The statement is the culmination of two months of ALA’s intensive review and research, and forms ALA’s official response to the FCC’s notice of proposed rulemaking that aims to overhaul the E-rate program, the most comprehensive proceeding since the program’s 1997 inception. The statement, the ALA notes, is in line with with President Obama’s ConnectED goal for access to high-speed broadband and wireless for all America’s students through libraries and schools within five years.

“The nation is facing a sea change in what robust technology infrastructure can enable, and libraries are perfectly positioned to light the way forward and ensure no one is excluded from digital opportunity,” says ALA President Barbara Stripling. “America’s libraries must move from basic connectivity to high-capacity broadband so our students and our communities can compete globally. The E-rate program is essential for fulfilling this digital promise.”

America’s 16,417 public libraries serve more than 77 million computer users each year, yet only half of these multi-user outlets offer Internet speeds above the FCC’s home broadband recommendation of 4 Mbps. Through these Internet connections, libraries support the education, employment and e-government resources and services all increasingly moving to “the cloud,” ALA notes.

The ALA calls for new E-rate funding to jumpstart and sustain high-capacity and high-speed Internet connections that support digital learning and economic development through libraries and schools. The current funding cap on the program consistently falls far short of meeting basic demand for Internet-enabled education and learning services, and technology trends clearly show needs and future capabilities only are growing, ALA notes.

To address this, ALA says it supports a two-pronged approach: 1) New temporary funding to support the build-out of high-capacity broadband networks and provide increased support for libraries with the lowest levels of broadband connectivity. 2) A permanent increase in funding.

“Current funding does not reflect the economic reality faced by libraries and schools as they try to upgrade their broadband services,” says Emily Sheketoff, director of ALA’s Washington office. “This FCC proceeding provides an important opportunity to add more funding to the program and increase the value of the program to libraries, schools and our communities.”

ALA also urges the FCC to provide additional E-rate discounts for remote rural libraries, streamline the E-rate’s application review process; replace E-rate procurement rules with those of the applicable locality or state; lower barriers to deployment of dark and lit fiber and ownership of wide area networks when they are the most cost-effective ways to deliver broadband; work with libraries and schools to develop “scalable” bandwidth targets and benchmarks for measuring progress against these targets; and allow applicants to file an “evergreen” form for multi-year contracts.

“We commend the FCC Commissioners on their thoughtful and thorough invitation to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the E-rate program,” adds Marijke Visser, assistant director of the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy. “[ALA's] filing is clearly only the first step to an E-rate 2.0, and we look forward to engaging in the process over the coming months.”

East Marion Elementary School in Silver Springs, FL.

Starting this fall, all of the Marion County Public School’s remaining 15 certified media specialists support two schools each. Each school has their librarian on site for two days, with the third day handled as a flex day, meaning librarians can spend the time at either school. The arrangement has taken adjustment for librarians trying to juggle two separate spaces since classes started August 19—but also for students who now have considerably less library instruction.

“It has been very difficult because of sharing schools,” Miriam Needham, the district’s coordinator of library media services, tells School Library Journal.  “It’s not really possible to have an effective program when you’re not there five days a week.”

The new schedule started for some school librarians in the district three years ago, Needham says. As librarians retired or moved away, their positions were frozen, and other librarians were assigned their elementary school campuses. Seven school librarians had already been sharing 14 schools even before the start of this new fall term, Needham notes.

This latest shift in how school librarians were assigned schools started in May, when Superintendent George Tomyn announced that the district was facing a $29 million budget shortfall. That led to 261 layoffs across Marion County. School librarians kept their jobs in the middle and high schools, but lost their clerks and assistants—positions that still remain at the elementary school level, as they help to maintain the library by checking books in and out.

“But that’s really all she can do,” says Susan Dunn, a certified library media specialist at East Marion Elementary School and Anthony Elementary School, of her assistant.

Dunn, who was the full-time librarian at East Marion for 21 years, now spends Wednesday through Friday at that campus with its 700 students, and just Monday and Tuesday at Anthony Elementary with its 350 students. In her 22nd year as a school librarian, Dunn has now jettisoned story time, much of her research lessons, and collaboration time with teachers.

“What I really crave is to be able to have a closer relationship with the kids,” she says. Because when they don’t see me, they don’t know me, and I don’t really know them.”

Anthony Elementary is in its fourth year of having a shared librarian—a different media specialist each year. Dunn is the fourth, and says she is having a hard time getting to know the students and staff, as she’s not as integrated into the curriculum as she would like to be.

“They may be a little gun shy,” she says. “There is a whole group of students I haven’t been introduced to because I’m not there when they come to the library. There’s an assistant checking out books. They come for 20 minutes, and out they go.”

Needham says that the administration’s plan is to restore the cut positions, and not permanently leave the sharing as it is. But that all depends on funding, she says.

In the meantime, librarians like Dunn will continue to set forth twice a week to different school sites, trying to help students at both. Sometimes that means leaving emails unanswered—there were more than 1100 that were unanswered the last time she checked her account. And even as she forges back and forth she knows she and her students aren’t the only one adjusting.

“This is really difficult for the library assistants because they have to put up with another new person, a new personality,” says Dunn. “At Anthony I moved all books from one side to another, moved bulletin boards around, threw things out. The poor assistant is so stressed because the last three librarians did the same thing. I feel bad about it even though I keep moving things around and throwing things away. But that’s a phenomenon that’s happening all over the county.”

