Economic Effects on High School Media Centers - Dissertation Example

?Running Head: Economic Effects on High School Media Centers Economic Effects on High School Media Centers [Institute’s Economic Effects on High School Media Centers Literature Review “Public and school libraries are typically among the first institutions on the chopping block because legislators often think they're “something you can do without or make up some other way, says Mary Costabile, associate director of the American Library Association.” (n.d., 2002) She stated this with relation to the recent budget cuts which several states had experienced. She noticed, along with several other dismayed academic professionals, as these budget reductions went straight to affect the educational aspect of these states, especially the libraries. As Mary pointed out, the school media centers were the first to be cut from the budget, because their importance is not viewed by all in a unanimous way. Rather, there are some who fail to see the importance of having an updated, fully functional library in every school which hopes to produce the minds that will further develop the world. This factor has been a major downfall for the system, as each economic recession in these areas costs these high school media centers a significant portion of their funding. It is significant to study the numerous ways in which a recession can affect the functioning of the world. This is because the severity of a recession can be very pertinent to the quality of life in an economy, as it affects several aspects of the economy. As research shows, the effects of a recession are apparent in several important economic indicators, such as real personal income, retail sale and food services, industrial production and employment (Gascon, 2009). All these indicators show different ways in which the health of an economy can be measured. Exploring some other indicators, which are perhaps not so commonly used to measure the wellbeing of an economy, may help give a deeper perspective on how the economy functions and affects people on an individual level. To understand the impact of an economic recession on the use and funding of library resources serves the purpose of such an indicator. This is because this factor represents an important way in which the community helps the youth develop intellectually and gain information on their own. Thus, measuring the effects on this factor following a recession indicates how much the youth’s education is impacted by a recession-stricken economy. If research proves a strong link between the two variables, this signals the need for the government and other authorities to monitor the effects of future recessions carefully so that they do not lead to irrecoverable damage. Effect on Role of Media Centers and Technicians The role of the media specialists of such libraries observes a notable effect in times of economic recession. According to some experts (n.d., 2010), their role becomes increasingly important in when an economic recession strikes a place like Georgia. This is because media centers such as the ones found in high schools or the ones open for the public are traditionally available to everyone as a free source of information, through the access of books, magazines, newspaper archives, CDs and other types of media. Thus, when people feel the negative effects of recessions and budget cuts, they approach these libraries for help (n.d., 2010). This can be to look for more sources of employment, to study further and gain further education or to try applying for a job with the civil services. These libraries are an immense help to such people. They are greatly helpful in assisting them in applying for jobs online, as well as finding study material for civil service exams. These libraries are also known for the help they offer these people in making their resumes, as well as obtaining further education which will be required for other jobs. Thus, it is true that these US libraries serve a very important purpose for their citizens, especially in their times of need, which is when recessions are making their lives more difficult. Thus, one can deduce that the role of media technicians of such high school and public media centers becomes much larger in the face of such detrimental economic effects. Apart from this, as recessions take away the jobs of several people who are not qualified or educated enough to perform jobs of any other nature, these people too, turn to libraries. They will seek to improve their knowledge on a different field, or they will seek to enhance their understanding of the requirements of some other job, so that they may train themselves for it accordingly. Thus, these media centers are a very important resource for those people whom the recession hits the hardest. Their role is magnified as these people begin to need a source that makes information available to them, through which they can answer their questions and educate themselves about what skills and courses of action they will need to survive the recession. Thus, this presents another way in which the role of such media centers and their technicians increases greatly due to adverse economic effects. There is one important factor to note in this fact though. While demand for library resources are increasingly greatly due to the recession, librarians in these libraries do not see their roles expanding along with this increased use. Before electronic resources such as computers and internet had revolutionized the way that libraries functioned, librarians were significant in the roles they played for the users. Not only they are the maintainers of the library and its access to different resources, both online and print, they