Here's an interesting dilemma we have been met with upon moving back to Gary. The library, a homeschoolers' resource haven, seems to be in this city more like a time consuming, mind numbing, scavenger hunt! Sounds silly but if only you knew how wonderful the library can be to homeschoolers. It is a place full of free books and resources, a great meet up for other like minded people and a nice change to a school day. This was my previous experience with public libraries but that has drastically changed.
My nine year old is not the most ecstatic reader so I always try to find books that he will absolutely love to pique his interest. This often involves an internet search resulting in a list of 5-7 books. We take this list to the library prepared to pick his absolute favorite only to find... the library only has 1 off our entire list -- and that is if we are lucky. It usually takes about 1-24 hours for them to locate a specific book if they find it all! This can be a very frustrating experience!!
I also find the institution’s DVD rental policy a bit much. An educational video is $1.00 per video with no exception and a 3 day rental time limit. That is crazy in my opinion!! I realize I am in the "inner city" and some things are more costly due to the tendencies of some people to steal, vandalize, modify, etc. but really?? Educational videos?? Not to mention the limited amount of videos available at my local library. It is quite depressing... The "educational" videos deal with topics such as "Dealing with Depression", "Just Say No", "Coping with Divorce" and more enlightening topics. No Schoolhouse Rock, no Bill Nye, nothing like that in my library. The books that are on display when you enter the Children's Department are just as narrow in scope -- books on such positive African-American role models as Jay-Z, Raven Simone, Rhianna, etc. are the first things kids see when they enter the room. I understand that may be what a lot of kids know but shouldn't the library seek to bring them to higher degrees of learning and knowledge? Provide them with the means to learn, be, and think of something outside their limited worldly scope?
However, we will continue to utilize what is available and request books/resources that can actually prove academically and classically enriching to the holistic learning environment we are trying to obtain. No matter how long it may take we shall press on and as these things occur I will continue to share them with you so... Let's BLOG!
This is very true, and I can relate. It's unfortunate that the selection is so limited. I hate to attribute the problem to where we are located, but having seen and experienced otherwise in different locales in the past, I know that this is definitely a contributing factor. Besides making our concerns known to the libraries, what are our other alternatives to gain resources?? :-)
ReplyDeleteYolanda we often travel outside our city (i.e. Chicago) to supplement our resources. I would like to see it change here though. So the question that now lies before us is... "How?" and "Who?" How can we change our library system? Who do we voice our concerns to?
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