Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Christina Gavin, Librarian at Midwood High School
4:23:36
ยท
3 min
Christina Gavin, a librarian at Midwood High School in Brooklyn, testifies about the importance of school libraries and the current state of library access in New York City public schools. She highlights the benefits of school libraries for students and emphasizes the need for more certified school librarians in the city's education system.
- Gavin describes the resources and activities available in her school's library, including diverse books, graphic novels, and author visits.
- She points out the disparity in library access across NYC schools, noting that many students have never had a functional school library before.
- Gavin supports Intro 1125, the "librarians count bill," which aims to provide more transparency about the number of school librarians in the city.
Christina Gavin
4:23:36
Hello my name is Christina Gavin and I'm a librarian at Midwood High School in Brooklyn.
4:23:41
It's in council member Lewis's district.
4:23:43
I live in council member Joseph's district.
4:23:48
My students enjoy accessing a library that's full of diverse contemporary books in different languages and formats.
4:23:53
There are lots of graphic novels, tons of manga, board games, arts and crafts materials and computers.
4:23:59
Our library is home to multiple clubs and we've also hosted author visits where students are able to come together and meet an author, ask questions about becoming writers themselves and have their books signed.
4:24:10
Students do their homework, collaborate with their peers and study for tests.
4:24:13
The library is a wonderful space where students can choose their own adventure, learn, explore, and create without worrying about grades or wrong answers.
4:24:21
School librarians also collaborate with classroom teachers to provide instruction on research methods or identifying misinformation.
4:24:29
Unfortunately, this is my thirteenth year in the DOE.
4:24:32
I worked for five years as a special ed teacher at three different school buildings in The Bronx and until I became a librarian myself, I had not worked in a school that had a functional library.
4:24:41
Many of my students report that this is the first time they've had access to a library in their school, or they had one in elementary school but not in middle, or vice versa.
4:24:49
And this is a common refrain across the city.
4:24:51
That's unacceptable.
4:24:53
New York City public schools are the largest school district in the country, in the city that's the hub of industry, the center of the financial world.
4:25:00
In many regards, York City is the most important city in our country, but we're not leading in school library access.
4:25:06
There are about 1,600 public schools, but only about 300 certified school librarians, which works out to about one librarian for every thousand students.
4:25:15
But we know that not every student even has access to a librarian.
4:25:19
I say about 300 certified school librarians because in June 2022, a reporter filed a FOIL request and found four forty three people with the certified library Certified School Library Media Specialist degree in New York City DOE.
4:25:34
In May 2023, another reporter filed a FOIL request and found two sixty librarians.
4:25:39
So we can see that it's very unlikely that there was a drop of over 200 in one year, so this data is not precise.
4:25:48
It can't be disaggregated by borough or district, unlike the more robust art counts reporting that we heard about earlier.
4:25:56
The New York State Commissioner of Education's regulations mandate that every school in New York State have a school library staffed by a pedagogue, and that every secondary school have a certified school librarian.
4:26:06
However, for example, the Harlem Council of Elders frequently cites a statistic that over about 90% of Harlem secondary schools do not have a librarian.
4:26:15
It is well beyond time to right this wrong.
4:26:17
Every New York City Public School Student deserves a librarian in every school.
4:26:22
Intro 11/25, the librarians count bill, brings us one step closer to that reality and to giving our students the library access they deserve by letting us see the scale and magnitude of the problem so that it can be addressed borough by borough, district by district, school by school.
4:26:37
I also want to make one real quick clarification.
4:26:40
Earlier, council member Ressler asked about the teacher to librarian program and how many librarians are in the pipeline.
4:26:48
It was mentioned that in cohort four, there are a hundred future librarians.
4:26:53
There are a hundred future librarians in every single cohort since from one to four, which is a spanned process of more than four years.
4:27:02
There are not a hundred people in cohort number four.
4:27:05
Thanks.