were also the unofficial guides of the library of any users who were not familiar with the library’s layout themselves. These users would always seek out the librarian whenever having difficulty in finding research related to a certain topic (Lynch, 2002). This is not longer the case, as search engines and computerized data records enable everyone who knows how to operate a computer to search for data on any topic which they may want to research. They no longer require assistance from another person to search for data or information like they did just a few decades ago. This is not to say that the role of librarian has become obsolete, by any means. The role of these media center technicians is still an active one, as someone is still required to maintain the resources available in the library. Also, someone is needed who will play a management role for all the resources available, ensuring the proper upkeep of the available resources as well as ensuring that all material available is updated and current. These are all important duties which these media center technicians are needed for even in times of recession. The main change that has economic recession has brought to their roles is simply that when there is a recession, the demand for library technicians remains inelastic as the demand for library resources increases greatly. In other words, the increasing use of library resources does not equally increase the need for librarians and media center technicians (Anderson, 2011). Another article published by the American Library Association (G., B., 2007) revealed several truths about this profession, and how it has been suffering devaluation and degradation in the face of recession. As the budgets are cut back for the school libraries, their librarians complain about how negatively theses cutbacks affect their own jobs. As the authorities tried to fit these enormous budget cuts into the functioning of their media centers, they came to the conclusion that they would have to adjust the proportion of these budgets which were allocated to these technicians and librarians. This conclusion led the decision that these people would have to be laid off, transferred to the teaching departments or switched from full-time to part time employees. The librarians and technicians saw this move as a very degrading one to their professions. One school librarian, Nancy Runyan (G., B., 2007) complained about how devaluing these cutbacks were to their life’s work. Library sciences were the field to which these librarians and technicians have dedicated their careers. The achievements they made are all related to this field, and to now make their roles seem obsolete by cutting their roles in the functions in the library is disrespectful to their work and disheartening to them to continue working hard (G., B., 2007). Thus, it is apparent from the findings of this article that the role of the media center technicians becomes decreasingly relevant during recessions, which consequently has a dampening effect on the motivation of these employees. Thus it is the duty of the government to ensure that these employees are not forced to bear the effects of the recession alone by giving up their own jobs. Ensuring this will reduce the negative effects that recessions may have on the role of librarians and technicians. However, this does not have any reflection of the relevance of library resources in a recession. Several studies (n.d., 2010) have shown how there is a direct link between recessions and increasing use of library resources. This increasing importance was also attached to the presence of academic libraries present especially in high schools. According to a study (n.d., 2010), 96% of the people surveyed believed that high school libraries play a very important role in society, as they educate the youth of the population and make several learning resources available to them which contribute greatly to their academic development. On an average, these schools experienced an increase in use of libraries at the rate of 1.5 hours more per week, from 2008 to 2009 (n.d., 2010). This growing use indicates that the recession prevailing at that time did not stop the use of these media centers, but instead increased the use. People greatly support this increasing use of school libraries, because according to them these libraries provide students with an out-of-classroom learning experience which they cannot gain through any other means. And since any resource spent on education the youth is a large investment for a country, this is an encouraging response for the country and places like Georgia can consequently hope to see positive change and influence in the near future. Effect on Funding The paradox regarding this increased use is the fact that despite the growing importance of these libraries during economic recessions, the funding that these libraries receive is not mirrored in the response to recessions. As the American Library Association (n.d., 2010) discovered through research, the increasing use of these libraries during recession is met by shrinking library resources, as their funds are compromised and set aside. As these researchers (n.d., 2010) found, majority of the library organizations which faced budget cuts and reduced funding, reported that they had faced reductions in their budget between 5 to 10 percent. This is not only a significant figure for each individual library to bear in its operating costs, it also has severe implications for the overall library resources available in the US, especially during times when these libraries are high in demand (n.d., 2010). It implies that the needs of those citizens, who have turned to media centers in the time when recessions have