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The Honorable (Name)
Ohio House of Representatives
77 S. High St.
Columbus, OH 43266-0603

Dear Representative (Last Name):

The INFOhio Project has provided valuable electronic resources to Ohio schools for several years. Their funding has been cut from the Governor's proposed 2002-2003 Budget. Please restore this funding to the state budget.

For 28 cents a student INFOhio provides access to several electronic databases to every student and teacher in Ohio. Their state funding has enabled them to negotiate collective licensing agreements with several software companies so that they can make two electronic encyclopedias, the full text of 217 magazines and newspapers, an elementary reference resource and an American biography database available to every student and teacher in Ohio. If individual districts negotiated similar contracts for their schools, these resources would cost $18.10 per student.

The provision of these safe, accurate, current, curriculum-related, teacher-approved electronic information sources to Ohio students and teachers is very important. Please don't deprive them of these vital tools.

Sincerely,

Barbara C. Tope
Advocacy Chair, OELMA
1999 Past President, OELMA

Good evening. My name is Christine Findlay. I've been a school library media specialist with the Centerville City Schools in Montgomery County for twenty-five years. I'm here tonight representing the staff and students of Ohio and my colleagues of the Ohio Educational Library Media Association to discuss the lack of funding for INFOhio electronic resources in the proposed budget.

Teaching research skills and having access to valid research sources has always been a part of education. When I was a child growing up in a very rural part of Pennsylvania, I went to a school that did not have a library and the nearest public library was 20 miles away. My parents were very poor, but they had a dream that their daughters would do well in school and get a college education. Because of that desire, they purchased a set of World Book Encyclopedias that it took them a few years to pay for. We were a one-car family and my father worked two jobs, so driving to the public library wasn't really an option for us. But, for my sister and me, there were no excuses for our assignments not being done, because we had an aging World Book Encyclopedia and two parents who made sure we did our assignments.

Things have changed a lot since those years. Many students either have their own computer at home or have access to the family computer to use for school research projects. You have already heard how the INFOhio resources provide valid, selected educational resources for them to use at home as well as at school.

But you and I both know that there are still many students who do not have computer access at home. And many don't have an adult who can take them to the public library. If they are lucky enough to have two parents at home, those parents are often doing shift work and are not available to drive their children to the library.

A few years ago, the state of Ohio set out to bridge the Digital Divide by wiring our schools and classrooms and giving all students access to computers. The state received national recognition for this initiative. They also received a lot of criticism for delivering a desktop box without curricular content. We came to realize that having a computer and Internet access didn't necessarily mean our students were receiving a better education. Luckily for the students in Ohio, INFOhio came along and applied the basic fundamentals of library service to the existing network: free and equal access to valid information. Now it didn't matter if you went to school in a low-wealth district or a high-wealth district, you could still access over 125 magazines, electronic encyclopedias and almanacs. You had resources to challenge your thinking and expand your horizons. Equity is a word we have heard tossed about in every conversation about Ohio education for the past three years. INFOhio was one government-sponsored project that truly provided equity, and it provided it at a cost that was truly just a drop in the government's budget bucket. With INFOhio, no matter how outdated a district's resources or textbooks were, or how few resources they could purchase, they still had equal footing with the best school districts.

You've heard it said that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Well, that's exactly what we school librarians have been doing for the last few years. We have not only had to teach our students how to use electronic resources but we have had to teach staff members who have little or no computer skills how to use them. Worse yet, we have had to fit this into their school day that was already overpacked with meetings and planning. We are just starting to gloat over our success stories, our victories in getting teachers to use these wonderful resources for lesson planning and professional growth. We've designed staff inservices and professional growth opportunities around these resources that we are about to lose.

I know in my district and many others, we just got our web sites up and running with the links to INFOhio's electronic resources and are busy speaking to parent groups to show them how to use these resources for one-stop shopping when helping their students conduct online research. The response has been so great when parents see the quality of the resources Ohio is providing for the students. I personally have had phone calls from parents telling me what great resources they have been for their own use. Frankly, I find that to be the best possible modeling of life-long learning those parents can do for their children.

Another jewel in the INFOhio resource crown is the variety of reading levels that is represented in the resources. We hear praise from the parents of special education students and the parents of gifted and talented students. INFOhio has selected resources that serve the needs of all students, regardless of their abilities, and they did that at a cost of twenty-eight cents per student.

If I truly believed there was not 1.7 million dollars or more in state funds to subscribe to these resources, I would not be here asking for your reconsideration. I know you have tough choices to make. But I also know that you were elected to straighten out the mess that the Supreme Court says the education funding is currently experiencing. Parents…voters…. are counting on you to provide equal educational opportunities for all of our school children, regardless of their neighborhood. Could any of you walk into one of our classrooms or libraries where the students are using these resources and sincerely tell those students that it was in their best interest for you to take these curriculum-rich resources away from them? Well, we don't know how we are going to explain it to them, either. For years we trained them to go to valid resources and not start with general Internet searching via a search engine such as Yahoo or AltaVista. What are they going to think when we turn around now and tell them to start their searches that way? And how are we going to explain to those young researchers why the first fifteen hits they got on "Greek" have to do with contemporary restaurants and they have just wasted the class period locating useless information?

