Funding for library books in the current schools budget amounts to $20,000. During a normal budget year, that allocation would be about $50,000. The individual schools receive funding based on average daily membership.

Person High School Media Coordinator Brenda Clayton said, “This is a bad time because we were already short of the number of books recommended by the state and for accreditation. We had to weed recently because our collection was also older than the state average, even though we have weeded heavily in the past and have been adding as many books as possible each year. Our collection’s average age is now 1993, after weeding and that is 15 years old! Talk about lack of current resources.”

Before weeding, Clayton said, the high school media center had 8.4 books per student, with an average book age of 1988. She said the high school now has just 6.51 books per student, while 10 is the recommendation for meeting minimum guidelines.

“Our collection is now Below Minimum according to NC Department of Public Instruction’s IMPACT Collection Guidelines,” Clayton said

The same is true for Southern Middle School, according to Media Coordinator Nicole Dunevant.

As a first-year media coordinator, Dunevant said she had worked hard to make the SMS media center “more student friendly” by adding art work, new signage, comfortable sofas and chairs in reading areas, and by collaborating with teachers on projects and flex-scheduling that allows students to make more and better use of the media center.

Dunevant applied for and received a grant that helped her add computers to the library for students to use for online research.

Now she, Clayton and other PCS media coordinators are each applying for a $10,000 grant to help bring their collections up to date. Each school, however, must raise $2,500 in matching funds in order to apply for the LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) Grant through the state of North Carolina for collection development.

Clayton said that PHS needs about 17,000 books in its collection in order to be regarded as meeting the needs of its students.

“We now have 11,292 books in the collection,” she said. “We are 5,708 short. Books for a high school are very expensive, especially for the reference collection, so that total amount of $12,500 will not cover what we really need to reach minimum standards, but it will help a lot.”

Dunevant said, of all the libraries in the PCS system, Southern Middle’s was deemed one of the worst by state consultants.

Many of the books in the SMS collection were from the early 1900s, said Dunevant, making them outdated and even, in some cases, inaccurate according to current research and knowledge.

“I was very discouraged,” Dunevant said. Stil, she said she was determined to work to make the collection and the media center better for her students.

In the culling that followed state recommendations, Dunevant discarded over half of her collection. Books that were thrown out were “outdated, gender biased, damaged, smelly, moldy” she said, and, in at least three instances, printed in languages such as Russian “that no middle school students would know.”

Ann Fox, PCS director of Technology and Media, has been working with the media coordinators in an effort to improve collaboration between the libraries and classroom teachers, she said.

“We have been promoting collaboration,” she said, “but without books, how can you do that?

Fox said that principals and media coordinators had been to workshops to learn about flexible access and better collaboration, but without the physical resources, it is difficult to put theory into practice.

Dunevant said that just last week, a teacher came to her for help on a project that included bio-diversity and space, but the media center “only had two or three books that would go along” with the themes.

The SMS library also lacks materials for low- and high-level students, Dunevant said.

“It is very frustrating to see the students come in and turn their noses up,” she said, at books that are either above or below their reading and comprehension levels.

“I want them to be excited by new books,” she added.

Dunevant has held several fund-raisers so far this year, including working with bookseller Barnes & Noble in Durham on projects. She has held a book fair and plans another soon. The school’s PTA will also soon hold a fund-raiser to help the library.

Dunevant said SMS Principal John McCain had been very supportive in her efforts to make the library a better place for students and teachers, and that he had asked the PTA to offer all its funds for the library.

Fox said the school system hopes to get grants for all schools, but two will be left out because they don’t have certified media coordinators on staff.

Budget cuts at the district level have caused Oak Lane and Northern Middle to be left with no media coordinator. Oak Lane’s former coordinator went to another school system, and the coordinator at NMS was moved into a classroom position, all in the name of saving money.

“We don’t want to do our students a disservice,” said Fox, “no matter what’s going on, they deserve the best.”

There is no money for periodicals, Fox said, “and our students shouldn’t have to do without” materials that give access to current events.

She said that the media coordinators are “really resourceful” in trying to provide students and teachers with the materials they need.

Clayton said the high school had been sending letters and making phone calls to businesses, firms, clubs and civic groups. since late November, “but we only have $1,400 in checks or commitments. The response has been very depressing to say the least.”

She, Dunevant and Fox all said they hoped that the community would be able to step up and offer help, and soon.

The media centers need the matching money for their grants by around Feb. 15 as the grant applications must be submitted by Feb.21.

The high school has several upcoming fund-raisers. Clayton said the next will be a Burger King Night on Feb. 11 from 4 to 8 p.m., in which PHS will earn 20 percent of the receipts.

Often, schools can and will commit some of their instructional funds for projects like this, Fox said. McCain was able to commit some funding to the SMS media center, but Clayton said the high school was “so short of money this year, our school cannot commit to anything for next year.

Person High is accepting private donations. Checks payable to the PHS Media Center Book Fund may be mailed to: PHS Media Center, 1010 Ridge Road Roxboro, NC 27573, attention Brenda Clayton.