gotten the worst of them, will not be met, even though they are entitled to this public good. These libraries, following the budget cuts had fewer staff available to serve the people, who came to use these resources. Also, they could afford to be open for a fewer number of hours each week as opposed to the prior situation. This shows that the economic effects on media centers, public and high school, are negative, as their funding reduces even if their use is increasing. Similarly, the high school libraries are also experiencing great reductions in funding following such recessions. According to recent studies, many of these schools have had to cut down the resources which kept their librarians in place, thus having to dismiss several librarians and other supporting staff who helped in maintaining the library (n.d., 2010). A significant example of this is apparent in an article published in 2003 (n.d., 2003), which reported the extremity of some budget cuts which libraries faced from the year 2002 to 2003. According to authorities, the state funding in California for school library materials was $158.5 million dollars in the 2002. However, as the authorities reported, this budget was decreased by a very significant 80% by 2003 (n.d., 2003). This cut down the state budget for school library materials to $24.2 million dollars. This figure further decreased later on, as consequent budget cuts all affected the funding for school library materials further. These cut offs led to one of the school districts having to lay off a total of 24 employees in order to meet the expenses with the limited budget left. They held the governor responsible for this, as he has signed off on these reductions. However, it is not important who received all the blame, because the actions taking place in other states of America showed the same trend, which predicts that any other governor in the place of this one would have most likely passed the same decision. Another article (n.d., 2003) about the same happening reported how these cutbacks made it necessary for these people to reduce their expenditure on updating and maintaining the library. They had to stop buying new books till the next fiscal year, and could not afford to hire additional staff even though there were around ten vacant posts which signaled the need for more help. In other words, the budget cuts not only led to a problem in maintaining the resources available to these libraries, but they also prevented these libraries from updating and improving their resources in their regular operations (n.d., 2003). This is a sad reality which brings forward the fact of how little importance the government places on the role which these school libraries play in the community. The increase of the use of these libraries during times of economic recession should be a clear indicator of how they play a very important role in the community not just at regular times, but also times of difficulty. It is thus alarming to see such massive budget cuts in the funding of these school libraries when even there are so many clear indicators of their importance (n.d., 2003). Another article, which greatly helps understand how recessions can affect high school libraries, delves into the effect the Great Depression had on this area, back in the 1930s. The above-mentioned heavy cuts in budget were also present in these times, even though the above-analyzed literature dates to several decades after the great depression (n.d., 2003). This shows that despite the numerous years of advancement that have followed the depression, the government has not figured out a more fruitful solution than to pass on some of the major budget cuts onto the library budgets. As research shows, this was the same solution that the government employed during the great depression. Some major changes that followed these library budget cuts were apparent in the decrease in resources which the libraries had to offer after the decreased in their funding. For example, these libraries reported to coping with the decreased funds by decreasing their purchases of fiction books, and concentrating on stocking the non-fiction material which is essential to research. Apart from this, they also stopped stocking multiple copied of the same book (Anderson, 2011). Also, they had to resort to charging a fee to those users of the library who did not pay city taxes, since these taxes were indirectly used to fund these libraries, amongst several other public goods. They had to negotiate for cheaper rates with the local binderies. Also, they changed shelving practices to save time and money, often leaving books in carts for people to browse through, instead of constantly rearranging the shelves by putting the most popular books at the front. Apart from this, the salaries of all maintenance staff and libraries suffered severe decreases in order to balance out the large budget cut-downs with the daily operations. These are only a fraction of all the different actions, which these libraries had to take in order to cope with the large reductions in their funding. Soon, all over Florida (the place where this study took place), there were under-resourced and understaffed libraries. And as statistics of that time show, only 60% of the people in that area had access to free library resources (Quinlan, 2008). While this article discussed a very different time, the effects it indicates which followed the recession are very similar to the ones that are observed during the most recent decade (Kalich, 2008), despite the numerous years of advancements and development that have followed since then. This negative effect needs catering to by the government and responsible authorities in Georgia. This is because not only