In 2020, Egypt Luckey graduated from Building 21, a high school in Northwest Philadelphia affiliated with the Learning Innovative network, which emphasizes real-world learning experiences. For the entirety of her high school career, Luckey never had a public school library available to her, and she thinks it put her at a disadvantage during the transition to college.

“I never had a library in school where I could actually go, sit, and enjoy reading because I am a bookworm. I love reading, writing, anything that has a creative expression,” Luckey said. “Not having that experience kind of set me back a little bit because I had these situations where I needed help but didn’t know what to do in those moments.”

A 2022 study by found that first-year college students who had prior high school research experience, especially those from schools with certified librarians, felt more confident in their academic research skills and performed better in using research tools and strategies, such as information and digital literacy, and the difference between a primary and secondary source of information.

“Our students need to develop the skills to learn on their own. [They need] the thinking skills to be able to discern information that they can believe, in order to become digital citizens,” Barbara Stripling, cofounder of the Philadelphia Alliance to Restore School Libraries (PARSL) said. “They need to be taught these skills, they need opportunities to practice them, and it needs to become who they are. They need to understand the importance of looking at multiple perspectives.”

PARSL is a nonprofit organization staffed by retired educators and librarians. It operates without external funding, relying solely on volunteers. The organization wants to improve public school libraries in Philadelphia, aiming to improve academic performance. PARSL produced a white paper earlier in 2023 addressing the link between students’ reading abilities and the shortage of librarians, proposing solutions that involve collaboration with the school district and City Council to secure additional funding.

In the School District of Philadelphia, the number of school librarians has declined over the past decade, from about 57 in the 2012-2013 school year to just one in the .

Marissa Orbanek, communications officer for the Philadelphia School District said that the district does not have enough funds for all the positions that are ultimately needed and desired.

“We will continue to advocate for adequate and equitable funding for education so that historically underfunded districts, like Philadelphia, have the resources necessary to provide all students with access to the 21st-century learning environments, including libraries and Instructional Media Centers,” Orbanek said.

Inside a Philadelphia classroom

Eric Hitchner, a halftime English teacher and English as a Second Language (ESL) coordinator for grades 9-12 at Building 21 in Philadelphia, has created a do-it-yourself library in his classroom. Some extra books he forgot he had in his car proved a treasure trove for his students, he said.

“It was like this light bulb moment,” Hitchner said. “There’s a dynamic that when we’re in the middle of a lesson, you’re not going to go to the back and borrow a book, we need that actual dedicated space. So we started creating one, we don’t have a librarian, [and] we don’t have a budget. We don’t have books, those are all things I had to kind of scrounge.”

Hitchner has since found donors, visited garage sales, and thrift shops to find books to stock his DIY library. He added he couldn’t have done it without the help of students like Egypt Luckey.

“Egypt is one of the amazing students I taught for English and creative writing who volunteered to be a library intern and get the library started all those years ago,” he said. With COVID interrupting her high school career, Luckey wasn’t able to complete the work, he said. “But we would have never gotten that far without her help.”

Luckey said she did it because she wanted to be a part of something bigger than just Building 21.

“We had so many ideas and things we wanted to do, execute, and just talking about the lack of libraries in a lot of the public high schools and public schools in general, just excites me,” Luckey said. She’s hopeful that her efforts might inspire others to do the same at other schools.

Other districts around the nation have rebuilt and restored their public school library programs, Former Superintendent of Boston Public Schools (BPS), Dr. Brenda Cassellius worked in the district for three years to restore its libraries. School librarians do much more than just help children check out books, she noted; they’re media technology specialists, and provide social service support for families who may not have internet at home.

“The library is the hub of learning in a school environment, and certified librarians know how to curate that learning experience and also offer their expertise to curriculum development, materials, and resourcing to teachers,” Cassellius told the Capital-Star. “They’re just an absolute glue to the learning experience that children have.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on and .

Philadelphia is known for its prominent universities like the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, Temple, St. Joseph’s, and others.

Their presence boasts a rich educational and medical landscape. While the abundance of such institutions suggests an ample availability of libraries, this is seldom the case for Philadelphia public school students.

And according to one union leader, the numbers are stark.

Across Philadelphia’s 217 public schools, there are making the ratio four to 113,000 students, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Jerry Jordan told the Capital-Star.

