NEW BEDFORD — More than 9,500 students don’t have an active school library or librarian in New Bedford Public Schools. None of New Bedford’s 18 elementary or three middle schools employs any librarians, while old libraries are slowly emptying, and the district is looking to overhaul its literacy program.
In one school, Normandin Middle, the abandoned library is now where suspended students serve their detentions.
“It’s really sad, desperately sad,” said Barb Fecteau, president of the Massachusetts School Library Association and a school librarian in Beverly. Fecteau lamented that many schools have put libraries on the chopping block — even in districts like New Bedford where literacy is a stated priority — despite well-documented benefits.
School librarians have also been disappearing in other South Coast towns, including Fairhaven and Dartmouth.
More than stacking books, school librarians in the 21st century teach critical research and media literacy skills. Decades of research show they can improve the academic performance of whole school buildings: increasing student motivation and positivity about learning, improving other teachers’ lessons and projects, and boosting test scores. The benefits are greatest for disadvantaged students, including English learners.
In contrast, a lack of regular access to a school library has created informationally underserved students. Without resources in their schools, students of all backgrounds perform worse than peers in similar schools. However, urban schools like New Bedford are more likely to offer fewer resources.
New Bedford High once had six different library spaces staffed with certified professionals. They helped students with research projects and ran special workshops, like an “occupational education” program that taught students about potential career paths.
“It was very important work,” said Donna Schlosser, who spent almost 30 years as a librarian at New Bedford High, Hayden-McFadden and Gomes Elementary. At Hayden-McFadden, she taught 42 class periods on reading and research every week for 16 years.
Then, in 2013, libraries across the district were shuttered. Schlosser lost her job, and no one replaced the classes she taught or the workshops she ran or cared for the books. Upon returning to Gomes Elementary after its library had been closed for several years, Schlosser found many books in a dumpster, she said.
Today, the single librarian at New Bedford High is the last remaining in a district of nearly 13,000 students. When Schlosser’s grandkids went through Keith Middle and New Bedford High in recent years, they didn’t even know those buildings had libraries, she said.
Though New Bedford has started to revitalize its literacy program after years of stagnant and low scores, neglecting librarians means ignoring one of the most important literacy interventions.
“School districts are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on reading programs and staff development which have had limited success in boosting test scores,” wrote Douglas Achterman, a researcher on the effects of libraries, “but are unwilling to invest in school library programs that show such direct correlations to student success.”
Superintendent Andrew O’Leary said that the district has taken a variety of other approaches to literacy. “I don’t know the value of narrowly focusing on library access,” O’Leary said. “I think we have a sincere interest in students learning to read and students having access to fiction and nonfiction texts that are appropriate.”
O’Leary said the district has provided electronic “e-readers” and has created a summer reading program to help students learn to love reading, but did not answer questions about how many students have an e-reader or were enrolled in the summer literacy program.
“If you send your child to New Bedford schools, they have access to a wide range of texts,” he said. “At the district level, plans to improve literacy outcomes are a key part of current plans and ongoing discussions internally and with our statewide partners.”
When asked specifically about access to libraries as a strategy, O’Leary said it was “narrow framing” and “unfortunate.”
At Normandin, old library becomes a room to serve suspensions
The district’s largest middle school is home to more than 1,000 students, 82 teachers, and a large, two-story library room toward the back of the building.
But there has been no librarian in over a decade to care for the space, order new books, or create schoolwide reading initiatives. For a number of years, the room was used as a restorative justice center — where students could draw or use playdough to calm down or reflect.
But administrative turnover brought new approaches, and today the room is closed off to most students. Only those serving in-school suspensions for repeated or serious rule violations sit at the sparse wooden tables. They are quiet, sent here for punishment.
Some books remain, but many shelves are emptying out. This past month, Normandin’s principal, Sean McNiff, received approval to remove 10 pallets worth of books. That could represent more than 8,000 books, according to estimates from a book donation agency.
A proctor who was recently overseeing students in Normandin’s old library said that no one comes asking to browse or borrow a book. Asked if the students serving suspensions ever picked up a book, the proctor said these students mostly didn’t like to read.
District and school representatives would not answer questions about Normandin’s library space, with Superintendent O’Leary calling it “a tabloid story.”
“I’m much more interested in a broader discussion of literacy,” O’Leary said. “Neither the pallets nor the suspension room have anything to do with literacy.” After receiving requests for an interview for this story, O’Leary also posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, criticizing “sensation” in the media.
However, representatives of the Massachusetts School Library Association (MSLA) said this use of library space does have effects on literacy — and was also disheartening to them.