How can we teach our students the information literacy skills they need, once the tools are taken away from them?

National Commission on Library and Information Science

Hearing, April 26, 2001

Report from Barbara C. Tope

OELMA Advocacy Chair

The NCLIS is an independent Agency of the federal government whose purpose is to determine the public’s information needs. It speaks for neither the administration nor the library profession, but for the public. The Commission was established in 1970, and it may go out of existence this year. President Bush has recommended no funding for it in his current budget proposal.

There were a number of interesting speakers throughout the day. I would estimate the audience at 50, but people came and went. Commission members commented several times during the day on the absence of any school administrators. They were invited, but did not respond. One of the Commissioners remarked that their absence sent a message.

Martha Gould, NCLIS Chairperson opened the Hearing, followed by remarks from Rebecca Bingham, NCLIS member and Retired Director, School Library Media Services, Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville, Kentucky. Then Julie Cummins, Editor of School Library Journal, made an opening statement. You might want to revisit SLJ’s April 2000 issue. Cummins pointed out that current federal spending for education is directed toward staff and testing. She commented on the lack of training programs in the library field across the country. Jose’ Marie Griffiths, Commissioner from the University of Michigan, said that college deans are pressured by their provosts to offer programs which lead to high-paying jobs. School librarian is not a high-paying job.

Then the first panel members came forward to address the topic “The Role of the School Librarian in Student Performance. This was the most interesting panel of the day, because several research studies were described. Keith Curry Lance was the first speaker. I’m sure you’re all familiar with his work. The Colorado Study will be replicated in New Mexico and Utah next. They have studies planned which will take them into 2004.

Diane Culbertson, Information Resources Consultant, Kentucky Dept. of Education, described a study they did to determine the effect of a good school library media program staffed by a licensed media specialist on student performance. She said Kentucky legislators were unimpressed by Colorado. They didn’t see that it had relevance for their state, so they did their own. Factors which had a positive correlation with better standardized test scores included:

Student Technology Leadership Program (LMS train students to help with computer technology use & equipment maintenance)

LMS belongs to a professional organization

Schools with more technology

Use of the Big 6

Clerical support for the LMS

Flexible scheduling

An evaluation instrument designed for the LMS (instead of trying to adapt the teacher one)

Library expenditures proved inconclusive because they were not able to get good data. The Dept. of Ed has recognized a problem since library staff was unable to determine library expenditures in their districts. The KY Dept. of Ed. has used the study to plan some professional development, including workshops for principals on how to evaluate the library media specialist.

Texas has also done a study on the effectiveness of LMC’s in schools, as measured by students’ performance on standardized tests. They found that socio-economic status has the greatest influence on student scores. However, the presence of a good LMC accounted for the following percent increase in scores:

4% at elementary

3.9% in middle school

8.2% in high school

Christine McNew, Youth Services Consultant, Texas State Library & Archives Commission reported on the Texas study. She told us later that they have only had these results for a week. When the study is posted on their website, she will email us, and we’ll post on oelma-l.

James Baughman, Director, SLMS Program, Simmons College, Boston has done several national studies on LMCs. He reported a strong relationship between having an LMC and student scores on standardized tests. He said this holds true for poor students. Massachusetts is making the LMS license a direct teaching license, not a support person. He mentioned that Simmons is the only library school in New England.

Baughman is also conducting a survey of superintendents. Preliminary results show that Supers. are interested in having a library media specialist, and they favor federal aid earmarked for school libraries.

John Barth, Senior Education Assoc., National Education Goals Panel, Washington, D.C. raced through a bewildering welter of statistics so fast it was hard to get anything out of his presentation. Panelists were limited to 2 minutes, and I guess he was worried about getting it all in. He did say that there is improvement in test scores nationally. Math is doing better than reading because the gap between the highest and lowest scores is decreasing. The best reading scores are getting better, but the lowest ones are getting lower. Commissioners expressed alarm.

The rest of the day was mostly LMS describing the difficulties we all know that practitioners are facing: lack of funding, lack of support from the administration, difficulty in getting teachers to collaborate, growing demands on their time and expertise. OELMA members did us proud. Testifying were Darlene Basone, Christine Findlay, Cassie Rogers, Terri Fredericka, Roxane Oakley, and Marjorie Pappas. A parent and a student from Darlene’s school district, Walnut Hills, also testified on the importance of the LMC to students. OELMA might want to invite the student, Victoria Stroud, to testify before the Ohio Legislature when they hold education hearings. I read the last couple of paragraphs from OELMA’s Official Statement during the time for “unscheduled speakers” at the end.

Some nuggets I noted during the day:

Sharon Coartney, AASL Past President & elementary school LMS in Overland Park, KS, said the Kansas state LMS organization had sent members to speak to the students in all the colleges of education in Kansas about collaborating with the LMS.

Terri F. told the commission that 20 or 25 states have networks similar to INFOhio.

Martha Gould said that Nevada had done a copyright date survey of school library materials and used it to get funding for materials.

A commissioner asked what the Big 6 was following the testimony of the first panel. This inspired Marjorie Pappas to abandon her prepared testimony to explain information process models to the Commission. She said their importance is that they bridge the gap between content standards and teaching practice and learning. She also said she’s come to the conclusion, like it or not, that we can’t beat the testing proponents, so let’s teach info. lit. skills and test them too.

