Library media specialists in Wake County are getting organized. After years of scaremongering from far-right groups like Moms for Liberty at school board meetings, a wave of new state laws encouraging book bans, and a deluge of new expectations around technology duties outside of their purported roles in schools, librarians are standing together for change. Library staff have been meeting with their coworkers across the county to learn what issues matter most and to bring awareness to the realities of their role in schools.
Librarians with Wake NCAE are running a survey to find out what issues matter most to their colleagues, and also to hear how their working conditions have changed over time. In addition to the survey, librarians are asking their coworkers to become part of the solution and join NCAE. Helen Sharma, librarian at Longview School in Raleigh, spent a day talking to her colleagues and signed up two of her coworkers.
"People I would have otherwise never met are dealing with the same frustrations and joys that I am. Getting to be there when they commit to be in solidarity with other librarians makes me feel so excited about the future."
Are you a librarian or media specialist? Have you talked to your coworkers in your library or in other schools about their issues? Working together, you can build your union team to take on the big challenges facing school libraries and the children they serve.