All of the TSLAC grants—a total of 70 for this fiscal year being given to public libraries, institutions of higher education, and related nonprofit organizations and programs—are funded by the federal Library Services and Technology Act via the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, D.C. The grant period runs from September 1, 2013, to August 31, 2014.

“These grants will help improve library programs and services in communities and institutions all over Texas,” says TSLAC Interim Director and Librarian Edward Seidenberg. “These federal dollars augment local funds and help local libraries fulfill their roles as valuable community resources.”

Several of the awards will fund digitization, community reading, and family and early childhood literacy projects, while others will enhance access to information and services.

Two of the largest awards are a $75,000 Library Cooperation Grant to the University of North Texas for its Denton for Inquiry 4 Lifelong Learning (DI4LL) program, which will focus on information literacy skills of pre-kindergarten through graduate school learners, and the grant to the Round Rock system.

Round Rock’s planned Innovation Station will be a collaborative effort between the city of Round Rock, its local school district, and a local nonprofit.

Chicago’s new Back of the Yards Library, a public/school library hybrid.

Staffed with Chicago’s first teen librarians (two part-time staffers share the position), the public library will also have a children’s librarian, plus a branch librarian who is also a K–12 media specialist, who will serve that role at the library for students who come to the branch during class hours. The library shares a wall with the school, but students have to exit their building to enter the branch. Heralded by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the hybrid archetype is reportedly one he hopes to replicate going forward.

“They have the same mission: to educate our children,” says Emanuel, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “It shouldn’t be in separate buildings. It should be in a single building.”

Ruth Lednicer, Chicago Public Library’s director of marketing and communications, confirms that the city will eye opportunities like Back of the Yard where public libraries also serve as school library spaces, although she insists school libraries will not disappear.” “I don’t think it’s safe to say schools won’t have libraries,” says Lednicer. “We will take what we learn from this and adapt where we go forward, just as we won’t close public libraries and move them into schools. This was a perfect storm.”

Like many municipalities, Chicago is well familiar with shrinking budget lines. The city cut more than 3,000 positions, including teachers, while closing 47 elementary schools for the 2013–2014 school year.

At the same time, however, CPS built new library spaces inside four elementary schools at a cost of more than $2 million. The spaces have opened for the current school term, according to Dave Miranda, deputy press secretary for Chicago Public Schools

Unfortunately, CPS’s Department of Libraries and Information Services now has fewer staff members to support its teacher librarians going forward, according to Marie Szyman, vice president of the Chicago Teacher-Librarians Association.

“They have an enormous task to keep us all organized and they do an amazing job,” she tells School Library Journal, although she notes that the department “has been reduced to just a few people left.”

The Back of the Yards Library, with separate entrance to  the high school at right (glass building).

Partnerships between public libraries and schools are certainly common. Many work in tandem to encourage students to get public library cards, attend events, and sign up for summer reading programs. Szyma, too, promotes her local branch as a teacher librarian at Nathanael Greene Elementary, where she makes sure her students get library cards.

But cities are beginning to blur the boundaries between schools and public libraries.

Miami-Dade, for example, recently announced it would open five of its school libraries located in educational technical centers to public patrons this fall, even as it looked to close at least some of its branch libraries to balance its 2014 budget.

The partnership between the Back of the Yards Library and Back of the Yards High School will be a unique one, however, as they were designed to be shared. The public library will be open six days a week, and is in an area that lost a branch. Lednicer sees the new space as helping the community and also its students—a mission she believes libraries are designed to address.

“They do serve the same purpose,” she says. “Libraries and schools are here to educate kids.”

But whether having a public library double as a school’s media center—even one that’s just steps away— will serve students as well as one located inside their own building is unclear. With school just starting, some are waiting to see how the new model works.

“Is it worth trying or better not to approach it that way?” asks Szyman. “It’s going to be interesting to see how this works.”

These changes come as the district faced a $304 million shortfall in its budget for the 2013–2014 school year. The city agreed to borrow $50 million just to get schools open as Superintendent William R. Hite had threatened to delay their opening without those funds.

In addition, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission (SRC) passed a measure [PDF] during a contentious meeting on August 16 allowing principals to hire back staff based on the needs of the school—and not based on seniority. Parents and educators both voiced opposition to the measure by the SRC, which replaced the school board in 2001 with appointees from the governor and the mayor.

“I am heartbroken that we are having a conversation today because our government has abandoned an investment in public education,” says Daren Spielman, president and CEO of the non-profit Philadelphia Education Fund, who gave his comments during the meeting.

How school librarians may fare in the coming days is unclear. At least one school librarian whose position was transferred from an elementary school to a high school was told librarians may be hired back should the $50 million came through. Still, this is in a district that saw assistant principals, secretaries, school nurses, and guidance counselors—among other staffers—laid off at the end of the 2012–2013 school year.

“Apparently, they pretty much let principals decide how funds will be allocated in each building,” says Deb Kachel, co-chairperson of the legislation committee for the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association (PSLA). “So it’s very uneven which schools will have librarians and which won’t.”

Pennsylvania saw a 6 percent decrease from the number of school librarians working in K–12 schools between the 2011–2012 and 2012–2013 school years, according to statistics from the PSLA. For example, Harrisburg, PA, which had eliminated its certified school librarians for the 2012–2013 school year, has now eliminated all library staff as well—and is hoping to use volunteers to run its school libraries for the new school year.