David Loertscher, Professor, School of Library & Info. Science, SanJose State, proposed a world-wide, internet-based research seminar on information literacy. He said the fact that we live in an information-rich society changes research variables. What was done 5 or 10 years ago is no longer valid, so current practice is ahead of the research. Establishing a method for all researchers to communicate and share their work would help us play catch up.

Mary Ann Hindes, Georgia State University, said NCES reports that 96% of schools in U.S. have a library.

Jose Marie Griffiths, U of Michigan, suggested that there should be a national summit on Life-Long Learning (or Info Lit.) to focus attention on school libraries. Several Commissioners agreed that this was a good idea, as did Loertscher. If NCLIS ceases to exist, I’m not sure who would sponsor this.

Martha Gould reminded us that we have to know and live with the political realities. One of those is that many of the conservatives now in power in Washington believe that education is a job for the states. Federal Gov. should keep its hands off.

Marilyn Shontz, Rowan U., NJ, helps conduct the SLJ survey of school library media programs. She said that it is extremely difficult to get good data on LMCs. She thinks the fed. gov. should require state departments of ed to collect data and report it to Washington.

Sharon Coatney serves on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Those for LMS have been written now. She said she was able to convince the Board that information literacy is important in every subject area, so the standards for all of them are being rewritten to include it.

Paul Pormen, OELMA member, rose from the audience to say that he thought federal funds served to spot light areas. Federal funding for school libraries would focus needed attention on them.

I don’t remember who said this: People trust librarians. Each of us, in any aspect of librarianship, is a broker of that trust.

Barbara C. Tope
Advocacy Co-Chair
mediamom@concentric.net

Dear fellow librarians,

Today several OELMA, CASLA, and Catholic School Librarians had the chance to take part in (or at least listen to) an awesome event. The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) held a one and only hearing on School Libraries in downtown Cincinnati. Several panels of expert witnesses, school librarians, and ordinary citizens testified about the role of the school librarian in:

and the role of the federal government in supporting school libraries.

What a privilege to hear Keith Curry Lance talking about the famous studies in Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Alaska which show the direct correlation between good libraries and student achievement. David Loertscher called for the commissioners to spearhead a national summit meeting on school libraries. Marjorie Pappas and Judy Cummins (editor of School Library Journal) also spoke about the importance of school librarians.

Terri Fredericka explained what INFOhio was doing, especially in providing electronic resources to all schools and students. Roxane Oakley, our school library consultant at the State Library was also eloquent in explaining how the federal government should continue funding efforts like E-Rate and ESEA, but needs to do more. Barbara Tope talked about OELMA's advocacy efforts for school libraries.

Darlene Basone, librarian at Walnut Hills H.S., opened the commission's eyes with stories of how the school librarian works collaboratively with teachers. Chris Findlay took them through a typical elementary librarian's first two bells of the day. A parent and a high school senior both spoke about the importance of libraries.

Cassie Rogers from the Tecumseh Schools in New Carlisle brought in a few of her very old library books and talked about aging collections, the need for ESEA funding to be renewed and targeted for school library materials, the Ohio Reads program (which gave a grant to one school in her district which provided more money for classroom books than one of her school libraries would be able to buy in 18 years!), the lack of certified people in our libraries, and more.

Carolyn Kindle, librarian at Hughes High School in Cincinnati described how she has received ZERO monies for library books for three years and how site-based management has resulted in 20 Cinti Public Schools choosing to eliminate library positions altogether. Sharon Touchton lamented the vicious circle: universities closing library programs because fewer people want to get training in library science because fewer schools are hiring certified librarians because the state is no longer requiring that schools have librarians.

At least 12 more speakers gave testimony on a range of perspectives. The commission bemoaned the fact that other groups representing superintendents, principals, teacher unions, etc. had not responded to invitations to attend this hearing. I put in my two cents worth saying they should have called it a hearing on how libraries can help improve proficiency test scores. Then they would have been flooded with those other groups.

The Commission now has their work cut out for them. They must come up with concrete proposals to take to President Bush and to the Congress. I think they got the message loud and clear that the federal government should have a role in promoting school libraries, their programs, and their certified staff.

I wish the whole day had been videotaped for everyone to see. Hopefully, transcripts of the testimony will be provided so you can learn more than I am describing here.

Congratulations.

Linda Miltner
Bridgetown Middle School
Oak Hills Local School District
OELMA South member

My name is Christine Findlay. I have been a school library media specialist for twenty-five years; eleven as an elementary librarian, eight as a middle school librarian, and I am currently in my sixth year as the district library media coordinator for the Centerville City Schools. In the early 1970’s, our district decided to work toward having a certified library media specialist in every building by adding a few each year. In 1976 I was hired along with three other media specialists to complete that goal. Having a certified library media specialist in each building, regardless of its size or population, is a rare situation in the state of Ohio. So, I am proud to speak on behalf of the Centerville City Schools and of my professional organization, the Ohio Educational Library Media Association.

