School Librarian Stories Are Overdue

In districts from Boston to Seattle, school librarians are wearing multiple hats these days, from helping teachers with the tech side of remote learning to working with high-need students who lost academic ground during the pandemic shutdown. Librarians are also fending off budget cuts that threaten their positions, and responding to a surge in demands that reading materials about topics like race, racism, and gender identity be removed from the shelves. Kara Yorio, news editor for the School Library Journal, shares insights from the magazine’s new project on the uncertain state of the profession, why having school libraries that are stocked and staffed is an important measure of educational equity, and how reporters can make better use of librarians as story sources.