Parents and librarians in the state of Washington are mobilizing to ensure that children learn how to find and use the information they need. "These parents realize that school library programs are a key element in the education of all 21st Century students, starting in pre-school," said Sara Kelly Johns, president of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). "And they know that the expertise of library media specialists is a vital asset at a time when the global workforce requires workers who know how to find, analyze and use information."

In the Spokane (Wash.) School District, where budget cuts reduced 10 school library media specialist positions to part time, supporters of school library programs are fighting to save their school libraries and to have library services included in the state's definition of a basic education. Elsewhere in the state, the Federal Way School District slashed 20 library positions in 2006.

"We're really, really scared libraries will fall through the cracks," said Susan McBurney and Lisa Layera Brunkan, of the Washington Coalition for School Libraries and Information Technology (WCSLit).

Parents and library leaders nationwide are disturbed by a trend that is beginning to take its toll on the education of the nation's children. Even as reading scores among teens drop and other key scores remain flat, they say, more and more school library programs are in danger of being eliminated as a result of budget cuts and staff reductions.

In California, spending on school libraries has plummeted from $29.16 per student to 41 cents in eight years. In Massachusetts, the town of Concord-home of Thoreau, Alcott and Emerson-struggled this year against budget cuts in the school library program; and in Norton, libraries at four out of five public schools were closed in 2006, and three library assistant positions were eliminated.

AASL President Johns said that finding information today is "a whole different ballgame -one that requires knowing how to use both print and online resources. School library media specialists provide a bridge linking classroom instruction and its after-school reinforcement. They help students learn how to gather information and develop essential skills that help them prepare for survival in the global economy.

Americans spend nine times as much money on home video games ($7.3 billion) as they do on school library materials for their children ($771.2 million), according to the ALA.

Source: American Library Association Press Release