According to the authors of the Access Gap article, teens can counteract the effects of poverty by having more access to books, especially in the school library. In their study, they have found that students who need the library resources the most have the least access to them due to funding and the number of days the library is actually opened (3 days versus the normal 5 days a week). Regardless of whether a school is in poverty or not, all schools do three things well in order to serve the students: making the information accessible, providing a place for both social and instructional programs, and provide materials for information and leisure reading.
The problem is getting students to get into the library to access these materials. In the School Library as Sanctuary, Lynn Evarts suggests that a school library's focus is provide support for isolated students (and all students), which cost little to no money in this economic climate. There are two types of isolated students: self-isolated or actively isolated. In order to reach these teens, we need to provide a safe environment for them to come together to read, write, do homework, and other activities. Librarians can provide this for students as libraries are not structured classrooms and students can feel safe to come in and hang out. Evarts says that librarians need to build the fiction section of the library with books such as Cut by Patricia McCormick and The Luckiest Girl in the World by Steven Levenkron. This idea of bibliotherapy can help students open up, face their feelings of isolation, and heal. Librarians can also have library lunches where students can come in and eat lunch in the library rather than having to face the cafeteria where the feelings of isolation can run rampant.
But librarians need to have support from the administrative staff and other colleagues. Discuss the options with the administration and start with baby steps. Show them that the library supports the curriculum and reaches out to at-risk students. That seems what it all boils down to, because if the librarian can't show that she's working on reaching students and supporting the curriculum, then what's the point of having a librarian? When I was in middle and high school, I never went into the library unless my class needed to go in to use the computers. The one time that I asked the librarian about finding a certain topic, she pointed vaguely to a corner of the library without leaving the circulation desk and when I still couldn't find it, seemed frustrated that I was bothering her to ask about where it was. That stopped any further attempts at going into the library. If she'd been more open and made the library more appealing and safe, I might've gone there more often instead of just going to public library for all my reading needs.
