cityArts
DINING SINCE 1970 PAGE 9
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NYPRESS.COM • THE LARGEST PAPER ON THE EAST SIDE • AUGUST 22, 2013
Clearing the Shelves City seeking waiver for school librarian cutbacks Joanna Fantozzi Is the school librarian going the way of the milkman? Despite a state mandate calling for a librarian in every school, New York City employs only 333 librarians for its 1,700 public schools – and is seeking a waiver from Albany to exempt the city from the librarian-in-every-school requirement. The DOE says that in a world of Google and ebooks, the need for traditional librarians is ebbing. “While libraries continue to be an important resource, the old model of a room full of books with a staff member managing the access is changing,” said Devon Puglia, a DOE representative. “Schools are innovating and providing access in many different ways including rich classroom libraries, curated online research sites, and full online curricula.”
The city’s stance has prompted some uncharacteristically loud complaints from New York’s librarians. “I’m furious,” said Stephanie Rosalia, the staff librarian at New Explorations Into Science Technology and Math School in Soho. “The public perception persists that we shush people and dust the shelves, and this perception comes from people who don’t know better what a 21st century librarian does. As an instructor, I feel like I’ve failed.” Rosalia said that at New Explorations, she considers herself more of an information technology instructor. It’s not all about books, she said, although she does maintain a book collection and teaches kids to be enthusiastic about reading. Rosalia said that she creates lesson plans for grades K-12 at her school about how to access and dissect information. “Picture this,” she said. “You assign a paper, and every kid jumps on Google and they all come in with this copied and pasted report. We teach them to think differently.” The United Federation of Teachers, the union that also represents librarians, has re-invigorated its efforts to file a petition with Commissioner John King about the lack of librarians in schools, and eventually take the issue to court, according to UFT representative Alison Gendar. Sara Kelly Johns, the president-elect of the New York Library Association, said a decision on the city waiver may not come until the UFT petition is brought to court. She said she was surprised when news of an expected waiver surfaced, since she had just spent two days at a conference in Albany that
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Housing residents face forced moves Budget shortfall could require Section 8 recipients to downscale By Daniel Fitzsimmons Father George Baker had just finished high school in 1975 when he moved into apartment 9J with his parents at the Knickerbocker Plaza. The hulking housing complex, at 86th Street and 2nd Avenue, had opened that year in an area then known as Germantown, for its abundance of German restaurants. Baker came back to the apartment after seminary in Rome, and was there in 1997 when his father died and when his mother passed two years later. “To this day everyone still knows each other, greets each other,” said Father George, who is 57. Two years ago, Baker left the apartment he shared with his parents and moved into a smaller one-bedroom in the Knickerbocker. Now, because he receives a Section 8 enhanced housing voucher, he could be forced to downscale again, as the city’s Department of Housing
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ALSO INSIDE THE MOST RAT-INFESTED BLOCK P.4 ELECTION MARATHON P.7
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