Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Zalykha Maria Mokim, School Librarian from New York City Public Schools
5:37:41
ยท
107 sec
Zalykha Maria Mokim, a school librarian and former ELL teacher, testifies about the importance of school libraries and librarians in New York City public schools. She emphasizes the need for librarian staffing in renovated and new school libraries to ensure they reach their full potential.
- Mokim highlights the disparity between private schools, which offer library access to affluent children, and public schools that are denying this basic educational right.
- She stresses that libraries are not a luxury but a necessity, providing opportunities for book selection, independent inquiry, and safe learning spaces.
- The testimony calls attention to the issue of libraries being renovated or built without proper librarian staffing, potentially limiting their effectiveness.
Zalykha Maria Mokim
5:37:41
Hi.
5:37:41
Thank you so much for having me.
5:37:43
I really do appreciate it.
5:37:45
My name is Alaika Maria Mokim.
5:37:46
I'm one of the few librarians left in our city's public schools.
5:37:50
Before being a a librarian, I was a e and l teacher as well in our great city, and tonight I'm today, I'm also speaking as a public school mother.
5:38:00
To everyone hearing my testimony today, I'd like to ask you, when you were in school, did you have a library, and did you have a library?
5:38:09
Do you believe that children in our city should have the opportunity to choose books, to have a safe open space for learning, and to work with a teacher on their own independent inquiry.
5:38:20
Throughout our city, libraries have been gutted.
5:38:23
Don't get me wrong.
5:38:24
They're spending money on renovations, but these renovations are being done without librarian staffing.
5:38:32
We're also building new buildings.
5:38:34
For example, I live here in Queens.
5:38:36
We're gonna have a brand new building on Northern Boulevard.
5:38:40
But I wonder, are these rooms that are being called libraries gonna be access to their full potentials?
5:38:46
Because if not, if they don't have a librarian, it's just a space.
5:38:50
In our budgets, books are being bought, but collections are not being curated or developed with the population of students in mind to use for years to come.
5:39:01
Private schools in our city offer access to the most affluent children, but our public schools are denying the basic educational right to a library with a librarian and also the arts.
5:39:14
I want my child and all the children in our city to have the same opportunities as those kids who go to Dalton and Spence.
5:39:22
Libraries are not a luxury.
5:39:24
Libraries are a necessity.
5:39:25
Thank you so much for having my voice.