Anyone who has been in Education for over five years knows that the national focus on education changes every so many years. Theories come and theories go. None-the-less, there are always some constants in education. I believe libraries and reading are two of those constants. For the past several years the focus in our schools has been on student achievement measured via standardized tests, and on literacy. Studies such as the Curry Lance Colorado study and other state studies have proven correlation between good library services and student achievement. I believe my own school district situation bears that out, as we consistently score as an Ohio Effective district, the highest ranking a system can achieve. I also think that having certified library media specialists in our district for twenty-five years has fostered a love of reading that has helped our public library rank as the number one public library in its category for two years and the number two library of our nation in all categories this year. We grow readers in Centerville.

My district, like many others, has also been inservicing and re-training many of its classroom teachers on the latest methodologies of reading. Teams of teachers and librarians have attended training at universities and then returned to their buildings to train the teachers and librarians who were unable to attend. It is very important that our librarians are receiving the same training so that they are aware of what is happening in the classrooms in regards to four-block; guided reading; phonemic awareness; word walls; reciprocal teaching or any other current trend in literacy. Each week they spend forty-five minutes with each class of students, and take advantage of that opportunity to model and reinforce the literacy lessons of the classroom.

What I would like to focus on is how our school library media specialists in elementary school libraries promote and sustain literacy and help our students improve their reading skills. To do that, I would like to take you through a typical morning of an elementary library media specialist, focusing on the literacy aspects, and neglecting the many other duties such as trouble shooting equipment problems, teaching information skills, processing materials, etc.

Before we meet our librarian, let’s make sure we know her background. Paula is a classroom teacher who went back to school for a master’s degree in Educational Media (or Library Science - - take your pick.) Or she may have been an education major in library science even as an undergraduate. Through her library coursework, Paula has a strong background in children’s literature and book selection. Thanks to the literacy inservices in her building, district professional development opportunities, and attendance at professional conferences, Paula’s classroom skills and library tools are being updated regularly.

I’d like you to meet Paula. Paula starts her day around 7:50 when her doors open for students who would like to return the books they have and select new ones. Until about 8:15, she is welcoming these students, offering reader advisory help as they select new materials, getting parent volunteers logged into the automation system to begin circulation for the day, and helping teachers find the materials they have decided they need for the day. In a perfect world, teachers have selected their materials in advance and the automation system always starts right up. In the real world, there are always last minute requests and networks that are acting temperamentally.

Around 8:18, Paula’s first class arrives. They will be spending approximately 45 minutes with Paula. Her first class today is a second grade class. The second graders have been studying about community and the many different types of communities that people live in. While Centerville is a rather affluent community, there are some students from low-income housing and occasionally some homeless children. Today, Paula is reading the story, Fly away home by Eve Bunting, which is the story of a boy and his father who live in an airport. Paula will model the reciprocal teaching skill of prediction. Just as their classroom teacher does, Paula will often wonder aloud during the sharing of the book. For instance, when Paula reads about how Andrew and his father wait until the airport is very busy to use the bathrooms to wash up and shave, she says aloud, “ I wonder why Andrew and his dad wait until so many people are in the restrooms before they go in.” Paula doesn’t look for an answer from the class or try to answer her own question. Rather she is modeling the sort of inquiry based, predictive, anticipatory reading that we want our students to do as they read independently for pleasure or as they read for meaning within text. Paula continues with her story and with her wondering aloud throughout the course of the book. At the end of the story, the students share their ideas about the story, inferring things from the text and pictures; detailing facts or offering opinions; or perhaps looking at the cause and effect of life in an airport.

Paula loves technology and tries to weave some technology into each lesson. Today she has an audiotape of sounds of the airport. The students listen to the tape and identify the different sounds they hear before they go to check out books. These are the same sounds that Andrew hears every day in the airport. The students compare those sounds to the sounds they hear daily at school.

When time comes for checkout, Paula switches into her reader advisory role. Paula spends many hours reading professional journals of book reviews and attending book displays to select the best books for her collection. Selections are based on community standards, curriculum, diversity, interest levels, reading levels, and knowledge of her patrons. Paula knows her students because she sees them and interacts with them at least once a week. When Susie or Johnny share their interest areas with Paula, she can help match them with appropriate books. She is aware of their reading levels as well as their interests. There are a lot of smiling faces that approach the parent volunteers working the checkout desk.

Paula’s next class is coming through the library doors by 9:05. This is a fifth grade class who will be attending a presentation by a visiting author in two weeks. The author has a Chinese folktale running as a serial in the Dayton paper. Paula has read the acclaimed autobiography of the author that details her life growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution. There isn’t time to read the entire book with the class, so Paula has selected sections that highlight what the young girl’s life was like and has been sharing those segments for a couple of weeks. Students compare and contrast the life of the author to their own life. They talk about living conditions, conveniences, political searches of home and property, about family loyalty and other themes of the work. China has been in the nightly news broadcasts for the past week, so there is also a discussion about China in 2001. Paula then turns attention to The Monkey King, the serial work that the students have been reading back in their classroom. The students are asked to practice another reciprocal teaching technique, Summarizing. Students retell and outline the story of The Monkey King, answering questions about the story so far. This leads to comparison with other folktales from other countries that the students have studied in a previous unit. Students are asked to recall some of the unusual characteristics of other folk heroes and students compare The Monkey King to Paul Bunyan. Each week’s serial leaves off with a teaser for the upcoming installment allowing the class to predict and suggest events that could come in the next chapter. This is another opportunity for reciprocal teaching.

