Interview by Jonathan Kemmerer-Scovner, Writer, for Philadelphia Stories
Jenny Lowman is a true advocate for literacy. She has worked in the nonprofit arena of Philadelphia for over 15 years, having served as the executive director for the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC), promoting childhood literacy in Philadelphia public elementary schools through reopening and staffing libraries, and prior to that, as an attorney at Philadelphia’s Education Law Center.
Currently, she serves as a school board member in the Cheltenham School District and, along with several others, has founded the Philadelphia Alliance to Restore School Librarians (PARSL), a grassroots organization dedicated to returning certified school librarians back to all schools in the School District of Philadelphia.
Do you remember the first book you read that made you love reading?
It was this little Richard Scarry book from my public library growing up, On the Farm. It was a little square, maybe 3 x 3 inches. I loved that book so much that my parents bought it from the library; I still have it to this day!
My mom was an English teacher, so I was surrounded by books my entire life, classic literature all over the house. 1984, Great Expectations, The Count of Monte Cristo… At some point or another, she’d taught them all. I always had access to books, and I could read whatever I wanted.
That’s how this all started for me, just having access to a wide range of books, and not being told what I could or could not read.
You attended public school growing up?
Yup, all the way. There weren’t a lot of other options in the Lehigh Valley, where I’m from.
I remember our elementary school was a relatively new building, and they’d somehow forgotten to plan for a library, so they had to create one out of the janitor’s storage closet, this small, windowless room that had maybe six shelves and a few tables – but we had a librarian.
My middle school, though, had a big library that we used a lot, and my high school did as well. We learned the card catalog, micro-fiche, the Dewey Decimal system… all that wonderful stuff. It wasn’t until I was a senior that we had a computer lab for the first time.
The role of the public school librarian has evolved a lot since those days.
Definitely. Librarians are still there to make the world open to children, that part hasn’t changed, but today their role is even more important, because they’re teaching digital media literacy as well. They’re teaching children how to be good and informed consumers of information, to not just find a source, but to discern between sources. If there isn’t a certified librarian who’s learned those skills themselves, students are really missing out.
Continue reading the full interview here: https://philadelphiastories.org/article/interview-with-jenny-lowman/
