When you were younger, what was your opinion on books? Some people would say that they hated books as a child while others would say that they loved them. Sooner or later when we get older, we may have started to appreciate the good books that we loved, and that is why libraries are so great. 

Libraries are a great way to find books that we love and also get access to resources that some people may not have at home like the internet. As libraries have become more modern, they have expanded their access to many different audio and video sources that you can’t get online.

Some genres that people seem to like from a survey I sent out are realistic fiction and romance. When interviewing Ms.Coughlin, she said loved thriller and mystery books and also said that books are just a great item that you can hold in your hands instead of watching TV.

 Libraries can also have graphic novels and comics. Some parents think that books like this don’t count as actual books because the majority of the pages are images with text bubbles. When interviewing my aunt about the subject since she is a teacher, she said,  “Well, things change in different generations, so when I was growing up there weren’t a lot of graphic novels, they were just mainly regular books that you would buy at a bookstore. As time changes, opinions can shift and if the younger generation enjoys reading these types of books, then I don’t see a problem with it.”

Now from an article that I saw, since the beginning of 2022, “There are an estimated 116,867 libraries of all kinds in the United States today.” That is not a lot of libraries in the United States. Our school may have books, but we don’t have a room that we can call a library, even though about 85% of the 116,867 libraries are from schools and 83% of that first 85% are public schools. I feel like it would be great to have a library just because it would be another place for everyone to chill and read a book and study.

Now with all the libraries in the United States that I have been to, most of them are kind of rundown. In some schools, libraries can look decent and still have good books and the computers were fine, but it seemed like those libraries and maybe all of them could have an upgrade. But thanks to the Board of Regents as stated in one article by the NYSD, “The Board of Regents has the statutory authority and responsibility to establish minimum standards of service for libraries in New York State … The Board of Regents adopted amendments that update the minimum standards in July 2018.  All public and association libraries are required to comply with the updated standards by January 1, 2021.” This just shows that some libraries are getting their upgrade in rules and the building itself recently does. 

These upgraded libraries get much better access to the internet and also supply tech for students and adults for projects they might have or to study. This article even explains that “The modern school library media center has a professionally trained school library media specialist who manages a central collection of diverse learning resources to support a school’s curriculum, meet individual students’ needs and interests, and ensure that young people develop information literacy skills within the school’s curriculum. This concept of a learning resource center is both a social development of the twentieth century and an evolution of information exchange.”

Now as we advance in technology, we start to grow and improve on things like how we can drive cars fueled by electricity instead of fossil fuels. But not every change may not be as great. People that don’t like to read books say that they are boring, they can watch the movie, or they can read on their phone. But this isn’t the right way to think about books. As quoted from an article, “Students may select books that match their interests and reading abilities from school library shelves. Research shows that students are more likely to read more when they can choose their own books.”

Now when some people may not like books as when looking at the survey that I had sent out, 66.7% like books while 33.3% don’t. Even people that like to read might rather say that they can go on their phone and read there. But interviewing my old ELA teacher Mr. Sloan I got some information that helps with this topic as quoted from him, “Books are really important for younger kids as it would help them learn how to read while people of older age it will help with their eyesight as they would end up reading more than staring at a screen which can end up hurting their eyes. Once in a while, everyone should at least read a book to read and if they don’t know what book they like, well that’s what libraries are for.”

Now there aren’t as many places to put a library as most rooms have a use in the school. But that doesn’t mean we should drop this idea to have a full library in our school. The commons does have a cabinet for books, but I feel like it can be bigger and just have more variety. The same can be said for the amount of books in ELA classrooms that are just the same things. With more variety we can get people to read more or just get people into reading as a whole.