by Ryan Kohlhof

Knowledge is power, and a major key to unlocking knowledge within yourself is through reading. So where does a PCM student go to read a book? A student can find the library located fairly close to the epicenter of the high school. But unlike the new technological advancements in other areas of the building, such as the improved water fountains, the computers and the TVs with announcements on them, the library has not been improved in many years. Even with the millions of dollars in grants received to improve the school, none of that money has been scheduled to go toward our tattered library.
When you enter the library, it feels like you’ve traveled back in time upon viewing the ancient tables, book cases and, well, even the books. You then begin to wonder when we last received books. Well, with a $500 stipend set aside, we get two to three large boxes of books at two separate times a year when super sales are going on. We do receive grant money as a district, but not much, and most of it goes into other areas of the school deemed more important. There is a 2- to 3-percent chance (I did the math) of finding the librarian in there, in case you need professional book-finding help. However, although he is not always there, we do share a librarian with Baxter’s school district, and he does make an appearance two to three times a semester. The card catalog, used for finding what books we have, if you can find it, or even know how to use it, is itself outdated.
“The selection is not very exquisite,” senior Payton Pool said, “and on that note, I’ve only found myself checking out a book on one occasion, and that was only because a school assignment required it.”
So what is the library used for? During school, it is used as a study hall, where students are to sit and work in silence during the duration of the period. Before and after school, the library is used as a place to hold meetings. More students go to the library to print off papers than to look at the books.
What can we do to change this? Well, applying for grants to help on updating the library would certainly help. Reinvesting resources and inventing ways to help insert the library more into students’ daily lives would help to influence the library use. More students reading more books means more students gaining knowledge and forwarding innovation and success on a worldly scale. Isn’t that what is needed? Less ignorance, more enlightenment to brighten everyone’s future.