will a decrease in library funding stunt the intellectual and academic growth of students and other users, it will also decrease the ability of the public to cope with the negative effects of such difficult recessions. By reducing the library resources available to these people, the government is disabling those people who were trying to cure their redundancy in the labor market which the recession revealed. Thus, it is in the favor of not only the individuals searching for jobs during recessions, but also the whole recession-stricken economy (Luyt, 2007). Effect on Role of Technology Another important factor to consider is how the role of technology in high school media centers is affected during a recession. Studies have explored this matter deeply as well, as the importance and influence of technology in several aspects of life is widespread. And as research indicated, this also applies to the role of technology in media centers. This refers especially to internet use, which is one of the most popular resources in the libraries, especially as recognized during the recession. This popularity of the internet in media centers stems from the multiple uses it holds for the users of these libraries (Quinlan, 2008). They may employ this resource for research about several different areas which may not have published research available in the printed journals and books. They can also use this resource to get information about different jobs they may be interested in, or as above mentioned, to apply for new jobs when the recession sometimes puts their existing jobs in danger (Lance, Hofschire, and Daisey, 2010). Apart from internet related resources, these libraries have also revolutionized operations due to several other forms of technology. The same information and data which was once available only in print form, is now available in CDs, online databases, and computers which are now set up in all libraries for the facilitation of the users. This, however, does cause a small problem for the maintainers of the library. Those responsible for the maintenance of the school libraries in Georgia complain about how initially they had to pay only for buying books. Now, however, they must pay for CDs, online periodicals and journals, IT products and packages, and computers and computer-related devices (Quinlan, 2008). They talk about how this means a bigger problem when the government slashes the budgets for these libraries. Since the libraries need a lot more funds than they did a few decades due to their more expensive, technology intensive nature (n.d., 2002). Thus, the recession causes a large problem for those high school libraries, which have a technology-dominated front, and it is thus the responsibility of the government to ensure that this problem be kept under consideration when reducing the funds allotted to these libraries. These public libraries provide these users with a major advantage by providing them with internet resources, as through them they have access to several databases and information sites which are otherwise not feasible for an individual to subscribe to. Furthermore, these libraries understand that not every user of public libraries is accustomed to using the internet, since not all of these users have frequent use for it or an internet connection at their homes (Quinlan, 2008). Thus, these media centers often have training programs for their users, which aim to familiarize the newer users of the internet with its functioning, so that they may be able to perform their tasks without any difficulty. Overall, this increasing use of the internet in libraries has helped to greatly revolutionize the functions of these libraries, and has facilitated the users greatly. This use further expands during the research, as research indicates. According to a study (Anderson, 2011), the internet under utilization in these libraries increased by 11 percent from 2006 to 2009 due to the recession, and this was mainly because the recession makes it increasingly difficult for people to subscribe to the expensive online databases on their own, where as the public libraries provide them with free access to the same online databases. Due to such reasons, the role of internet based technology in libraries increases greatly during times of economic recession and financial difficulty. References Anderson, R. (2011). “The Crisis in Research Librarianship.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship. Issue July 2011, pp. 1-2. G., B. (2007). “Deficits Bedevil Nation's School Librarians.” Los Angeles Times. American Libraries. Gascon, C. S. (2009). “The Current Recession: How Bad Is It?” Economic Synopses. Issue 4, pp. 1-2. Kalich, K. (2008). “How They Did It: Fund Our Future Washington.” Teach Library. Volume 36, Issue 2, Dec 2008. Lance, K. C., Hofschire, L. and Daisey, J. (2011). The Impact of the Recession on Public Library Use in Colorado. Library Research Service. Luyt, B. (2007). “The Ala, Public Libraries and the Great Depression.” Library History. Volume 23, June 2007. Lynch, M. J. (2002). Economic Hard Times and Public Library Use Revisited. EBSCO Publishing. n.d. (2002). “Libraries feel recession’s bite.” School Library Journal. Volume 48, Issue 4. n.d. (2002). Georgia Legislature Slashes School Library Funds. American Libraries. n.d. (2003). “California Gov. Halves Statewide Library Funding.” News Fronts. EBSCO Publishing. n.d. (2003). “California Governor cuts $11.6 million from School Libraries.” News Fronts. EBSCO Publishing. n.d. (2010). The State of America’s Libraries. American Library Association. Quinlan, N. J. (2008). Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: The Great Depression and Florida Libraries. Florida Libraries. Read More