The Demise of School Libraries

The current situation of school libraries is up for a lot of debate.  Many are seeing a great reduction in staff, budget, supplies, etc.  But are school libraries really declining to the point of disappearing?  

Everything changes and goes through a cycle, I think this is just a cycle that libraries are going through.  Where staff, technology, design, and even cataloging are changing; but it's just leading to a newer version of a school library, a better version for this generation.

I am not proposing that the internet or other technology can replace a librarian; objects can't replace an educated, thinking person.  However, I do believe that new technologies will play a key role in libraries in the future.  

Unfortunately, teacher librarians are paying the price with their jobs in this transitional period.  The New York Times article, In Lean Times, Schools Squeeze Out Librarians gives a great illustration of the decisions and reasoning behind many school librarians are losing their jobs.  

Unfortunately, not everyone has the same opinion.  The School Library Journal posted an article on how librarians that have embraced new technology have contributed to their own demise, Who's to Blame for the Demise of School Libraries?  If this opinion was true, libraries would still be in their infancy and not have RFID systems, computers, databases, the Dewey Decimal system, or the Library of Congress classification system.  

I think that the majority of the pubic recognizes that new technology cannot replace a librarian in full.  There are nuances, and depths to the job that artificial intelligence can't duplicate.  No matter how advanced technology gets, there will always be a need for a person to oversee and deal with human issues, which happen to be things that librarians are great at accomplishing.