Libraries help create lifelong readers

The recent article, “Kids’ reading scores soar across the South amid reforms” (May 20), was good news. However, I feel the article missed an important point and that is the effect school libraries have on reading.

During my 40 years as a school librarian and supervisor of school librarians in Baltimore City Public Schools, I can affirm that the school librarian is instrumental, and even critical, to develop the love of books and the sense of connectedness that students need to “want” to read. This, in turn, leads to choosing reading, which naturally improves vocabulary, fluency and the ability to demonstrate those skills in a variety of ways. I have seen students pick books that I knew were beyond their grade level but because of their great interest, they worked their way through them.

This brings me to the subject of the book banning that is prevalent in some states: Supreme Court Justice William Brennan Jr. issued an opinion in the Island Trees School District v. Pico case 40 years ago asserting that, under the First Amendment, “Local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.”

Textbooks and library books fall under two different categories. A student must use an assigned textbook, and the school board has jurisdiction over it as they must approve all textbooks. Library books, however, fall under a different category as a student is not compelled to read them. Students have a free choice to which library book they wish to read and an objection to a book by a parent cannot infringe on the freedom of other students’ reading.

— K. Gary Ambridge, Bel Air