Each year, PSLA runs a staffing survey across its 500 school districts starting in the fall. Eileen Kern, PSLA president, says she does not have a feeling how the numbers will come out this year. But while she sees urban areas, including Philadelphia, losing school librarian positions, other areas are also suffering, with 62 percent of school librarians in the state serving more than one school.

“That’s pretty alarming to me,” says Kerns, who nonetheless sees the urban school districts being hit the hardest. “I know it’s a drastic situation in Philadelphia.”

Carol Heinsdorf agrees. As former president of the Association of Philadelphia School Librarians and a national board certified teacher, she is watching the situation unfold in her city wondering how these changes will, in the end, affect the 136,000 school children set to head to classes next month.

She adds, “The ability of school librarians in Philadelphia to work effectively to promote academic achievement is wiped out.”

Photo by Ben Ostrowsky

Draconian cuts to Miami public libraries—nearly 45 percent of its branches shuttered and more than 250 staff positions lost—stand to impact the community, including  Miami’s school children.

“The worst case scenario is 22 libraries would have to be closed,” says Lisa Martinez, senior advisor in Miami-Dade’s Office of the Mayor, who oversees its library department. “The Mayor has charged us to bring that number down.”

At issue is a budget cut proposed by Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, and approved by county commissioners, set to go through October 1. Lawmakers are trying to reduce the branches that may have to close before that deadline, and Martinez believes she is close to bringing the number of branches cut to 16. Still, they pose a monumental loss of service to Miami’s K–12 students, as some of the public libraries slotted to shut down are close to Miami-Dade County public schools.

West Kendall Regional, a 39,000 square-foot space and one of the original 22 slated for closure, is a 10-minute walk from Felix Varela Senior High School, and on the same block as Hammocks Middle School.

In the coming weeks, Martinez is analyzing schedules, community needs, and  the geographic locations of the branches to try to stretch library resources, and attempt to save some of the branches that are in danger.  She’s also looking at partnerships to offset costs, possibly reduce hours, and also considering ways the library funds services.

“If we have a library that has a staffing level of five, and one is responsible for maintaining the computers, how do we make sure that we deliver services, not just offer computers in the library,” she says.

School libraries may also be considered for some partnership, says Albert Pimienta, instructional supervisor of library media services for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, who says public school personnel are expecting to meet with the mayor’s office and the public library “on what the impact may be,” he says.

School libraries do work with the public libraries in Miami-Dade by cross-promoting events and encouraging students to get public library cards among other activities, he says. But school libraries are not meant to support public needs, adds Pimienta. While 343 of its schools have libraries, not all are staffed with certified media specialists. Some have clerical staff who handle circulation duties, but sometimes for just a few hours a day.

“I don’t think our intent is to serve the public at large,” he says. “I would be hard pressed to see how we could serve the public if it came to that.”

Laura Spears, a doctoral student at Florida State University, spent 30 years in South Florida, and taught online at Florida State University’s School of Library & Information Studies. She believes that the way public libraries are funded needs to change dramatically to ensure access for everyone.

“The bottom line is library funding really needs to be shaken up, but it has to be important to the decision makers,” she says. “It’s not clear to me that somebody like Miami-Dade’s mayor feels like it’s important.”

 School libraries in Galt, California, are open this summer, loaning materials to kids and their parents and preparing to circulate 240 new Google Chromebooks to families throughout the community.

This is a huge turnaround. Last year, the Galt school libraries were slated to close down, casualties of a $790,000 budget gap. But thanks to tireless fundraising by kids and adults in the community and a $10 million Race to the Top federal grant, which kicked in this month, the libraries were operational during the year and are now serving the broader community year-round.

“The school library can be a hub for intergenerational learning,” says Karen Schauer, superintendent of the Galt Joint Union Elementary School district.

A vision of strong school libraries has buoyed community fundraising over the past year. It started at the meeting when school officials decided that the six elementary and middle-school libraries would have to close for the 2012-13 school year. A seventh-grader opened her wallet and said she would donate $40 to keep them running. The school board president produced $200 on the spot and challenged others to contribute as well.

This sparked a grassroots fundraising campaign led by parent Leesa Klotz that yielded over $67,000 through efforts including bake sales, rummage sales, holiday fairs, business donations, and other initiatives, says Schauer. When Klotz visited a student council meeting last fall, a sixth-grader surprised her by producing a check for $242. The students had raised the money during a pizza fundraiser, and the hosting pizza parlor kicked in a contribution as well.

Klotz and her co-organizers set the goal of making sure each of the 4,000-plus students in the district would be able to access the library during the week, she says. They were also dedicated to keeping all six school libraries open—or none at all. They met those goals, due to the students’ efforts and the many other contributions.

As Klotz and others focused on the 2012-13 school year, Schauer had a more visionary, long-term goal for the schools and their libraries. She had applied for the Race to the Top federal grant in order to reinvent the libraries and to support a district-wide plan that would create individualized learning programs for each student.

The grant application focused on “blended learning,” defined as “personalized learning plans related to students’ strengths, talents, and learning needs,” Schauer says. It involves “a combination of face-to-face, online, and project-based experiences.”  The libraries would be turned into year-round learning centers that would support those goals and teach 21st-century skills. Schauer is developing a “digital citizenry course” for students who check out one of the 40 Chromebooks in each library.

