Toronto (May 28, 2002) – A national coalition wants provincial governments to sharply increase school-library acquisition budgets and hire new teacher-librarians as a means of improving standardized test and reading scores for Canadian school children.

"The research from the U.S. is very clear," says coalition member Patsy Aldana, a children’s publisher. "A well-stocked, professionally-staffed school library has a direct impact on increased test scores. But Canada’s provincial governments seem unwilling to do their own studies to demonstrate these connections, and that’s regrettable."

Based on the mounting evidence of a crisis in Canadian school libraries (see backgrounder), Canadian politicians are ignoring the U.S. results at their peril. "Across the country," says parent activist Annie Kidder, "drastic education funding cuts are forcing school boards to lay off school librarians, slash acquisition budgets and even close libraries, which means children don’t have access to the resources and expertise to learn the new curriculum. It’s unbelievable that Canadian children would have to attend a school where the library has been closed, but that’s precisely what’s happening."

The Canadian Coalition for School Libraries is calling on provincial education ministers to make three key policy changes:

mandate all public and separate school boards to assign a dedicated fully qualified, full-time teacher-librarian for every school;

establish a minimum library materials acquisition budget of $36 per student for elementary schools, $43 for junior schools, and $46 for high schools (the current Canadian average is about $7);

immediately conduct province-wide studies to determine the links between school library budgets and standardized student test scores.
Founded in March, 2002, the Canadian Coalition for School Libraries believes that school libraries are an integral component of a healthy public education systems, to give our children the opportunity to become confident, productive Canadian citizens. As such, school libraries must be well-stocked, well funded, and professionally managed by qualified teacher-librarians. The coalition’s mission is to draw together a wide range of stakeholders – including, but not limited to, parents, teacher-librarians, writers, educators, publishers, library wholesalers and literacy advocates – in order to sponsor original research; provide policy analysis to decision-makers at all levels of government; develop new partnerships and approaches for fostering dynamic school libraries; and communicate the issues to the broader Canadian public.

Its founding organizations are the Association of Canadian Publishers, the Association of Teacher-Librarianship of Canada, the Canadian Library Association, the Canadian School Library Association, the Canadian Association of Children’s Librarians and People for Education. Members also include the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, the Ontario Library Association, the Library Association of Alberta, Frontier College, Newfoundland and Labrador Library Association, author Robert Munsch and University of British Columbia professor Ken Haycock. The honourary chair is Roch Carrier, National Librarian. The website is at www.peopleforeducation.com/librarycoalition .

For further information:

Patsy Aldana: 416-537-2501
Annie Kidder: 416-534-0100

BACKGROUNDER

The negative effects of cuts to school library funding are being felt from coast to coast to coast. A 2001 National Library of Canada study concluded that real per student spending on school libraries varies drastically across the country, from a low of $56, in New Brunswick, to a high of $256, in British Columbia (1998 figures). Overall spending nationally has been declining steadily over the long term. The full text of the study can be found at www.nlc-bnc.ca/9/14/index-e.html. Other statistics:

Alberta: the number of teacher-librarians has dropped to 106, in 2000, from 252, in 1998; in 1978, there were 550 teacher-librarians in the province

Ontario: only 18% of schools have a full-time teacher-librarian

British Columbia: cuts to school libraries being approved across the province, including the elimination, to date, of at least 80 teacher-librarians in boards outside Vancouver; Comox board to eliminate elementary school library program altogether

In the U.S., Mexico and countries in South America, federal and state-level governments are making substantial re-investments in school libraries. Examples:

Washington: the U.S. congress in December, 2001, approved a US$250 million appropriation for acquisition of school library materials

California: following years of drastic under-funding, the state legislature has mandated schools to spend US$28 per student on new school library materials

Studies in Colorado, Alaska and Pennsylvania, conducted by the Library Research

Service at the Colorado Department of Education, indicate a 10-15% increase in standardized, state-wide test scores for students enrolled in schools with well-stocked school libraries staffed by professional, full-time teacher-librarians, and where teacher-librarians are closely involved in curriculum development. Detailed summaries of these studies are available at www.lrs.org.