School may by out but I have been busy closing one of our school libraries in the school district that I work for. Declining enrollment necessitates the need for this but it is always sad to close a building and a library. This building was open for sixty years! Can you imagine all of the memories that were made through the years? As I work on transferring the books and materials to other libraries in the district, I have been impressed by the love and care and the knowledge that this library was once a vital, exciting part to this building. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, children’s authors like Ann McGovern, Jerry Pallotto, Hans Wilhelm, and Marc Brown visited the school. Marc Brown even put Fairwood in one of his books, Arthur’s Birthday! (If you look through the book, you will see Fairwood on the newspaper in Arthur’s kitchen and Fairwood spelled backwards on the window of the store that Arthur and his mother go to pick up his decorations for his birthday.) 
Unfortunately, as in many school districts throughout Ohio, funding for the staffing, materials, and programs in the school libraries have been cut. Where there was once full-time staffing in each of the elementary buildings, now it is down to part-time. The school library has only been an empty shell of what it once was. A library is more than just the building it is in or the room where the materials are stored. With little funding and no staffing these last few years, Fairwood’s library has been dying a slow death and now it is finally gone. How sad.
The reason why I am writing about this is because of my concern for the state of our public libraries throughout Ohio. With decreased funding, naturally there will be cuts. My hope is that of our wonderful public libraries (especially Rocky River Public Library) will never get to the same sad condition that Fairwood became.
“A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life.” by Henry Ward Beecher.
Happy Reading! Donna
Read it or Weep 