In December 2012, Schauer got word that she had won the grant. But the money would not be available until July. Meanwhile, “We didn’t want a break in service,” says Schauer. “The fundraising helped us sustain current services so that students could check out books at least once a week.”

Schauer is already seeing the results of her vision for year-round school libraries. Currently, three of the schools are hosting summer programs, including support for “migrant education students and children that have extended-year special education services,” says Schauer.

When the kids realized the libraries were open, “Immediately, these students were not only having extra learning time from teachers, but could access the libraries and check materials out,” says Schauer.

Visiting one of the school libraries recently, she encountered families coming in to take materials home. “This is huge,” Schauer says—particularly “in a community that has one public library on the west side of town, and has a freeway dividing it.”

Paul Lee, a Highland Park scholar and former student at the high school, says he got the initial call about books being thrown away at 9 pm on June 20, and drove over to the school with a flashlight to investigate. “I had three friends with me and we spent two hours recovering as many books as we could,” Lee tells School Library Journal. “There were shattered monitors, glass everywhere, metal desks, broken pieces of wood. We crawled amongst all that.”

According to Lee—who was in the school as the collection was being built in the 1970s, when there was a push to include more black studies in schools—it included African American, African, and African Caribbean works. In later years, he helped build the AV portion of the collection, recommending VHS tapes, educational audio cassettes, and some slides, he says.

Although Lee says he found fewer than 1,000 books in the dumpster, he believes there were nearly 10,000 books in the school’s collection, including such titles as Mike Rowe’s Chicago Breakdown (Da Capo Press, 1973) and Bell Irvin Wiley’s The Life of Billy Yank (1952).

However, Donald Weatherspoon, the emergency manager for the Highland Park’s school district, says that by October of 2012, when he was appointed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, there were only about 2,500 books at the school—not 10,000. The school librarian had been laid off in 2009, he says, and so the “place had been lying fallow for all those years.” He doesn’t dispute that there may have once been 10,000 titles, but without a prior catalog, he has no way to verify that information.

Weatherspoon—who was appointed to bring financial solvency to the district, which is in receivership—admits that a cleaning crew was in the school the night Lee found the books in the dumpster, but insists the books in question were discarded in error. Titles had been inventoried, boxed, and then set aside, he says. “What happened is that the cleaning crew went into a room and removed everything when they should not have removed materials that had been identified,” he says. “It was a mistake.”

Now, Weatherspoon says, he is working to get records, yearbooks, and any other books that have some meaning and value to the school district to be set aside.

“There was never a plan to throw anything out that was of historical value,” he says.

But that doesn’t quell Marcia Cotton’s concerns. Cotton is a board member from the Highland Park Renaissance Academy Board of Directors, a board which represents the Leona Group, a charter school company which runs the district’s schools.

Cotton says she didn’t know about the books being removed until Lee and others came to protest at a recent board meeting. Her co-board member, Andre Davis, resigned soon after, frustrated.

Cotton has stayed on. But as a graduate herself of Highland Park High School (the school’s original name), and her daughter also a graduate, Cotton says would have liked to see some of the books herself —if she’d known they’d existed.  “Where were they being stored?” Cotton asks. “Were they on shelves? In boxes? Were they forgotten about? Were they even being used to educate the children?”

Weatherspoon says he had informed the Leona Group’s superintendent that cleaning crews would be in the building. He also says a new library is set to be built in the high school for the fall, and he offered some books to the charter school group, which he says “to the best of my knowledge…took some.”

He also says he understands that emotions run high around the books, but believes the concerns may be misplaced.

“Some of these books are so out of date they don’t have the significance that a lot of people are placing to them,” he says. “But that’s not for me to decide. We’re preserving what we have so hopefully we can give them back to the city and the city can decide to keep them in their own community.”

In the meantime, Lee says he is adamant that the books and audiovisual materials he found last month will not be handed back over to Weatherspoon or the district anytime soon.

“We’re not going to give them back to have them thrown out again,” he says.

In the Sarasota County School District, all high school and middle school media specialists have been cut for the 2013–2014 school year, according to Gary Leatherman, communication director for Sarasota County Schools. Of the 12 positions, 10 took teaching assignments, and two were hired in roles where they will now coordinate scheduling, testing and progress, he says. Aides will now staff the media centers. Sarasota cut its elementary school media specialist position in 2010.

Marion County Public Schools has cut 15 of its 30 elementary school librarian positions for the 2013-2014 school year, although 11 of those positions had been vacant due to a hiring freeze for the last three years, according to Kevin Christian, the district’s public relations officer. The remaining 15 professional media specialists have been assigned two schools each, and will be staffing these locations with the help of paraprofessionals.

In Pasco County, the school district has done away with the media specialist role and created a new position called an “information communication technology literacy coach,” according to Linda E. Cobbe, director, communications and government relations for the district school board of Pasco County. Former media specialists have since been “hired for the new positions or were placed in other classrooms or appropriate jobs,” Cobbe tells School Library Journal.

Although retaining jobs is laudable, putting media specialists inside the classroom is not an ideal solution, says Lynette Mitchell, a library media specialist for the past 22 years, 13 of those years at Crystal River High School in Crystal River, FL.

“People with tenure can’t be let go,” says Mitchell of why she believes many media specialists around the state are being re-assigned. “But putting people who have no classroom experience and haven’t been teaching the curriculum into classrooms with 20–25 kids?”

