School

School Library Budgets Down in Colorado: Print Collections Suffer

March 2003

The annual Colorado School Library Survey shows that annual operating expenditures in school libraries decreased in 2002. Expenditures per student benchmarks for the state were also down. This is a troubling trend in light of studies like Colorado’s How School Librarians Help Kids Achieve Standards (2000) that have shown strong school libraries contribute measurably to […]

No Increase in Number of School Librarians in Colorado

March 2003

Results from the 2002 Colorado School Library Survey show no increase in the number of endorsed school librarians serving Colorado children. This is disappointing in light of the study How School Librarians Help Kids Achieve Standards (Colorado, 2000) which found that strong school libraries staffed by endorsed and licensed school librarians contribute to measurable improvement […]

One Out of Four Colorado Public Schools Has No Librarian

November 2002

The latest data on libraries in Colorado public schools indicates that endorsed, professionally-trained school librarians are not available to students in all schools. More than 25 percent of the state’s public schools have no librarian at all. The shortage of school librarians is especially acute in elementary and combined schools. Almost 30 percent of elementary […]

Half of Colorado School Library Books More Than 15 Years Old

September 2002

A lot has happened in the world since 1986: DNA was first used to convict criminals (1987). Pan Am flight 103 was bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland (1988). The Berlin Wall fell (1989). Lech Walesa became President of Poland, Nelson Mandela was freed, and Iraq invaded Kuwait (1990). The Soviet Union collapsed (1991). Riots in Los […]

Earnings of Library Staff in the Mountain West Low Compared to Workers in Similar Jobs

February 2002

“Nobody goes into library science to make money.” Nobody knows the truth of this truism better than a library staff member on payday. Professional librarians are required to earn master’s degrees in library and information science. Yet, librarians earn much less than many others in professional and technical fields that do not require such high […]

Stronger High School Libraries–Especially Those with More Extensive Networks and Licensed Databases–Linked to Higher CSAP Scores

August 2001

In 2000, How School Librarians Help Kids Achieve Standards: The Second Colorado Study identified characteristics of library media programs associated with higher levels of academic achievement for elementary and middle school students. That report did not address the impact of libraries on high school students because test score data for those grades were not yet […]

Job Outlook for Library Paraprofessionals in Colorado

August 2001

How many jobs are there for paraprofessionals in public, school, and academic libraries in Colorado? What does the outlook for their employment look like for the rest of this decade? Data available from the Library Research Service (LRS) and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) help to answer these questions. According to the […]

Librarians, Teachers, & Principals Agree: “Power Libraries” Lead to Higher Student Test Scores

July 2001

Since 1998, selected Colorado school library media programs have been paired to encourage their mutual development. School library media specialists with “high performance” LM programs mentor “mini-grant” (or developing) schools. These LM staff, classroom teachers, and principals have made commitments to the improvement of their own LM programs. The high performance schools, in turn, take […]

GUI Grants Make a Dent in the Digital Divide

May 2001

If you are from the metro area, broadband (high-speed) Internet access is probably a given in your local library. In fact, you probably don’t think twice about web pages downloading quickly and having access to sound and video over the net. Unfortunately, in rural areas, this is often not the case. Exorbitant costs, poor telecommunications […]