"Nobody graduated from a library, Nobody graduated without one."

This holiday weekend I visited with family. My mother-in-law watches a little boy every morning before school. She told me recently the little boy brought with him a dozen books that had a school library stamp on them and the word discard. The elementary school library the books came from is one his dad works at (as custodian) NOT the one the boy attends.

My mother-in-law asked the boy how he had gotten the books, he said his dad found them in the garbage. So after a little research (my sister-in-law is a teacher at the school) I found out that the school has so many books that they weed constantly and just throw out books.

Well, as you can imagine I went on a little tirade! It was actually my turn this year, as someone has a melt-down at every family get together. I, not calmly, discussed how ridiculous this is. It reminded me of the two libraries my friends work with or at. One is in an affluent community and has so many books they don't fit on the shelf, the other library has empty shelves. So we discussed the possibility of sending books from the richer library to the less stocked one.

But even if the library can't find another school library to work with they could have done so many other things with them: donate them to a classroom, a children's hospital, a women's shelter, the public library, a daycare, WHATEVER JUST DON'T THROW THEM AWAY.

It makes me ponder the inequality of material distribution, why does one library have so much and others have so little?

The middle school library I work at is so well-used and so well-stocked because the librarian believes in books, and makes sure her kids get what they need--getting these books are not always an easy thing. However, what if the librarian can't get books--I don't believe it, there are ways to stock your library that does not involve a yearly budget allotted by school boards. Librarians who don't tap into these sources are lazy...pure and simple...plus I know lazy, right now I'm using a reaching stick to move the curtain so the sun doesn't shine on the computer while I'm typing...I could get up, but...hey maybe I can get my 3 year old to do it?

Librarians need to work together.