{"id":33422,"date":"2025-06-27T20:00:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T00:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=33422"},"modified":"2025-06-27T19:37:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T23:37:48","slug":"stranger-than-fiction-advocating-for-phillys-school-libraries-at-alaac25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2025\/06\/stranger-than-fiction-advocating-for-phillys-school-libraries-at-alaac25\/","title":{"rendered":"Stranger than Fiction: Advocating for Philly\u2019s School Libraries at #alaac25"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To start, #alaac25 was stranger than fiction. The fiction: In episode seven<\/a> of Abbott Elementary<\/em><\/a>\u2019s third season, Quinta Brunson<\/a>\u2019s character pilots a program that brings a librarian to the show\u2019s titular Philadelphia school. Brunson, who also created the show, has spoken of how her childhood in Philly\u2014and her mom\u2019s teaching there\u2014inspired the show<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Read-In at #alaac25<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The strange truth: Today, at the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association (PSLA) and Philadelphia Alliance to Restore School Librarians (PARSL) Read-In<\/a>, I read next to someone who spoke of attending Philadelphia schools from Kindergarten through twelfth grade and never once encountered a school library in that time. Unfortunately, this is the case at most of Philadelphia\u2019s public schools<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In spite of today\u2019s rain, nearly 200 folks of all ages showed up<\/a> to read on the steps of the School District of Philadelphia<\/a> (SDP) administration building. PSLA<\/a> and PARSL<\/a> organized the read-in to advocate for libraries and librarians in SDP schools. Beyond the fact that the majority of SDP schools lack a functioning library, five mostly part-time librarians serve the more than 117,907 students at SDP\u2019s 220 schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Nearly 200 folks\u2014some of them pictured here\u2014attended a read-in on Friday, June 27 to advocate for libraries and librarians in Philadelphia\u2019s schools. (Photo courtesy of K. Taksier)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It\u2019s an issue that’s far from fiction for many of us. In my own district, we only have school librarians because we voted for an increase in property taxes<\/a>. Even still, our school board tried to reduce some school librarians\u2019 hours and eliminate other positions altogether<\/a>. (Thankfully, our community convinced the school board that this went against the ballot language<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can visit restorephillylibrarians.org<\/a> to learn more about PARSL\u2019s mission, sign their petition<\/a>, or donate to support their work<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are libraries and librarians stranger than fiction in your local schools? Drop a line in the comments or at ktaksier@ufl.edu<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kelley Taksier<\/strong>\u00a0(they\/them\/theirs) is a former classroom teacher pursuing a Ph.D in special education at the University of Florida. Currently their research focuses on students\u2019 access to texts in public schools. As a part of this work, they collaborate with school and public librarians. They are proud to be a part of Diverse BookFinder\u2019s third Community of\u00a0Practice cohort and enjoy reading science fiction outside of the reading they do as a part of their work. As for #alaac25, they are most looking forward to learning about how to be a better advocate for libraries.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To start, #alaac25 was stranger than fiction. The fiction: In episode seven of Abbott Elementary\u2019s third season, Quinta Brunson\u2019s character pilots a program that brings a librarian to the show\u2019s titular Philadelphia school. Brunson, who also created the show, has spoken of how her childhood in Philly\u2014and her mom\u2019s teaching there\u2014inspired the show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":397,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[2952,2870,1399,151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ala-annual-2025","category-blogger-kelley-taksier","category-everyday-advocacy","category-live-blogging"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/397"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}