Without staffing – and resources – many of the city’s public school libraries are unable to run at full capacity. While teachers and volunteers are trying to make sure students have access, a number of groups around Philadelphia are also working to make a difference.

“Libraries are important for the holistic growth of children and teens in literacy, social skills, collaboration, cooperation, creativity, and more,” said Christine Caputo, chief of Youth Services and Programs at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

“Library programs are some of the first places that young children can make their own decisions,” Caputo said. “Their families bring them for storytimes and then they can choose what books they want to borrow to read at home. This is a very powerful experience for the growth of children.”

, that reading at grade level by the fourth grade sets up many students for success and encourages healthy behaviors. A student’s reading comprehension skills impact overall academic success, and ultimately the ability to go on to college.

is an early literacy movement that is supported citywide by more than 150 partner organizations, parents, volunteers, and community members. It provides resources not only to students but parents.

“Read By 4th is [one of] the many organizations in Philly doing awesome literacy work,”

Gina Pambianchi, who leads the Penn Libraries’ work with public school libraries, told the Capital-Star.

“During the pandemic, a lot of the focus was kind of switched around, from like classroom collections [to] building students’ home collections,” Pambianchi said.

Universities have been stepping up in the last 15 years as funding across Pennsylvania for public school libraries declined. Pennsylvania ranks sixth among states that have lost the most librarians since 2010.

It’s a loss that usually hits low-income schools hardest because of limited resources and hard budget decisions staff must make, Jordan said.

Temple University has been trying to offer more support for surrounding public school libraries. “Kids in relatively well-off suburban high schools have access to a whole lot more support, and sort of general resources,” Temple Dean of Libraries Joseph Lucia told the Capital-Star. “Part of this for us is about trying to do a little bit of equity work, [to] create more access to the things that make a difference when you are curious, or ambitious, intellectually or creatively.”

The university’s efforts were stymied by the pandemic.

“Part of what we would like to do is bring some of the early grade students into the library for reading story hour type experiences and then allow them to borrow materials, take them away for three weeks, and bring them back. So using our collection to give them greater access to books they may not have in their homes,” Lucia said.

A Sign of the Times

The nonprofit , was founded to provide literacy programs to young public school students and today it circulates 45,151 books per month. According to its website, WePAC “is funded entirely by private dollars and provides all of its services at no cost to schools or to the School District of Philadelphia.”

Before the pandemic, WePAC had reopened 19 public school libraries. It’s now on track to reopen 13 more, according to Pambianchi and administrators at WePAC.

Executive Director Jennifer Leith said the group receives a lot of support from retired teachers and the University of Pennsylvania. Penn Libraries, staff and students have provided technical assistance with cataloging and helped WePAC acquire new books.Ěý

Leith described the experience as “eye-opening.”

Ěý“The district does want teachers to have library collections in their classrooms, but the teachers have to fund that themselves. It’s been a little eye-opening. I have to say some of the things I didn’t realize about what was happening behind the walls of the schools. But a lot of expectation is put on the teachers in terms of filling their classroom with resources and tools so that they can in fact teach the kids – so hopefully that will change,” Leith said.

Like many others in the district, Leith is hoping for more fully operational, equitable public school libraries, especially after this year’s ruling finding Pennsylvania’s school funding system unconstitutional and its mandate that policymakers fix the system.

The issue isn’t limited to just Philadelphia, Leith said.

“I think it’s a sign of the times, not just the district. It begs the question if the school district does, in fact, magically become able to support a certified school librarian in each of its schools, where are those people going to come from,” Leith asked. “The larger question is can we leverage some of the people in the greater Philadelphia area who [are] studying library science and bring them into these library spaces? Ironically, Drexel’s program no longer has a track for certified school librarians because there is no need in Philadelphia, there are no jobs for them.”

Still, with the recent Commonwealth Court ruling and the need for in Philadelphia, it is unclear whether libraries and librarians will be a priority in the next few years. It was not listed in Superintendent for the district.

Said Caputo: “For communities, public libraries are about the only space remaining that is free, safe, and a place you can come and stay a while no matter who you are and what your background is.Ěý Libraries do not require anyone to buy anything or to be anything [other] than who they are.Ěý Libraries are also very important places for the success of democracy.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John Micek for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on and .