Elementary and middle school media specialists had been potentially on the chopping block for the 2013–2014 school year to help close a $2 million budget gap in her district of Citrus County, FL, Mitchell says. But, like in other counties, the roles were re-named. Now “teacher on special assignment/media” is the new title, which means the position could now be staffed by a teacher with a media center background—but it also could be filled by someone who is just out of school, says Mitchell. A request for comment to the Citrus County School District was not returned.

“I think they want to change the name because they wouldn’t have to keep the person who was presently in that position,” Mitchell says. “We have tenure. We have a special services contract. It opens the door to yearly people. If you’re not grandfathered in, you’re always on an annual contract.”

On a positive note, Mitchell has not yet heard of any media specialists in her district who have yet been let go or re-assigned, and school board members tell her they do not want to see these new positions on the cutting block. “They said, when budgets come up, they want media specialists’ jobs off the table,” Mitchell says. “This should be the last time we have to look at it.”

However, she admits, “Board members change. So we never know.”

Ingrid Abrams

The post by Rosenblum, the founder of Current TV, posited on the growing irrelevance of libraries—and earned the ire of librarians and library supporters everywhere. After several discussions over Twitter on how best to respond, Abrams and Binder established LCML, they say, so that people from all walks of life could share how libraries have made an impact on their lives.

With ongoing budget cuts being made to libraries across the country, their grassroots endeavor aims to bring attention to the resources that these institutions provide to their communities. Of the nearly 50 posts published since its inception on May 13, the majority of entries on LCML are from library users—not library staff.

“We don’t mind submissions from librarians, but we prefer non-librarian [posts],” Abrams tells School Library Journal. “We do our own advocacy, and that’s important. When I advocate, it’s me fighting for my job. But this platform is for the voices that are not being heard. These messages are straight from the patrons themselves.”

Posts highlight the variety of ways that public and school libraries have influenced and shaped the lives of these users, from being a home away from not-so-safe home to helping a person with Asperger’s socialize with other people. In a recent entry, children’s book author Tim Federle shares, “[The library] saved me and changed my life. It was a free workspace in a city defined by its expenses. I wrote vast chunks of my first novel at a library. I return to it now as a kind of church, where the only praying I do involves hoping I’ll complete a chapter before the security guards start switching off the lights.” Other authors have told their own library stories, including Sara Farizan and Marilyn Johnson.

Library staples like storytime, research, internet use, and books are also mentioned on the micro-blog, showcasing the diverse needs of the general community.

“Rosenblum implied that only poor people use library for internet. I don’t appreciate that a place that serves under-resourced people is considered bad,” Abrams says. “But average people use the library every day. We try to show that by posting a variety of users: authors, teachers, and students.”

One high school student from Saegertown, PA goes a step further and includes on the site his petition to stop library cuts in his own school district; it’s been widely shared.

Abrams and Binder encourage all types of submissions, whether visual, video, or anonymous. They can also be sent through the Tumblr website, email, or regular mail. Abrams adds, “We hope that LCML can be a standing reminder that libraries do matter. Even if we don’t always have the funding to back that up, we have the people to back that up.”

Better World Books’ LEAP Grants (Literacy and Education in Action Program) are awarded to specific innovative projects that share the company’s vision of spreading literacy around the world. So cast your vote for the organizations that you think will best promote learning and literacy to underserved communities,and help make a difference. The winner will receive their proposed grant from Better World Books, for up to $7,500. You can cast your ballot once per day, but hurry and tell all your friends and colleagues—voting closes midnight June 21, 2013.

While ISTE applauds Obama for ConnectEd, which sets a goal of broadband access for nearly all U.S. students within the next five years, the organization stresses the same issue raised by the American Library Assocation: that E-Rate has been woefully underfunded since its inception.

ISTE also notes that the discrepancy between what schools and libraries need and what can be funded with E-Rate’s current budget has only grown wider over the years as technology has advanced.

“We forget that it was only in 2010 that the iPad has burst onto the scene. Our view of technology has shifted as it has become more ubiquitous in our lives, so access is critically important. Times have changed. Technology has changed,” ISTE CEO Brian Lewis says. “The issue of not only equity of access but efficiency of access and speed of access and functionality of access—these issues have evolved over the years, so the notion of what the president is doing makes sense.”

However, “the second half of the conversation is the resources,” Lewis says.

For 2013, school and libraries have requested nearly $5 billion from the E-Rate program—although the available funds in the program total only about half of that amount.

“If we’re going to set expectations on schools, and we recognize that educational technology is there to support learning, and we believe that there needs to be equity of access to high-speed internet, and we know that’s a critical tool…how do we as a society [do this],” Lewis says, “but by the same token…turn a blind eye to the $2.5 billion dollar demand that exceeds resources currently?”

Ultimately, it’s about political will, and that begins with the president, Lewis says, dismissing recent criticisms that Obama’s initiative does not go far enough because it lacks specific legislative directives for funding. “I think what the president is trying to do is…to push this issue, to shine a light on it, to share best practices, and call attention to the broader [concerns],” Lewis explains. “He can’t by the stroke of a pen raise the money to meet that $2.5-billion-dollar gap, but he’s doing all he can to call attention to the need in the way that he has authority [to do].”

The duty is now on others, Lewis says, to fully commit to equipping students with what they need at the same time they are demanding that schools be held accountable for meeting learning objectives. “It’s like telling a student, ‘we want you to go get an “A” on this test, but we’re not going to provide you with any resource materials, electronic or otherwise, to help you prepare for that test.’ It’s the same thing.”

