by Judi Paradis

I attended the Advocacy Institute, a preconference to the May MLA conference in Springfield on May 6, 2009. I was part of a panel that spoke about how different types of libraries are faring and what they are doing to advocate for services.  My presentation was well-received and several people attending told me that it really helped them to know the status of school libraries in MA, including Keith Michael Fiels, who is the executive Director of ALA.

Some things that were interesting to hear:

• Several state legislators and local officials were clear that lobbying makes a difference when times are tight
• ALA is also working on starting a "friends of school libraries" sort of movement and we should look to see what they are doing
• MLA is definitely clear that it benefits public library to support school libraries--this came up repeatedly.

My report delivered for the panel:

Currently our major support at the state level comes from the MBLC, when in fact, we also should be getting support from the BESE—as they are the statewide agency that sets standards for programs and staffing.  BESE has no long-range plan for school library programs, no person charged with overseeing school library programs, and no standards or frameworks for library programs.

Chapter 70 is the funding source for education in public schools.  School libraries are not explicitly mentioned in Chapter 70 (though it is entirely possible to use chapter 70 money for any book or equipment purchase in a public school, INCLUDING libraries).

Because we have no standing within the BESE and are not mentioned explicitly in Chapter 70, we often get hit hard when state aid or local aid is  reduced.  We all rely on local school committees to make decisions about what programs to support--and without strong support from the  DESE we have little chance of surviving major budget cuts.

In many communities, principals lose their library staff and replace professional, certified library teachers with teacher’s aides or parent volunteers, which we believe violates union rules about replacing teachers with non-certified staff.

At present, we are not looking for funding at the state level.  What we are looking for is a commitment from the BESE to appoint a library professional at the DESE to develop a long-range plan for programs and staffing in our public school libraries.  We would like to see a set of standards adopted, and MSLA recently developed and adopted Information Literacy Standards for pre-K to grade 12 that we would like to see used as a starting point in this process.

MSLA and MLA agree that we need both school and public libraries in our communities.  Our children need 21st century skills—critical thinking, a high level of literacy, technological skills, an ability to efficiently access reliable information—this requires the foundation that a school library provides.  Support for school libraries produces citizens that see the value in public libraries.  Our hope is that all librarians will help us in our effort to convince the BESE to commit to supporting school library programs, and to impress upon local officials and school administrators that keeping school library programs in local budgets is a sound expenditure.

Judi Paradis is the co-Chairperson of the Advocacy Committee