| Patron Non Grata I read with interest Norma's call to our profession, specifically for public library types to take a collective self-inventory. If relevancy has ever been an issue for public libraries, now is the hour. Stakeholder attention, once steadfast and dependable, has become brittle. Digital media's march to decentralization is creating a fickle if not jaded clientele. $147 was taken from my local property taxes last year for my library card. This up from $134 in 2005. Concurrently last month I negotiated a new high speed DSL rate of $19.99 per month. I paid $39.99 the month before. You see the trend. Now consider the fact that libraries can be generally divided between those with "dedicated" constituencies, and those without. Academic and special libraries, though certainly not immune from external factors, have a much higher degree of "inelasticity" to borrow an economics term. In other words, cheaper, innovative consumer goods and services have a higher negative impact upon public libraries. These constituencies are more likely to find less costly private alternatives, e.g. cheap DSL and Amazon. For those of us toiling in the academic/special environs, we have prohibitive costs (Westlaw, Elsevier, SCI,...) to thank in large part for our relevance. But you knew this already. I return to relevancy. 1.1 million children were homeschooled last year according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). This number represents a 29% increase since 1999 and double the student population of 500,000 in 1995. (Revisiting the Common Myths about Homeschooling). If there is such a thing as manna for public libraries hungry for relevance, this is it. But it now appears that any effort to proactively engage this growing constituency on behalf of public libraries is dead. Instead, these same libraries are left to hold the coat while ALA pursues its progressive puttering. But there was hope not so long ago. In 2002 Midwinter in New Orleans, ALA's Association for Library Service for Children voted to establish a Home School Task Force to;
The information dearth is even more shameful when searching ALA publications, American Libraries and Children & Libraries. Aside from actor Will Smith's blurb about his homeschooled children in the January 2007 American Libraries, the last substantive article discussing support of homeschoolers was published over ten years ago in the same publication. (Bookmobile provides home-schoolers with regular library period, November 1996). True to form, a cursory search in the same periodicals finds the literature replete with anything related gender or sexual orientation. So why the tepid response? Demographics. At least in this librarian's opinion. Ironically homeschooling has its roots with politically active liberals in the 1960's. As public schools have become more secular, Evangelical Christians have decided to "stay at home" and now comprise the largest demographic slice within the movement. According to the NCES, 72% of homeschooling parents are motivated by the desire to provide a religious and moral learning environment. But this majority presents a predicament for an association devoted to literacy but with a manifest distaste for any mixing of intellectual freedom and an incarnate Jesus Christ. Supporting a faith-based, namely Christian education curriculum, would be tantamount to letting God back in the schools. Can one really imagine ALA offering, say for example, a bibliography for Christian homeschooling pedagogy? Collection development? No way. This notwithstanding their mission to serve all segments of society and support libraries as;
Homeschooling also represents a rejection of the social progressivism of non-sectarian educators like Horace Mann. This repudiation, I think it fair to say, is also a warning to other tax-supported institutions in fear of becoming marginalized. Maybe even a premonition. So, rather than cultivate a new partnership, ALA has opted to devote its energy to largely non-germane activism and dare I say free-loading constituencies. It's also interesting to note that the American Homeschool Association provides a link on their web page to ALA. The gesture is not reciprocated. Instead we discern the relationships ALA values by looking at the links they do provide; Greenpeace, Working Assets, NOW, and Digital Queers. In fairness, there are some public libraries that do outreach for homeschoolers worth recognizing. Ironically one of the best is just down the road from ALA headquarters in Chicago. Johnsonville Public Library serves as model for libraries willing to embrace the trend. But these examples are isolated. So what we have here in 2007 is a movement consisting of mostly energized, resourceful, engaged, educated, free-thinking, free-market Christians scaring the hell out of ALA. (I swear no pun intended) Why else the reticence? No ALAWON talking points, roundtables, task forces, resolutions, et al., will likely cajole, intimidate these folks. And like me, they too are capable of negotiating cheaper DSL rates and tying the public purse strings of local public libraries that look the other way. J.A. Avner had it right nearly twenty years ago when he wrote, Home schoolers: A forgotten clientele in School Library Journal. They still are. |