Still, Lewis says ISTE is mindful of E-Rates many successes since the program was introduced in 1996. “The good news has been what E-Rate has accomplished over the years, in terms of providing equitable opportunities for each and every student,” he says.

Adds Lewis, “One of the things we know is that every district is different, and every formula needs to be tweaked—whether that’s the formula for pedagogy or technology or budgeting—and what’s great about what the president is doing is the administration is shining a spotlight on best practices where it is working. What can we learn from where it’s working?”

ISTE also remains hopeful of what’s to come, and plans to continue to work with the White House, the FCC, and other educational stakeholders in helping to guide the conversation at the same time it advocates for increased support in funding, Lewis says.

“It’s a combination,” Lewis says. “We want to do what the president is suggesting and support the development and promulgation of sharing of best practices and that’s great. That’s a lot of what ISTE is philosophically about—creating a space and time, virtual and real, where people share best practices. And that’s critical. But the other piece is, always, the issue of resources.

Adds Lewis, “We have to take advantage of the fact that the president made a very conscious choice to focus his attention on this issue that we all care about. Our job now is to take that opportunity and continue to work it, continue to push it, and argue successfully for the financial piece that’s necessary to finish this puzzle.”

Thus, defining the issue’s new “leverage points” in the face of ConnectEd is the organization’s next step, Lewis says, adding, “we’re still having that conversation.”

In the meantime, ISTE will be broaching the issue in full force at its annual conference and expo in San Antonio later this month, when FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Richard Culatta, acting director of the Office of Educational Technology for the Department of Education, will both be featured speakers. ISTE is also hosting a 12-minute “speed panel” on E-Rate, plus a sponsored “Advocacy Lounge” where attendees can write to their representatives, sign White House petitions, and learn more about standing up for students’ access to resources.

While the state and city’s own budgets have yet to be finalized—and could result in more money going to schools—the School District of Philadelphia began to send layoff notices last week, with many certified school librarians receiving them Saturday and into this week, according to a person close to the matter. The Philadelphia School Reform Commission approved its budget at the end of May that stands to cut 3,783 positions from city schools.

As of Wednesday, June 12, six elementary school certified librarians, one library instructional media assistant, one middle school certified librarian, and one high school librarian had received layoff notices. Two high school certified librarians—including one who had just spent $85,000 on library resources from a grant—have been given forced transfer notices. Another high school librarian, who holds three other certifications, was told by the school principal that there would be no funding for that position in the coming year.

One librarian who received a forced transfer was told they could wait to see if a library position opened if they didn’t want to take the teaching position offered, but in choosing that option they could could not collect unemployment, according to the person close to the matter.

Repeated calls to the district and to the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers were not returned.

The certified school librarian positions are just a few of the nearly 4,000 school-based roles that the district is planning to lay off, including some teachers, secretaries, assistant principals, counselors, and school nurses, among other positions. Layoffs take effect June 30.

Still, there is still a chance that more funding may come to the school district, according to Brett Schaeffer, communications director of the Education Law Center, a legal advocacy and non-profit educational group in Philadelphia. Schaeffer recently testified before the City Council about how losing 100 school nurses two years ago adversely impacted Philadelphia school children. He believes there also will be a negative impact from losing school librarians as well.

“So the way this works is that the School District has to pass its budget before the state and the city, which means there’s a chance—however small—that additional funding will emerge between now and September,” Schaeffer tells School Library Journal. “It’s happened that way in the past. The question is what the amount of money would be. The district is looking for $300 million to close the current gap, but may get only $100 million.”

While Philadelphia school librarian Carol Heinsdorf has not yet received a layoff notice, she is concerned. As an advocate for school librarians in the past, she believes that even with budgets tight, these positions are just not as important to higher-ups as others in the school system.

“People in positions of power and authority have always said that there’s no money for school librarians,” she says. “But the fact of the matter is it is not a priority.”

In Philadelphia, noontime aides demonstrated earlier this month outside City Hall, while Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter traveled to the state capital in Harrisburg to appeal for more aid for city schools. Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. has stated that, should the district get more money, many positions would be restored, and he is asking for $60 million from the city, $120 from the state, and $133 million from union concessions for that purpose.

In the meantime, cuts continue—and should some funds be returned to the school district, it’s unclear how they would be re-allocated and which positions may be brought back to schools.

“What is clear is that school libraries will be hurt,” says Schaeffer. “My guess is that, given the choice between having a school nurse and a librarian, schools will pick the former. Those are the kind of decisions that schools will be facing. It’s not pretty.”

Here at last, the numbers you’ve been waiting for—the list of average book prices for 2012 and 2013 to date—are ready, produced in partnership with Baker & Taylor. We know this data helps you make sound decisions. Look for the next iteration in Spring of 2014.

The data, based on figures supplied by Baker & Taylor, shows average list prices for all books (including children’s books, young adult books, paperbacks and hardcover editions) that have been sold (not published) during the time frames listed. Separate calculations have been supplied for the school market and the public library market. Averages are calculated by total number of all book sales divided by the number of books sold.

“It’s the first time in a long time that that any interest in E-Rate specifically has come from the White House, and it’s all wrapped into education technology and student success, in and out of the classroom,” Marijke Visser, associate director of the ALA Program on Networks, tells SLJ. “So it’s a different focus than just the regular connectivity, which is really what E-Rate is all about. You need this kind of connectivity because you want to provide students with this ability…to do whatever they need to do, and not have the bandwith be the limiting factor. And I think that focus has now come to the fore.”

