AASL Tour: How Rural Elementary, Middle, and High School Librarians Bring Resources to Distant Desert Towns November 10, 2007
Posted by amcdermott in : AASL2007 , trackbackThe 2007 Conference offered several tours as part of the conference experience. Since this was my first conference, I really wanted to participate in one of these, and chose the all day rural schools tour.
A mini bus waited outside of the Legacy Hotel on a cold Wednesday morning, and I experienced some momentary panic when my name was not on the list of participants. However, all was soon settled and I entered to meet my fellow group of intrepid librarians. Since there were only 11 of us and 2 hours of highway waiting to be explored, we quickly became quite friendly. In that small bus was represented the states of MA, VT, CA, HI, WA, NM, AL, IL as well as Germany. Our conversation bounced around, and laughter filled the air as we shared stories.
As we drove towards our destination in the Black Rock Desert, incredible scenery surrounded us of miles and miles of sand, salt flats, shrubs, and rocky hills with the occasional passing truck. For a Brooklyn girl like myself, it was quite impressive.
After an hour, we arrived at the Natchez Elementary School, located on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation in Wadsworth. We were greeted by the librarian, who has 150 students in grades k-6. The library has 4 computers and 10,000 books in the automated collection, with dial-up internet access. I asked about the satellite dish in the parking lot and was told that it, and 2 televisions, was from a 1 year government grant for distance education for parents. However, due to the grant not being renewed, none of them are in use. I thought it was a shame that a Native American tribe would not have access to the important resources that a satellite dish could give them.
The hand made quilts and Native Americans photos on the walls caught my eye. Of great interest were the dog beds, used instead of bean bags, because of their low cost. We didn’t stay long because we thought we were on a time crunch.
Our driver, a former phys. ed. teacher from the Reno area, put the pedal to the medal so we wound up arriving at our destination of Gerlach (population 499) in record time. Since we were too early for lunch, we were directed to a pottery store. After 8 miles, we wound up at a dirt road turnoff with a sign announcing that Pottery X was “open most of the time.” It consisted of scattered 1 story buildings decorated with bleached steer skulls, rusty lamps, hanging bottles, and other oddities. The place seemed deserted, but all doors were wide open showing lovely homemade pottery and paintings ranging in price from $5 to over $3000. We wandered around deciding what to buy and wondering why no one had appeared. We began to call out and soon someone appeared on horseback, which seemed like something out of a Wild West movie.
We soon returned to Bruno’s, the local motel, restaurant, casino, bar and saloon. Bruno, an elderly gentleman in his 80’s who originally hailed from Italy and made Gerlach his home after WW II, still does all the cooking. His specialty is homemade ravioli, which we ate after the antipasto along with vegetables, cooked beef, and chicken, carafes of red wine, soda and desert. The walls were lined with framed photographs of family and friends. We posed for a photo and I asked for us to be hung on the wall, so that if we were ever taken down we would be considered “off the wall” librarians.
Our final stop was the k-5 Johnson Elementary school in Gerlach, which consists of 32 students. Alongside it is the Gerlach Middle/High School, with a total of 40 students; grades 6-8 have 12 students, while grades 9-12 have 28 students. Some students travel over 25 minutes from their ranches to attend the school. Amazingly, the schools had 2 librarians. When we asked how a school with less than 80 students could have 2 librarians, we found out that the middle/high school library is also the town’s public library.
Both schools have dial-up access and, when I commented on its slowness, they answered that it was all they knew. Both have a $300/year budget, and are automated. The elementary library has 1 computer and 4200 books, is on a fixed schedule, and teaches library skills with time for book checkout. The entire student body of 32 gathered in the hallway to sing us 2 songs.
The middle/high school has 4 computers, with some students going on to college. The student’s hardest challenge was getting used to a large college setting. Since it is also a public library, material on all grade levels is available, including audio books for the local truckers. The county of Washoe does book purchases, but the librarian can buy curriculum based and fiction books.
The librarians work together to plan fundraisers, with pizza being their largest source of funds. Neither one of them seemed able to find reasons for their rural jobs to be challenging, saying that they loved what they were doing and had great support from the community. Even the lack of cell phones, the smallness of the student body, and the town’s dwindling population did not faze them.
Gerlach is a company town, run by the U.S. Gypsum Company located 20 miles away in the town of Empire. The Company funds the school and provides employment for those living there. Another large source of funds comes from The Burning Man festival, a type of Woodstock for 45,000+ artists held yearly at the end of August.
Finally, we were presented with gift bags consisting of a company hat and shirt, pottery from Pottery X and other goodies, as well as delicious homemade brownies and drinks. We all thought that it was kind of them to give so much when they had so little, and were very touched and grateful.
Thank you to AASL for getting in contact with these librarians, and putting this trip on the agenda. It was truly an eye-opening experience. My Rural Libraries photos are available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunshinealma/sets/72157602913270474/
posted by Alma Ramos-McDermott
Comments»
See Mary Ghikas’ 10/25 post at http://blogs.ala.org/greenroo.php
for another report on this tour!