“This makes the library a place of pain for kids,” said Barb Fecteau, the MSLA president. “I 100% understand the need for space and not having enough room in the school — but the library? That’s doing a lot of mental damage.”
Deborah Froggatt, the former director of library services for Boston schools and a current MSLA representative, said that libraries are one of few remaining places where students can exercise personal choice. “These students are denied a place to have the freedom to learn about what they want to learn about,” she said.
“There’s something about empowering kids with choice,” she said, “and I’ve seen it happen with kids in my own schools.” Froggatt shared a story about a frequently disengaged Boston student who started coming to the library and within a few months became a regular presence. He even started volunteering in the library during his free time.
“Curiosity and creativity were themselves the antidote,” Froggatt said.
Froggatt pointed out that there’s a strong correlation between investing in school librarians and reducing dropout rates — which has long been a stated priority of New Bedford Public Schools.
“I think at a time when we’re struggling with censorship, this is the ultimate form of censorship.”
Laura Gardner, Dartmouth Middle School librarian and parent
Part of how librarians help students stay in schools is through the relationships they build. “Librarians know every kid in the school. We are the front line,” Froggatt said, especially for students who are “invisibly injured” — which she said meant students dealing with hardships outside of school.
The Light connected with a number of former Normandin teachers and at least one current teacher, but none would agree to speak for this article.
“When you work for a public school system you have to be careful what you say,” Froggatt said. “Now I can say what I want. I really want New Bedford to have libraries.”
South Coast has become a desert of school librarians
The decline in school libraries is not unique to New Bedford. In Fairhaven, Dartmouth and many other towns on the South Coast, school librarians have been disappearing, said Laura Gardner, the librarian at Dartmouth Middle School and a Fairhaven parent.
Citing the lack of librarians in Fairhaven High School, in most New Bedford schools, and in Dartmouth’s elementary schools, Gardner described the South Coast as “a librarian desert.”
Her observation aligns with the 2018 findings of a Massachusetts school libraries study: that urban and many rural districts had less access to school libraries than suburban districts did. Even where libraries did exist in urban areas, an analysis found that they were closed for many more days during the school year — often because the rooms were used for standardized testing.
“It breaks my heart to think of all these schools that don’t have a space for kids,” Gardner said. In her own library, students gather every morning to pull down books about dinosaurs, playing the guitar, or the latest in a manga series (a Japanese-style graphic novel).
During the day, students come to her for guidance on research projects, and Gardner collaborates with teachers to make relevant resources available. Other times, students are welcome to come to the library to explore or quietly socialize.
“I think at a time when we’re struggling with censorship, this is the ultimate form of censorship,” Gardner said about the overall lack of librarians.
Gardner previously campaigned for Fairhaven’s School Committee — mainly on the issue of restoring a librarian to that town’s high school. After failing to win election, Gardner said she’s focusing on other ways to promote libraries within area schools.
“What a lot of administrators don’t understand about librarians,” Gardner said, “is that I’m a teacher, too.” She said librarians often support teachers and work one-on-one with students. “It’s a valuable role,” she said.
Barb Fecteau, the MSLA president, said that it’s up to district administrators to make sure every school has a library — one of the recommendations in the 2018 school libraries report.
“There’s no school that can’t afford a librarian,” Fecteau said. Across the state, schools are “hiring people to do things with curriculum and with student-based learning: instructional coaches, technologists. These are all things librarians are trained to do.”
Email Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org
Wouldn’t this be a good space for students to do their homework? Or study in, maybe with study groups preparing for MCAS or other tests?
My homeroom was in the library for awhile when I was at NBHS and I used to read books about U.S. presidents, just on my own because I liked to read. I like what the librarian said here about students reading about their hobbies. Reading is reading. It gets them interested. Students can browse in a library and find books that interest them. I’m afraid they are substituting cell phones for books. Or doing all their research on computers. There are pros and cons to that. I prefer they also have the help of a librarian in doing research for school papers.
Also, I am really put off by the comments the school administrator made, as if he didn’t have to answer any questions from the news media. He said something about reading “appropriate” books, which makes it sound like he is afraid of criticism of the books the library may carry and would rather shut the library down totally. He needs to explain more what he’s talking about.
Thanks for writing this. Would love to see it spur some intelligent dialogue.
More coverage of the literacy challenges facing our young people is needed, especially in the wake of the learning losses associated with the pandemic response and school closure.
But would more librarians in primary and secondary schools solve that problem? You would never know one way or another from reading this piece. The “evidence” linked to in the article includes an MLA brochure and an unpublished dissertation and doesn’t really support the author’s implicit argument that more librarians would increase student literacy.
