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 […]
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 […]
“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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
From 1993 to 1998, growth in the number of school librarian positions failed to keep pace with growth in the number of classroom teacher positions. This was true at both the state and national levels, although the situation was more extreme for Colorado than the nation. This trend is an issue for concern because research […]
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 […]
In 1999, the median salary for a full-time endorsed school library media specialist in Colorado was $35,750. This salary is on a par with what the state recommended for housekeeping supervisors and plumbing inspectors. Half of these LM specialists earned between $28,900 and $41,900. At the low end, this salary range is comparable to state-recommended […]
Over the past three years, school library media center spending on print materials (defined as all types of books) per student dropped 10 percent from an average of $12.90 in 1997 to $11.64 in 2000. Elementary schools experienced the biggest cut in expenditures with a 28 percent drop – taking their spending from the most […]
