https://player.vimeo.com/video/266896081https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js
Click the picture above and go to timestamp 40:12 to view Barbara’s testimony.
As a longtime member of the Public School Library Donation Community, tracing my trail of gift reading materials back to 1983*, I pause today to consider whether my intended gestures of generosity have had the opposite of their intended effect. For instead of helping expand the holdings of libraries in schools across the city through careful consultation with Certified Teacher Librarians, I fear that I have somehow sparked or facilitated the inexorable cuts to staff and demise of this precious resource. Research affirms that economically stressed minority youngsters benefit most and mightily from fully resourced and professionally-staffed school libraries. Students I have conversed with recently wince at the mention their absence. Won’t you now, before the bell tolls on June 30th,give voice and hope to these youngsters with your budget resolution for the next academic year and onward?
(Added orally at meeting as conclusion: Listed below are 35 years of donations. Donations will never replace real school libraries with certified teacher librarians. Our students are not a charity. Thank you.)
*1983-84 Philadelphia High School for Girls
10 years of Ms. Magazine
William Shakespeare Concordance
1984-85 William Penn High School
Varied African American authors
1986-88 Germantown Lankenau Motivation
Lay Bare the Heart by James Farmer
Germantown High School
Harvard Music Dictionary
1989-97 Rush Middle School
Gifted Support Classroom Library
Roosevelt Middle School
Richard Wright and the Library Card
by William Miller Illustrations by R. Gregory Christie.
Memorial gift for friend Gee Gee White
1994 Philadelphia High School for Girls 206thClass Gift – Works of fiction
2010 Edwin H. Fitler Elementary School
Richard Wrightand the Library Card.
by William Miller Illustrations by R. Gregory Christie.
Gift Books for Philadelphia public school libraries from Dowdall Retirement Party:
Overbrook Elementary School
Cat Is Back At Bat by John Stadler (Karen Bynes)
Dinomummy: The Life, Death, and Discovery of Dakota, A Dinosaur from Hell Creek
by Dr. Phillip Lars Manning (Cooper Komatsu and Nad Rosenberg)
The Hallelujah Flight by Phil Bildner (Seth McDowell)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss (Linda and Michael Marder)
Make Way for Ducklingsby Robert McCloskey (Barbara Dowdall)
Miss Nelson is Missing! by James Marshall (Karen Bynes)
Outer Space Fun [3 copies] (Rhona Cooper and Tina Grau)
Phillie Phanatic’s Galapagos Islands Adventure [one of seven titles]
by Tom Burgoyne and illustrated by Len Epstein (Jen Kramny and Kathy Killick)
The Little Princeby Antoine De Saint-Exupery (Laura Jacklin)
A Treasure of Cats (Linda and Michael Marder)
We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Storyby Hudson Talbott (Karen Bynes)
Hill Freeman Middle School Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret
by Judy Blume (Faith McDowell)
Crashby Jerry Spinelli (Faith McDowell)
Dork diaries by Rachel Renee Russell (Vera DaVinci)
Open the Door to Liberty! A Biography of Toussaint L’Ourverture
by Anne Rockwell (Barbara Dowdall)
The Popularity Papers
by Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang (Isabel Kaufman and Nad Rosenberg)
Uprising: Three Young Women Caught in the FireThat Changed Americaby Margaret Peterson Haddix (Sam Kaufman and Nad Rosenberg)
Nicetown Boys and Girls Club
Classroom Library (Rick and Sandi Miller)
c. 2013 A. Philip Randolph Career Tech HS
(Entrusted to the care of SRC and Dr. Hite) Black Scholar: Horace Mann Bond by Wayne Urban The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery Deborah Willillis and Barbara Krauthamer, editors Bayard Rustin Letters(or bio?)
2013 to the present
1,000 random magazines from Unitarian Society of Germantown congregants donated in response to an appeal for “Philadelphia schools without libraries.” 100’s of New York Times health, social studies, fashion, art and music sections
*1983-84 Philadelphia High School for Girls 10 years of Ms. Magazine
William Shakespeare Concordance
1984-85 William Penn High School Varied African American authors
1986-88 Germantown Lankenau Motivation Lay Bare the Heart by James Farmer
Germantown High School Harvard Music Dictionary
1989-97 Rush Middle School Gifted Support Classroom Library
Roosevelt Middle School Richard Wright and the Library Card by William Miller
Illustrations by R. Gregory Christie. Memorial gift for friend Gee Gee White
1994 Philadelphia High School for Girls 206 th Class Gift Works of fiction
2010 Edwin H. Fitler Elementary School Richard Wright and the Library Card.
by William Miller Illustrations by R. Gregory Christie.
Gift Books for Philadelphia public school libraries from Dowdall Retirement Party:
Overbrook Elementary School Cat Is Back At Bat by John Stadler (Karen Bynes)
Dinomummy: The Life, Death, and Discovery of Dakota, A Dinosaur from Hell Creek by Dr. Phillip Lars
Manning (Cooper Komatsu and Nad Rosenberg)
The Hallelujah Flight by Phil Bildner (Seth McDowell)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss (Linda and Michael Marder)
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (Barbara Dowdall)
Miss Nelson is Missing! by James Marshall (Karen Bynes)
Outer Space Fun [3 copies] (Rhona Cooper and Tina Grau)
Phillie Phanatic’s Galapagos Islands Adventure [one of seven titles] by Tom Burgoyne and illustrated by
Len Epstein (Jen Kramny and Kathy Killick)
The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery (Laura Jacklin)
A Treasure of Cats (Linda and Michael Marder)
We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story by Hudson Talbott (Karen Bynes)
Hill Freeman Middle School Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (Faith McDowell)
Crash by Jerry Spinelli (Faith McDowell)
Dork diaries by Rachel Renee Russell (Vera DaVinci)
Open the Door to Liberty! A Biography of Toussaint L’Ourverture by Anne Rockwell (Barbara Dowdall)
The Popularity Papers by Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang (Isabel Kaufman and Nad Rosenberg)
Uprising: Three Young Women Caught in the Fire That Changed America by Margaret Peterson Haddix
(Sam Kaufman and Nad Rosenberg)
Nicetown Boys and Girls Club Classroom Library (Rick and Sandi Miller)
c. 2013 A. Philip Randolph Career Tech HS (Entrusted to the care of SRC and Dr. Hite)
Black Scholar: Horace Mann Bond by Wayne Urban
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery
Deborah Willillis and Barbara Krauthamer, editors
Bayard Rustin Letters (or bio?) 2013 to the present 1,000 random magazines from
Unitarian Society of Germantown congregants donated in response to an appeal for
“Philadelphia schools without libraries.” 100’s of New York Times health, social studies, fashion,
art and music sections (to Girls’ High, Randolph and Dobbins) (See photo)
**Current State of Libraries in schools provided with donated reading materials:
Philadelphia High School for Girls
5 years without a librarian
William Penn High School School closed.
Site purchased and school razed by Temple University
Germantown High School Closed in 2013.
No librarian prior to closing.
Lankenau (previously Motivation) Environmental Science High School
No librarian
Rush Middle now Northeast CAPA
No librarian
Roosevelt Middle now Elementary
No librarian
Edwin H. Fitler Academics Plus
No librarian
Overbrook Elementary
No librarian
Hill-Freedman
Staff listing unavailable. Library required for IB status.
A Philip Randolph CT High School
Library space emptied; no librarian
Murrell Dobbins CT High School
No librarian
Click here to return to the transcripts page.
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 