The Superintendent is right that this piece suffers from narrow framing and selective reporting of evidence. It tells us nothing meaningful about the nature of the problem or what can be done to solve it.
I beg to differ with Mike. I think Colin Hogan provided references to a significant amount of scholarly research including but not limited to: THE MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL LIBRARY STUDY:EQUITY AND ACCESS FOR STUDENTS IN THE COMMONWEALTH. REPORT OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE SPECIAL COMMISSION ON SCHOOL LIBRARY SERVICES IN MASSACHUSETTS.
This is a very comprehensive study.
I believe that the attitude of the New Bedford School Superintendent described in this article is both ignorant and condescending.
I remember when I went to N.B.H.S. back in the late ’70’s I would be at the school library almost every day, and that was all of the six, one in each house, and the two special resource ones. I was majoring in art and I would read up of the great artist through history, looking at the pictures of their masterpieces and trying to figure out how they came to the conclusion of the finished piece. I learned a lot from using the school (and public) libraries, it helped me be a better artist. I still love going to the library at 64 years of age. I’m still learning.
I clicked on all those links and reviewed all the “scholarly” research linked from the brochure and throughout the article and could not identify one single piece of evidence that definitively connected school libraries to measurable progress in student literacy (one way or another). Please correct me if I am missing something specific.
The Special Commission report did not address the connection between school libraries and student literacy in any meaningful way. It was simply a survey of districts that describes library services. Fair minded readers should look for themselves.
https://mblc.state.ma.us/programs-and-support/youth-services/school-libraries/ma-sls-2018.pdf
Actually, the “brochure” cites 8 other resources and there are links in the article to three peer reviewed articles and 199 page study with 2 pages of citations. The only thing narrow about librarianship is Superintendent O’Leary’s view of it.
The South Coast is also a desert for early childcare, a food desert, a desert for primary care doctors, etc. In New Bedford one would think this would make people push for change, but Mayor Mitchell and Councilor Morad are here and stronger than ever.
Whatever it is, the Southcoast is not a food desert as that term is used in describing access to a comprehensive grocery supply. There are major.stores in every neighborhood of New Bedford except downtown as well as in Dartmouth and Faihaven including Target and Walmart plus “discount-style” stores and and well-established, ethnically oriented stores. Most are served by public transportation.
Let me state at the onset I’m all in favor of using technology tools to improve reading literacy BUT as,someone who has been involved w publishing and books 📚 all my life I’m somewhat appalled at Supt O’Leary’s pollyana thinking or shall we call it lack of it 🤔 in defending the end of the library and librarians as a learning tool and place of youth interaction.Have the reading and math scores improved ..i think not so much?Really putting the,equivalent of 8000 books on pallets probably many that were donated to the school dept?? Or turning library space into punishment space ..this is,advancing learning? Enhancing critical thinking and creativity? School libraries,are NOT less but MORE essential than community libraries as a place where young people many of them immigrants in a Gateway city like New Bedford can use computers have access to tutors and yes Supt O’Leary BOOKS like Harry Potter’s magical wizardry that inspired so many young people to read .The MSLA is correct in its campaign to save and restore libraries .Community libraries in New Bedford Dartmouth and and Fairhaven may want to org a community forum for a conversation re the importance of libraries in a time where censorship contempt for books and ignorance even among those who consider themselves “educators areleading us to Fahrenheit 451🔥
Full disclosure; I was a school librarian for 40 years, thankfully not in a district with glib administrators who don’t answer the real question but deflect to unrelated comments. They should be running for office. I was especially surprised by the comments about “E-readers” for students. Does every student have one? What sort of money are students given to buy e-books? They are not usually free. In my experience, administrators most often have no clue what happens in a school library. In my school I saw as many as a thousand students a DAY. For some, it was the only safe place in the school where they could be themselves. It was a place to study, embrace new ideas, and socialize as well. I packed it in when an administrator who had probably never read a book, decided, without consulting me, that there were “Too many students using the library” and restricted access. I think given this story, the Philistines have won. Miss Stocker and Miss Phillips [librarians at NBHS and Normandin back in the day] are spinning in their graves.
I am appalled to learn that New Bedford public schools are without basic educational facilities like libraries. All children need access to Library’s and the Librarians who make them accessible. Please follow up with ideas on how to rectify the situation and how to educate or remove the Superintendent.
This is very sad. Plain logic would support the idea of having a place where individuals could peruse written material and make personal choices about what to investigate and read. We waste so much money on unproven educational ideas. This one is a clear “no brainer”.