Whither reading?

I was searching teh intarweb for "textbook storage" and found these articles.

I'm just gonna pick some quotes out, you can read the articles if you wanna.

Reading for Fun will Boost Scores

"The kind of reading that really counts is free voluntary reading"

But in many, many homes in the South Bay and throughout the state, I also know there are homes without books and newspapers. Homes where no reading is done by anyone. Homes where young children are never read to in the crucial lap position. Homes where children never see an adult reading a book or a newspaper in any language.

They come to school without having heard the language, any language, in complete sentences, in stories told, in looking at printed words while a loving person says those words aloud. They have never participated in family discussions about what's going on in the world. These children have no idea of the structure of language. They don't know that sounds go with the printed symbols.

In the United States, there is one school librarian for every 900 children. In California in 1992, there was one school librarian for every 5,000 children.

And in California in 1999, there is one school librarian for every 6,200 children.

And most importantly, re-open all elementary-school libraries all day with trained librarians.

Library a chapter in school's past Computers seemingly replace

If students at Castlemont High School want to check out "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" or find books on Polynesian culture, they'd better have a bus pass or some good walking shoes.

"I think it's unfair," parent Chavone Johnson said. "I can't see a school not having a library. ... That's denying them a part of their education."

"We ain't been able to checkout books or nothing since I've been here," senior Erik Fuller said recently.

Some books appear to be randomly organized -- on one shelf you can find a book called "Herpes" right above a book called "The Right Dog for You."

"That's not a library, not what a normal high school is supposed to have," said Johnson, whose son attended Castlemont this year but is now in juvenile hall.

Many books in Castlemont's former library are gone -- it's not clear where they are. Some books may have been sent to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, and one teacher may have sent some to Africa, school employees said.

Rick Gaston, principal of Castlemont's Business and Information Technology school, said computers have supplanted traditional school libraries, at least when it comes to doing research.

In Oakland middle schools, librarians have become scarcer over the last few years as the schools choose to spend their resources elsewhere, officials said.

Here's another article on an un-related subject:

ANN BIANCHETTI Diary #12 Indirect Lessons learned at a one-day workshop.

I don't have anything to say here, it's just my dooty to point you towards informative stuff out there!