Maureen Sullivan, ALA president, agrees. “ALA is encouraged by President Obama’s announcement of the ConnectEd initiative to ensure that libraries and schools have access to robust, affordable high-capacity broadband for many years to come,” she said in a statement released Thursday. “As the digital revolution continues to unfold, libraries and schools will need substantially more powerful network capabilities. Inadequate bandwidth must not be the weak link in student success.”

Visser, who works closely with the FCC on E-Rate issues and policy, and Sullivan both note the importance of more funding for the program, which they say is dramatically oversubscribed.

“For 2013, there’s about $2.38 billion available in the fund—and schools and libraries have requested close to $5 billion. So you can see the discrepancy,” Visser tells SLJ.

Visser also notes, “The fact that the White House [recognized] that [E-Rate] is underfunded and that they’re looking for a way to infuse more money into the fund? That’s huge. That’s something that ALA has been talking about more or less from the beginning of the program [in 1996].”

Is the ALA confident that ConnectEd will finally meet the needs of U.S. schools and libraries? “We’re hopeful,” Visser says. “We were very pleased that the president actually said schools and libraries in his remarks. That’s a big plus for us, because within the E-Rate program, (school) libraries are pretty small fish; they don’t apply by themselves. They benefit because the school applies. So often with the FCC, the conversation starts with public libraries, and then we take the opportunity to talk about the good work and the relationship of the school library to the classroom setting.”

Visser also says she believes ConnectEd is on a fairly fast track. The ALA is expecting the FCC to issue a notice about the proposed new rules—which is the public forum portion of the process in which school and library stakeholders such as ALA; individual districts, schools and libraries; and even citizens are invited to comment and add questions to the public record—very soon, followed by a comment review and an eventual FCC order, Visser explains.

In the meantime, Visser’s policy team is continuing to work with ALA’s task force on E-Rate, helping to work through some issues and questions so they will be ready to add to the public discussion just as soon as the FCC calls for comment.  “It’s an active process,” she says.

“I think everybody recognizes that students need this kind of connectivity and schools and libraries need it,” Visser adds. “So we’re in a good place to move forward. And it’s exciting to think about.”

As Chicago prepares to permanently shutter 49 K–12 schools and one 9–11 school program for the coming school year, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is planning to open four new stand-alone school libraries for the 2013–2014 school year—and spend more than $2 million for the facilities.

“I am thrilled that each welcoming school will receive the necessary investment of a central library in their school this fall,” Lisa E. Perez, network library coordinator for CPS Department of Libraries, tells School Library Journal. “By consolidating underutilized schools, we are able to provide students with access to a quality, 21st Century education, including the opportunity to learn the value of libraries.”

Perkins Bass Elementary School, John Harvard Elementary School of Excellence, Leland Elementary Schoo,l and John T. McCutcheon Elementary will together receive $2 million just to build new library spaces in their schools, according to Molly Poppe, deputy press secretary for CPS. Additional monies will go into capital funding for new air conditioning, windows, paint, and new cabinetry, among other needs. The remaining so-called welcoming schools already have school libraries, according to Poppe.

How these libraries will be run, however, is unknown. Teachers and school librarians currently on staff at the closing schools will be eligible to follow their students to each new school. But Poppe says it won’t have final staffing numbers until budgets are finalized in the fall.

“We don’t know what [staffing] will look like because we don’t know how many students will be going to welcoming schools,” says Poppe. “We will look at that over the summer, on how we’ll allocate resources.”

Chicago’s plan to shutter the 50 schools for 2013–2014 follows a trend happening in major cities across the United States from Philadelphia to New York City—with municipalities shuttering schools for what they say is lack of enrollment, and, as a result, lack of funds. The decision has been met with anger from families and educators alike, with parents attacking CPS for selecting schools that seem to target minorities, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Chicago parents last month filed two lawsuits, arguing both that the proposed closings are discriminatory, because the overwhelming majority of the students are those districts are African-American, and that they would be hurtful to special-needs students.

“I’m representing parents whose neighborhood schools have meant a lot to their kids and to them, and the lawsuit is really a cry from them to be treated fairly and to ultimately get the attention of the school board to the problems they face,” Tom Geoghegan, the lead attorney for the lawsuits, tells SLJ. “There aren’t enough resources in any of these Chicago schools, including textbooks. But the claim that these closings come because the schools are underutilized and under-sourced is a hollow one. The answer to under-sourcing is not to jam kinds into larger classes.”

Calls to Chicago’s Office of the Mayor were not returned.

National organizations, including Save Our Schools, have rallied against the U.S. Department of Education to push for changes to policies that include continuing to close public schools in favor of charter schools. School libraries have also been affected, with school librarian positions being cut across the nation, including most recently in Elyria, OH.

“In some ways it always seems to me it’s like a parent saying, ‘No I’m not going to buy you any new books until you improve your reading,’” says Gail Dickinson, president-elect of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), who is nonetheless optimistic about the fate of school librarians and libraries in the country. “Nothing this important can be endangered.”

But while Marie Szyman, a teacher-librarian at Nathaniel Greene School in Chicago and vice president of the Chicago Teacher-Librarians Association, is not in danger of losing her job for the coming fall, she’s seen many benefits—from matching grants to professional development days for its school librarians—slowing disappear in the Windy City. And she’s watched as her students’ own library books slowly fall apart, not to be replaced. To her, the potential loss of some of her colleagues is a casualty—even as she knows her own position is secure.

