How School Librarians Help Kids Achieve Standards, a.k.a. the second Colorado Study, found that well-staffed, well-stocked, and well-funded library media (LM) programs are an essential component of successful schools. This issue of FAST FACTS examines the status of school library media services that support student achievement.
Highlights
- Two out of 5 public schools have either no library media specialist or one less than half-time. That proportion is almost half for elementary schools.
- The same proportions of all schools and elementary schools have less than one staff member dedicated to the LMC.
- Since 1994, LMS staffing relative to enrollment has dropped more than 10 percent and total staffing more than 25 percent.
- During the same interval, the size of LMC collections and annual spending on them has dropped by one-third. Relative to total per pupil spending, expenditures on LM collections have dropped by half.
- While more and more information is available electronically, the limited number of networked computers in most schools does little to compensate for shrinking collections.
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