Questionnaire for Members of the Public:
“The American Public School Library: A People’s History”
by
Wayne A. Wiegand
F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies Emeritus
Florida State University
Because the library profession has no comprehensive analytical history of the American public school library, policy makers continue to lack important perspective when attempting to plan the future of this ubiquitous and essential educational institution. To address this major shortcoming, I am asking for your help.
I am currently soliciting primary source documentation to support a history of the American public school library from the perspective of people who used it, not from the people who ran it or funded it. Thus, I am most interested in knowing YOUR most significant recollections (positive and/or negative) of a public school library. What you write will become part of an archive I will use to ground my history. Once I have finished the project I will also open the archive to future analysis by other researchers. Please let me thank you in advance for your willingness to provide this invaluable information.
I’ve adapted the theoretical frame for this project from research I did for Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library (Oxford University Press, 2015). The reasons people have generally loved or hated their public school libraries, I hypothesize, fall into three broad categories: (1) for the practical information they provided (or didn’t provide) that addressed students’ curricular needs; (2) for the physical spaces they offered students during non- and after-class time (for curricular and non-curricular purposes); and (3) for the “reading” that they provided to students (“reading” is here broadly defined to also include all cultural forms--like storytelling, comics, music and film recordings, and computer games—whether directly related to curricular demands or not).
To help me locate your recollections in chronologically arranged chapters, for each experience you identify I am asking you in a narrative paragraph or two to give your age and approximate date at which it occurred, and whether the experiences occurred in an urban, suburban, or rural (please name the state) public school library. For example, you might start out your description with: “At the age of 8 in 1983 in a rural Wisconsin public school library I…”. You can be more specific, but only if you feel comfortable giving names and specific places. If you choose to describe more than one experience (and I certainly encourage you to do so), please repeat the age, date, type and location of school library for each.
At the end of this form I am also asking you—if you are willing--to identify your gender, race, socioeconomic class (lower, middle, upper) at the time of your experience, and your sexual orientation. You may also write in your name (maiden name and married name, if applicable), but only if you wish. In my final narrative I cannot promise I will use your information. If I do, and if you’ve chosen to identify yourself, I still may or may not use that information. (Editors get irritated when histories contain too many names and dates; as a reader, I’ll bet you do, too.)
Category One: Practical Information
How much did you use the public school library for the practical information necessary for classwork (e.g., population of your state; size of Australia; number of planets in the solar system)? Was it the first place you turned to for answers? the last place? Was there information you needed you could not find there?
Recollection No. 1(One or two paragraphs)
Recollection No. 2(One or two paragraphs)
Category Two: Public School Library as Place
As physical space, what roles did the public school library play in your life (e.g., place to escape the ordered and regulated world of the classroom; place to allow your imagination to run freely; place to meet friends; place to spend non- and after-class time)?
Recollection No. 1(One or two paragraphs)
Recollection No. 2(One or two paragraphs)
Category Three: The Role of “Reading”
(Remember, the role of “reading” is here defined broadly to include all print and nonprint cultural media forms [e.g., storytelling, comics, musical and video recordings, computer games]).
Describe your most meaningful public school library “reading” experience (positive or negative). Did you have this experience in solitude? with friends? Did you talk about that meaningful experience with friends?
Were you ever prevented from reading something in the public school library? Were the cultural media forms most important to you at the time available at your public school library? Ever get in trouble for reading something there?
Recollection No. 1(One or two paragraphs)
Recollection No. 2 (One or two paragraphs)
And here’s the last question:
What are your recollections (positive and/or negative) about school librarians with whom you interacted? (Remember--age, date and location [i.e., state, city, even name] of school library)
Recollection No. 1(One or two paragraphs)
Recollection No. 2(One or two paragraphs)
Demographic Data
(I appreciate your responses, but though they are very helpful to me, none, of course, are required.)
Gender:
Race:
Socioeconomic class (lower, middle, upper) at the time of your experience:
Sexual orientation:
Name:
Email address (I will use it to notify you when the book is published):
The quality of my history is directly related to the volume of primary source data this questionnaire will generate. Thank you very much for your participation. Please forward this document to me at: .