“I feel we’re all affected,” says Szyman “What happens to one school happens to all of us.”

Additional reporting by Sarah Bayliss.

UPDATE: The full text of the bill is now available here [PDF].

The Strengthening America’s Schools Act, introduced in the Senate on Tuesday by Tom Harkin (D-IA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Jack Reed (D-RI), includes strong provisions for effective school library programs, and is the first piece of legislation to recognize the role school library programs play in student learning since 1965, according to the American Library Association.

“For too long, research has shown that students have a better chance of succeeding academically when they attend schools with strong library programs,” says Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the ALA’s Washington office. “This bill will ensure that students will have access to professionals who can help them make connections between subject areas, retrieve information, and think independently.”

If made law, the bill would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was first enacted in 1965. The bill also creates specific language for libraries and would implement the “Improving Literacy and College and Career Readiness through Effective School Library Program.” The program defines an effective school library as one that: is staffed by a state-certified or licensed school librarian; has up-to-date books, materials, equipment, and technology (including broadband); includes regular collaboration between classroom teachers and school librarians to assist with the development and implementation of curriculum; and supports the development of digital literacy skills.

In addition, the bill calls for the Department of Education to award three-year grants to low-income school libraries to maintain up-to-date school library collections, staffed by a state-certified school librarian, and for other purposes relating to a school library, ALA says.

Adds the ALA, “School librarians are literacy champions and primary educators in teaching students digital skills. A recent study found that elementary schools with librarians averaged 68 to 72 percent of students scoring proficient or advanced.”

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is expected hold a mark-up on this bill on June 11, 2013.

Bramer and Gentile—who both chair council committees on library services—were joined by Thomas Galante, president/CEO of Queens Library; Anthony Marx, president/CEO of the New York Public Library; and Linda Johnson, the  president/CEO of Brooklyn Public Library; as well as representatives from advocacy group Urban Librarians Unite (ULU) and the DC37 municipal employees union.

The children in attendance spoke from a mini-podium, in the role of journalists, asking the council members questions about library funding, according to Joanne King, director of communications for the Queens Library in Jamaica, NY. Queens alone is facing a proposed cut of $29.6 million, which would force the closure of 36 libraries and the layoff more than 420 staff, King says, noting that citywide, more than a thousand library employees would lose their jobs.

“More importantly,” King says, “millions of New Yorkers would lose access to the valuable free services of their public libraries. More than 75 percent of New Yorkers use their public libraries; yet the libraries…account for less than on half of 1 percent of the city’s budget.”

Adds Galante, “Free public libraries are more critical to the fabric of our democratic society than ever before. We are a digital bridge, a community hub, a center of lifelong learning, and the place where new opportunities are realized every single day.”

More information is available via ULU’s Save NYC Libraries site or Queens Library’s Speakup campaign.

“I’ve always been told there’s not enough money,” says Carol Heinsdorf, the former president of the Association of Philadelphia School Librarians and currently employed as a certified school librarian in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). “And now we’re bring told there’s not enough money. So what’s changed? I will say certified school librarians have not been a priority of people in position of authority affiliated with the SDP.”

To date, there are just 43 certified school librarians in more than 250 schools, says Heinsdorf. And SDP is looking at potentially cutting these positions, along with a reported 3,000, more to try to balance the 2013–2014 budget. Repeated calls to SDP were not returned over the course of a week, and a request to speak with Lori Shorr, the mayor’s chief education officer in Philadelphia, was declined by email.

But the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) says that the district is trying to get cuts equal to $133 million from the union through salary reductions, increases to health insurance, longer days and reduced prep times, according to George Jackson, PFT’s communications director.

With the union’s contract set to expire on August 31, the PFT has started negotiating with the district—even before Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. presented the possible budget in mid-April. But the funds the district hopes to reap from the union are only part of what’s needed, with SDP asking the state for an additional $120 million and the city for a further $60 million, with hearings held before the City Council on this week. It’s a scenario that is upsetting to many involved.

“We’re talking about money just to maintain a status quo that’s underserving our students,” says Jackson. “Most of our schools don’t have full time libraries already. We’re already talking to our kids to make them more accountable, and to get everything out of them. To not have a school librarian is a huge detriment.”

Brett Schaeffer, communications director at the Education Law Center, a legal advocacy and non-profit educational group in Philadelphia, testified Tuesday before the City Council on the impact that losing 100 school nurses two years ago had on Philadelphia school children. The proposed budget would cut the remaining nurses even further, going from one nurse for every 1,000 students to about one for every 1,500 students, says Schaeffer. And the affect on losing all school librarians? Not thinkable.

“There’s clear evidence of students’ achievement due to full-time accredited school librarians,” he says. “The idea that they just go to zero school librarians is just not acceptable.”

While requests for funding are likely to continue to be discussed, schools are likely starting to look at what the new situation may require of them. Individual schools will be the ones deciding what they can —and cannot—afford, with principals set to receive just enough money, beyond their salary, to pay for teachers based on their contracted classroom size of 30 students for K–3, and 33 students per class for older grades. If extra funds are restored, however, few believe that school librarians will be a priority.

“If there’s art, music, or a librarian, it’s a principal’s decision,” says Heinsdorf. “But the first thing they’ll want is a secretary.”