this a surprise
    Bill Gates? Unless they’ve moved Redmond several hundred miles south, I’m not sure what Bill Gates has to do with California–and “squeezing a few bucks out of” isn’t how Gates’ billions in philanthropy works anyway. (And, frankly, given how much time librarians spent slamming Gates for his last big library donation–the reason that 98% of America’s public libraries have internet access–I’m a little surprised that the Gates Foundation still does do some library-related work, which it does.)

    Would that it weren’t so, but California–thanks to Prop. 13 and politicians like the Governator–ranks something like 43d among in per-pupil spending. Of course, the $55 billion in federal tax outflow–by far the highest in the nation–doesn’t help a lot either.

    Part of the story here is that Ukiah High still has at least part of a librarian. There are far too many schools in California where that’s not true.

    Reply
  3. mdoneil says:
    May 22, 2005 at 5:30 am

    Re:Why is this a surprise
    Road trip. They could all pile into an old Toyota and drive north to Redmond.

    I did read the part about Prop 13, but that was in the 70’s. Why do the people in California put up with this crap? Libraries are important, school libraries moreso. I don’t live there, but if I did I would sit in my representatives office until they stopped wasting money and spent it on libraries.

    Reply

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