When the students begin searching for books to check out, several ask for biographies similar to Red Scarf Girl, the author’s story. Others head for the 398’s, knowing from previous lessons that they will find folk tales from around the world in that section. Students are able to be fairly independent library users by fifth grade, having had lessons for the past five years about using the OPAC. Time goes quickly as they make their selections and check out. It is obvious through eavesdropping that Paula knows what the students are studying in their different classes as some of them ask about books related to what they are studying in social studies or science.

At about five before ten, a third grade class comes to the library. Paula likes to do a poetry unit with the third grade classes in April. (National Poetry Month) This year, as a result of her literacy and reciprocal teaching studies, she has selected a poem book (All the Small Poems) that lends itself to visualization. The poems are quite descriptive and several provide an opportunity to utilize other sensory images. The first poem she is going to share with the class is about stones. Paula has a small watering can near her chair that she picks up and invites several students to come up and look into and feel the objects inside. She asks them to describe the objects to their classmates without actually saying what they are. They use words like smooth, round, oval, heavy, dark, etc. Soon, several students have the correct answer and Paula rewards them with a descriptive poem about stones. This poem is followed by a descriptive poem about clouds, but when reading the poem, Paula leaves out the title and the word “clouds.” Students must determine the subject of the poem from the description. After a few more interactive poems, Paula asks the students if they can write a descriptive poem together. She utilizes a flip chart of paper near her teaching area and the students build a word list of descriptive words for a rainy day poem. (Paula picked a rainy day because the third grade is currently studying about weather.) At the conclusion of their poetry exercise, they again use the list of descriptive words to search for weather subjects in the OPAC. Students will be writing brief reports about weather and this was a good way to make them aware of the resources on the shelves of the library that will help them with their reports. It also reinforces lessons learned earlier in the year about searching by subject in the OPAC.

As the students leave, it is almost time for first lunch at the school and Paula has lunch duty. She checks with her parent volunteers to see any problems that may need her attention and to give them a small project (covering new books) they can work on while they watch the library. Not wanting to close the library while she has lunch duty, Paula asks her volunteers to stay so that any students who come in to the library have someone there to help them check out.

When Paula returns from lunch duty and the morning volunteers leave, she has about 45 minutes of time without scheduled classes. During this time, Paula eats her lunch while she plans lessons for next week, gathers materials teachers have requested, and helps any individual students or teachers who need assistance in the library. While technically this is considered Paula’s planning time by contract and she could shut the door if she wanted, she opts to remain in service to her patrons. Closing a library is no way to promote reading. There are more classes to come in the afternoon but time doesn’t permit me to describe them or many of the wonderful literacy supporting lessons of middle and high school.

I recently heard Dr. Richard Allington speak about literacy. There was one thing in particular that he said and kept repeating that really caught my attention. He said the key to all literacy is motivation to read. I wanted to stand up and shout, “Then libraries are your link to literacy!” But since I was the only librarian in a large room of reading teachers, I remained seated and quiet. But, we are that link. Reading motivation and reader advisory are such a focus of our education as librarians and of our everyday existence in a library. We are constantly reviewing books, reading books, selecting books and all other types of materials, all for the purpose of motivating students to read them, whether for an assignment or for pleasure. We strive to have what our students want and need for success. That’s our bottom line. Those are the skills and the tools we bring to the literacy table. Classroom teachers don’t have time to focus on selection and review. They have their own tasks to do. That’s why a specialist - - a library media specialist – is so critical in our quest for literacy.

I would like to close with a true little anecdote. Paula, the librarian I referenced in my remarks was recently checking in some books after a second grade class had left the library and she noticed these little pieces of purple paper sticking out at different points in the pages of a Little House on the Prairie book. When she opened to those pages, she found little post-it notes where a second grader had written her wondering questions: I wonder why Laura and Mary wore their best dresses to town. I wonder why Pa was upset that Laura had been near the pond. I wonder….

I wonder, too. I wonder when people will recognize the link between school libraries and literacy and strive to put a certified librarian and an adequate library budget in every school.

February 9, 2001

Dear Ohio Reads:

This fall I attended a presentation by Nina Cammon at the GOTEC conference. She was very gracious in listening to our comments and encouraged us to direct our concerns to the Ohio Reads Office. I am the District Library and Technology Coordinator for Tecumseh Local Schools located between Dayton and Springfield, OH.

Please do not misunderstand my concerns. I think Ohio Reads is a GREAT PROGRAM. The involvement of volunteers in reading to kids is wonderful. Our teachers have never been more interested in the new books coming into the library. And, students have time to read and are excited about the new books that we do have in our libraries.

What does concern me, is that our School Libraries cannot support this project in the manner we would like to and need to. As standards have gone away so have library budgets in many school districts. While this is not the case in my district, I know it is for others in the state.

In my district, in spite of a budget, we have an aging collection. We cannot keep up with the replacements that are needed. Federal funding in the late 60’s and early 70’s built collections for many schools in the first place, but then funding was discontinued.

