Libraries On Life Support

Even the best books in the library at T.M. Peirce Elementary School in Philadelphia are dated, tattered, and discolored. The worst—many in a late stage of disintegration—are dirty and fetid and leave a moldy residue on hands and clothing. Chairs and tables are old, mismatched, or broken. There isn't a computer in sight.

There isn't a student in sight, either. Three years ago, principal Shively Willingham made the controversial decision to lock the doors and block his school's 640 students from the facility. The neglected library is as unappealing as the blighted urban neighborhood outside Peirce, Willingham argues, and perhaps just as dangerous. Outdated facts and theories and offensive stereotypes leap from the supposedly authoritative pages of the library's encyclopedias and biographies. Most of the volumes on the shelves are silent on topics relating to AIDS or other contemporary diseases, explorations of the moon and Mars, or the past five U.S. presidents. "I would rather have nothing, or close the library, than have children exposed to these kinds of books," says Willingham.

Welcome to the new millennium. The latest national survey by the School Library Journal finds that the average annual expenditure on library materials per school increased by about $1,000—to $12,185—last year, regaining ground lost to spending cuts over the past decade or so. But the statistics, some experts say, gloss over the reality that a disturbing number of rural and urban school libraries—like the one at Peirce—fail to be the kind of warm, inviting, fully stocked resource centers that can help build literacy and research skills, raise student achievement, and foster a love of reading. In Philadelphia, certainly, Peirce's tawdry collection of books is not unusual. "A lot of the school libraries I've seen are fire hazards, and their collections are pathetic," says Debra Lyman Gniewek, activity manager for library programs and services for the 215,000-student Philadelphia public schools. A recent survey by the Association of Philadelphia School Librarians found that the city's school library collections are, on average, 25...