Through various grants, all our libraries are now automated. We were weeding our collections, removing old outdated books for 5 years in preparation for automation. We withdrew 100’s of old and outdated books.

Having done that I had the Follett Book Company do a data analysis of the age of our collections. The average copyright date of the books in our high school is 1971, our middle schools 1974 and our elementaries 1974. Our Early Childhood Center was established a few years ago and fares better at 1985.

I have enclosed one summary page of the Follett Collection Analysis for one school. I can share the complete data for all my schools at any time if you are interested.

I really believe that this has been an oversight. Likely no one really thought about the situation in school libraries. But now, is the right time to take a critical look at school library collections.

We are pleased with the INFOhio resources that many of us could never afford. These electronic resources are wonderful. We hope that this initiative will continue and new resources continue to be added. But this does not meet all our needs. Kids still need good fiction, good easy readers and a good nonfiction book to take home and savor the rich illustrations in a dinosaur book or the life cycle of a bee or whatever else captures their fancy.

Please consider the school library situation in Ohio. We very much want to support the reading initiatives and provide quality book collections in our schools.

Thank you,
Cassie Rogers
Coordinator of Libraries and Technology
Tecumseh Local Schools

enclosure

cc:
Gov. Robert Taft
Rep. Merle Grace Kearns
Rep. Jon Husted
Susan Tave Zelman
Gayle Geitgey
Ann Hanning
Barbara Tope
Theresa M Fredericka
Carla Southers
Jennifer Schwelik

FLR’s Library Collection Analysis (By 100’s) Olive Branch Middle School Tecumseh Local Schools

The Hundred Divisions Average Age Collection % of Collection 000 Generalities 1984 199 2.5% 100 Philosophy & Psychology 1974 78 1.0% 200 Religion 1965 58 0.7% 300 Social Sciences 1974 437 5.5% 400 Languages 1968 30 0.4% 500 Natural Sciences & Mathematics 1973 1084 13.7% 600 Technology 1975 565 7.1% 700 The Arts 1976 513 6.5% 800 Literature & Rhetoric 1972 178 2.2% 900 Geography & History 1972 766 9.7% Additional Category Listings   General Fiction 1977 1827 23.0%   Reference 1979 504 6.4%   Biography 1974 718 9.1%   Professional 1987 21 0.3%   Paperback 1987 871 11.0%   Story Collection 1974 84 1.1%   Total Collection 1976 7933 100%

What a school district thinks about its libraries is a measure of what it feels about education!

“There is a significant body of research that demonstrates that a qualified teacher-librarian (media specialist) has a positive impact on school culture and student achievement. Indeed, several studies have been established that teachers collaborate more in schools with a teacher-librarian and students read more, enjoy reading more, write better, access and use information more effectively and excel in academic content areas.”
Ken Haycock, 1996. “Competencies for Teacher-Librarians in the 21st Century,” Teacher-Librarian, February, 1996.

“What do students need in order to succeed? The latest research insists they need strong library programs. There is one clear and consistent finding that is supported by our research: a school library media program with a full-time library media specialist, support staff, and a strong computer network leads to higher student achievement.”
Hamilton-Pennell, Christine, et.al. “Dick and Jane Go to the Head of the Class,” School Library Journal, April, 2000, p. 44-47.

"Reading is both a skill and a behavior. It is a combination of knowing how to read and the desire to do so. Classroom teachers do not necessarily promote reading for pleasure. School librarians are different. Their purpose is to encourage children to select their own reading material. And school library collections not only complement the curriculum but are also designed to support most schools’ wider mission: to encourage lifelong learning and reading. In order to become lifelong readers, children must have access to books--and lots of them. They must also have some help in selecting them. That requires that librarians help youngsters find materials that speak to them rather than those that might improve them. This ability to respond to varied requests is complicated and abstract. It requires knowledge and skill. And it’s why librarians who do so are called professionals.”
Betty Carter. “Formula for Failure,” School Library Journal, July, 2000, pp. 34-37.

“The International Reading Association (IRA) calls for an immediate increase in funding for books in classrooms, school and town libraries. The condition of these libraries has weakened over the last decade; there are fewer books per child, and the condition of the books and the staffing of the libraries has seriously deteriorated. We must reverse this trend because children who have access to books are more likely to read for enjoyment, and thus increase their reading skills and their desire to read to learn.”
“Providing Books and Other Print Materials for Classroom and School Libraries: A Position Statement of the International Reading Association,” IRA Website (www.reading.org), March 16, 2000.

“A school-wide commitment to resource-based learning and literature-based reading programs creates a need for collaboration. Teachers in such programs see the need for their students to use the teacher-librarian’s expertise in literature and information literacy. When teacher-librarians and classroom teachers collaborate and share common goals, planning and instruction to provide authentic learning experiences for students, the opportunities for students to become readers who are able to access, evaluate and apply what they read will be greatly enhanced.”
Kay Bishop and Nancy Larimer. “Literacy through Collaboration,” Teacher-Librarian, October, 1999, pp. 15-17.

“Research on exemplary elementary schools indicates that: to maximize the impact on elementary education, the best advice is to hire a full library media staff, provide a flexible schedule and install a program which emphasizes the following prioritized services:

1. A rich literature-related program which promotes the enjoyment of reading.
2. A partnership with teachers in a program of instructional development.
3. Emphasis on individual assistance to learns who are using materials.
4. A creative use of new materials, technology and methods to bring the resources of the library media center into the center of instruction--not an appendage to it.
5. Library skills program as a supporting corollary to the above program features rather than the main focus activity.”

“The size of the library media program, as indicated by the size of its staff and collection, is the best school predictor of academic achievement. Library media center expenditures predict the size the lmc’s staff and collection and, in turn, academic achievement. The instructional role of the lms shapes the collection and, in turn, academic achievement. “
Lance, Keith Curry. “The Impact of School Library Media Centers on Academic Achievement: Colorado Study,” School Library Media Quarterly, Spring, 1994.

Two more recent studies in Alaska and Pennsylvania also show a rise in test scores tied to school library resources and staffing.
Kathleen Manzo, “Study Shows Rise in Test Scores Tied to School Library Resources,” Education Week, March 22, 2000.

“In schools with good resource centers and the services of a teacher-librarian, students perform significantly better on tests for basic research skills. The evidence is similarly clear that more reading is done where there is a school library and a teacher-librarian.”
Ken Haycock, 1996. “Competencies for Teacher-Librarians in the 21st Century,” Teacher-Librarian, February, 1996.

“The media program provides a bridge between formal, school-based learning and independent, lifelong learning,”
Barbara Barnard Stein and Celia Burger. “A Community for Learning,” Teacher Librarian, October, 1999, pp. 32-35.

“Voluntary reading is the best predictor of reading comprehension, vocabulary growth, spelling, ability, grammatical usage and writing style. Access to school library media centers results in more voluntary reading by students. Having a school library media specialist makes a difference in the amount of voluntary reading done.”
Stephen Krashen, The Power of Reading, 1993.

“Significant Instructional Variables that Discriminate Between More and Less Effective Schools in Literacy Learning

	Rank
Homework Frequency	51
Phonics Teaching-Emphasis	41
Teacher Readership (professional)	34
Individualized Instruction	32
Teacher Readership (literature)	23
Books Per Student in Classroom Library	26
Class Size	20
Frequency Visiting School Library	18
Literature Emphasis	17
Comprehension Instruction	9
Actual Reading in Class	3
Voluntary Reading at Home	2
Parental Involvement/Cooperation	1

Thus frequency visiting the school library is a more significant instructional variable than class size, books in classroom libraries, individualized instruction and phonics emphasis.”
Postlethwaite, T.N., and Ross, K.N. Effective Schools in Reading, 1993. The Hague: International Assoc. for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.

“The development of student competence is most effective when integrated with classroom instruction through cooperative program planning and team teaching by two equal partners--the classroom teacher and the teacher-librarian.”
Haycock, Ken. “Research in Teacher-Librarianship and the Institutionalization of Change.” Feb. 1995 (Conf. of Internal’l Assoc. of School Librarianship)

“Students in schools with centralized resource centers and teacher-librarians not only read more, they enjoy reading more.
Lowe, 1984. “A Comparative Analysis of Reading Habits and Abilities of Students in Selected Elementary Schools in North Louisiana With and Without Centralized Libraries.” (Doctoral dissertation, Oklahoma State Univ.)

“When flexibly scheduled, the teacher-librarian and resource center can have a significant effect on student achievement in information handling and use and in content areas. Indeed, the most significant changes in library programs occur when the teacher-librarian moves to flexible scheduling and curriculum-integrated instruction; positive cooperative relations with teachers, administrators, and students contribute to this success.”
Bishop, 1992. “The Roles of the School Library Media Specialist in an Elementary School using a Literature-Based Reading Program: an Ethnographic Case Study.” (doctoral dissertation, Florida State Univ.)

“Research shows that students learn when there is a purpose to their activities and connections between them. ‘Separating learning experiences into blocks of time or into subjects taught in isolation is contrary to what is known about how children learn.’”
Haycock, Ken. 1988.

“Whenever a student can see the relevance of using materials in the media center for finding the solution to a problem, he or she is further along the road to becoming a lifelong learner.
Browne, 1989, “Timing is Everything,” School Library Journal, p. 23.

“While art, music, and p.e. are discipline areas, the school library media program is a resource and service agency and the school library media specialist is a resource and service person.
Barron/Bergen. Phi Delta Kappan, 7, 1992, p. 524.

“If teacher-librarians are providing teachers with spare periods, planning becomes impossible and the program doomed to failure, thus squandering public funds.”
K. Haycock, IASL Conference Address, 1985, p. 103.

“The most commonly expected role for a library media specialist to play in support of teaching is to gather resources. Knowledge of materials and their relationship to what teachers wanted to teach made the library media specialist a unique contributor to the teachers’ planning. Anticipation of needs was also an important aspect of providing resources. Quality was another keyword identified in the data. Teachers expressed confidence in the judgment of the library media specialist to recommend to them only the best of materials for use in their classrooms. Teachers also depend on the library media specialist for current and high-quality electronic resources. Technology training for the staff is another thing the library media specialist does. ‘She has acknowledged that we come with different levels of knowledge. She is very good at asking us what we need next. She is always one step ahead of me. She is able to give me shortcuts in using technology. She has become a teacher of the teachers for technology.’

Teachers also indicated that they depended on the library media specialist to help them in their consideration of the needs of the children they taught. Multi-age grouping and developmental readiness were two important constructs in the school’s philosophy. Teachers’ attention to these created special demands for the identification of appropriate teaching and learning resources. Teachers characterized the library media specialist as providing them helpful guidance in consideration of learners’ needs. A clear understanding of what teachers would expect of their students leads to the selection of materials tightly connected to instructional content.

Teachers readily described the library media specialist as someone who offered focus and whose questions or suggestions sometimes caused them to redirect the units they planned. . . . The role of the library media specialist is evolving. Grounded in the responsibility of providing resources, the role is expanding to include recommending how to use the resources, focusing on what is worthwhile to accomplish, and coordinating the efforts of teachers.”
Van Deusen, Jean Donham. “The School Library Media Specialist as a Member of the Teaching Team: “Insider” and “Outsider.” Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, Spring, 1996, p. 249-258.

“The value of a classroom teacher in partnership with a library media specialist can be found in the library media specialist’s ability to link a variety of resources to all types of units, to contribute a strength in instructional design, and to provide instruction in essential information skills for successful completion of a unit. Library media specialists have an overall knowledge of the school’s curriculum map and link together related units. They also provide management skills for extended multiple-content area units. Lack of inclusion of library media specialists in unit development creates a loss of expertise that could substantially contribute to student learning growth and the value of the unit.”
Julie I. Tallman. “Curriculum Consultation: Strengthening Activity through Multiple-Content Area Units.” School Library Media Quarterly, Fall, 1995, p. 27-33.

“Library media programs that demonstrate close ties to the classroom and to the school curriculum are building a base of support for themselves as they improve classroom instruction and expand students’ skills in information work. Such outcomes are worthwhile aspirations for all in working toward full implementation of Information Power.
Julie I. Tallman, “External Conditions as they relate to curriculum consultation and information skills instruction by school library media specialists,” School Library Media Quarterly, Fall, 1994.

“The need for flexible scheduling in elementary school library resource centers has been identified and supported by solid research so often and for so long that schools that do otherwise are virtually engaging in educational malpractice.”
Ken Haycock, 1989, p. 35. “Summary of EL Research Findings to Date: What Works:” Research: the implications for Professional Practice. Emergency Librarian.

“Teaching students how to find information rather than memorize information’ was ranked highest in importance in this year’s Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Issues Survey.” Teaching students how to find information has always been the goal of the school library media specialist.
Education Update, 42, January, 2000.

Quotable Facts from the American Library Association Newsletter:

Americans spend six times as much on home video games ($5.5 billion) as they do on school library materials for their children.

The highest achieving students come from schools with good library media centers.

Students visit school library media centers some 2.2 billion times during the school year -- more than twice the number of visits to state and national parks.

An estimated 37 percent of library visitors are children.

submitted by:

Suellyn Stotts
39 W. Stafford Avenue
Worthington, Ohio 43085

February 23, 2001

Dear Senator DeWine:

We are writing on behalf of the Ohio Educational Library Media Association, the organization that represents over one thousand (1000) Ohio school library media specialists. We would ask you to please lend your support to Senate Bill #327, The Improving Literacy Through School Libraries Act of 2001. Historically, this use of Federal dollars has made a huge difference in providing current, varied, and appropriate collections for school libraries. Unfortunately, funding priorities have shifted, and now the average copyright dates of many school library books are in the 1970's or 80's. School libraries are often the one source of quality information that a student has access to within their community. The need for updating of resources is great.

School library media specialists play an important role in improving student achievement by teaching them how to find, evaluate, and use information, to value and practice reading, and to use technology effectively. The school library is the only place in the school system where these important components of life-long learning come together. In order to be successful in these areas, a student needs adequate library resources. At present, local, state, and federal funds are not available to provide these resources yet the mandates for improved student achievement continue to grow.

Library media center collection size and age were found to correlate with student achievement in three recent studies in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. There is a growing body of research establishing the important role that school libraries play in student's learning. Here are some studies of interest:

Baughman, James C. 2000. School Libraries and MCAS Scores: A Paper Presented at a Symposium Sponsored by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Boston: Simmons College.
www.simmons.edu/~baughman/mcas-school-libraries/Baughman%20Paper.pdf

Black, S. 2001. The Reading Room, American School Board Journal, Feb. 2001. www.asbj.com/current/research.html

Krashen, S. 1995. School libraries, public libraries, and the NAEP reading scores. School Library Media Quarterly 23: 235-238.

Lance, K., Rodney, M., and Hamilton-Pennell, C. 2000. How School Librarians Help Kids Achieve Standards: The Second Colorado Study. San Jose: Hi Willow Research and Publishing. Information about all of the Lance & Associates studies is available at: www.lrs.org.

Your support for Senate Bill #327, The Improving Literacy Through School Libraries Act of 2001 will give an educational advantage for children and will be much appreciated by your constituents.

Sincerely,

Gayle A. Geitgey	Ann W. Hanning	Barbara C.Tope
President	Executive Director	Advocacy Chair
Gayleg1650@aol.com	oelma@mecdc.org	mediamom@concentric.net