Funding

We should all be fighting mad. I’m tired of reading headlines about the obsolescence of libraries and cuts to school programs. Librarians, students, parents, teachers, and community members—all of us should be incensed because our More...

SLJ talks to Rick Riordan about his latest bestseller 'The Red Pyramid,' book one of the Kane Chronicles. More...

New Jersey's librarians, fresh from their protest earlier this month, are planning to demonstrate with thousands of community members and educators in Trenton on May 22. Their cause? To ally with other state groups hoping More...

Graphic novelist Kazu Kibuishiis the latest artist to join the fight to save California's school libraries. He's created an original work of art for librarians and their supporters to get the word out about the More...

Jamie Greene, a school librarian at Hugh Cole Elementary School in Warren, RI, last week testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP),urging lawmakers to ensure that school library funding More...

Arizona's children will face public school next fall with fewer teachers, shorter kindergarten days, and higher costs to join sports teams-even if voters approve a 1 percent sales tax increase on May 18.Arizona State Superintendent More...

Madison Heights Public Library in Madison Heights, MI,has proposed eliminating a full-time library staffer, who serves as the city's sole children's librarian.The move is a result of budget concerns, and the library believes it can More...

Parents in Saugerties, NY, tried to save their school librarian's job by reaching out to their community for funds, while students at Templeton Elementary School in Bloomington, IN, wrote and dramatized the effects of state More...

School libraries are expected to reap some reward from both Tennessee and Delaware's wins in the recently announced federal Race to the Top awards.With Delaware's expected share to be approximately $100 million, the state will More...

Although nearly all Americans believe media centers are crucial to a child's education, funding for library resources dropped during the heart of the recession in 2009, according to the American Library Association's (ALA) 2010 State More...

Recognizing the need to show support for libraries, Gale took out a full-page ad in this week's consumer magazine Newsweek in part to celebrate National Library Week-but also to rouse backing for public libraries during More...

Teachers at the Tippecanoe School Corporationare biting nails as 150 layoff notices have gone out to instructors and media specialists across the Indiana school district.While final decisions won't be made until later this month or More...

School libraries are set to disappear in California's Belmont-Redwood Shores School Districtas it plans to close all media centers, raise class sizes, demand six furlough days from staff, and remove the fourth and fifth grade More...

Oklahoma is on track to permit its schools to fire librarians if the state legislature passes a bill in the next few weeks.Drafted by State Senator Jim Halligan,Oklahoma House Bill 3029allows school districts to effectively More...

After working as an English teacher, elementary physical education instructor, computer lab educator, and debate coach, certified school librarian Deb Larsen decided to call it quits-picking April 9th as her last day as a librarian More...

In a world where school budget cuts are standard play, three school librarians are finding a way to help not just their students-but their community as well.Anieta Trame, Jennifer Muzzy, and Peggy Burton, all school More...

Students will feel the sting from cuts proposed for the San Jose Public Library (SJPL) for this coming year.With a deficit of $116 million, the city of San Jose, CA, has asked the public library More...

Faced with $2 million in budget cuts in the last three months of the current fiscal year, North Carolina's Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLCMC) will lay off at least 140 employees, resulting More...

Twelve teacher librarians in California's Riverside County School District (RCSD) are in danger of losing their jobs at the beginning of the next school year.School board member Charles Beaty. Last week, RCSD served the certified More...

All certified school librarians in the Los Angeles Unified School District will lose their positions next school year if efforts to close the district's $640 million budget shortfall fail.Superintendent Ramon Cortines said pink slips will More...

Most of Merced Union High School District's librarians may be heading for the chopping block after the California school system proposed eliminating four of the remaining five positions to ease budget concerns, according to the More...

School librarians in Garden Grove, CA, are in the trenches much like their other counterparts across the state as the Garden Grove Unified School District is considering possible layoffs to close a $53 million shortfall More...

The Boston Public Library (BPL) system may be forced to close nearly 40 percent of its branches, as well as let go 25 percent of its staff for its 2011 fiscal year. 'We've made cuts More...

Now is your chance to show President Obama how important school librarians really are. The White House recently posted the following question on its blog: What does a 21st century education mean to you?Not surprisingly, More...

As if a tsunami warning wasn't enough, Hawaii is facing another kind of disaster as its public library looks at steep cuts that may require librarians to be furloughed for nearly a month next year.Hawaii More...

Photo by woodleywonderworks (www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks). The E-rate program, which provides discounted telecom services to schools-may be getting a 21st-century lift.Supported by Edward J. Markey (D-MA), who crafted the House version of the first E-rate bill in More...

Dan Blank and the newspaper staff of PS 123 Dan Blank had high hopes last summer to create a Web 2.0 presence for seventh graders to use in their nascent newspaper program at P.S. 123 More...

Every March this page is devoted to helping school librarians prepare for next year's budget with the publication of our annual 'Average Book Prices,'; so the topic of my editorial usually turns to money. This More...

Following in the footsteps of many public libraries across the country, the New York Public Library (NYPL) is making immediate cuts to services in New York City.The Seward Park branch in lower Manhattan will now More...

School librarians in Santa Rosa, CA, may have avoided the chopping block for the upcoming school year, thanks to a last-minute agreement between the Santa Rosa School Board and the teachers' union.'We have a deal More...

School librarians are on the chopping block again in California's Mt. Diablo Unified School District.While school board members have tried to limit the number of cuts to media specialists, severe budget constraints to the district More...

It looks as ifthere could be another casualty in these tough economic times. The University of Kentucky's School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) is thinking about dissolving its school media program in order to More...

Austin Public Library's (APL) youth services group gets together each year to figure out a budget for its wildly popular summer reading program.'And every year that gets scrapped because we're always asked to cut the More...

President Obama has delivered a slap in the face to school librarians. In his FY2011 budget proposal to Congress on Monday, he completely eliminated the Improving Literacy for School Libraries grant program, designed to boost More...

Students in Dearborn, MI, may be seeing their parents in the school library more often than the librarian.Whitmore Bolles Elementary, where Marie Lemenu is a school librarian. It's a scenario set to happen in Dearborn More...

Students in the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) may be facing school days without a library under a proposal to balance the district's $20 million deficit. Calls to Superintendent Edwin Diaz's office and Jeff Leming, More...

Is there a growing focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, or math) activities in your school? Need to get more girls interested? The American Association of University Women (AAUW) is offering community action grants to More...

The first of many broadband stimulus funds awards have been announced, and libraries are among the earliest grantees, though a relatively small percentage thereof.Of the $7.2 billion in Recovery Act broadband grant and loan programs, More...

What's an InvenTeam? It's a group that's made up of high school students, teachers, and mentors who collaboratively identify a problem that they want to solve, research the problem, and then develop a prototype invention More...

Community Connection is a newly launched Web site from the U.S. Postal Service. Its goal is to help forge partnerships between local post offices, elementary schools, parents, and educators. The Web site features specially designed More...

Also in this article:ALA Grants & FellowshipsCurrent Library Funding NewsFree Funding Research ResourcesFrom Awareness to Funding: A Study of Library Support in AmericaGrants for SchoolsALA Grants & Fellowshipsbit.ly/1lNIAbThe American Library Association (ALA) has created numerous More...

I fought for the retention of our elementary librarians this past year. I did everything I knew how to do and still 100 percent of the positions were cut (10 librarians covering 18 schools). We More...

California's budget crisis has come home to roost as the 2009 Nation's Report Card puts the state lower than the nation's average for fourth graders and eighth graders on the biennial National Assessment of Educational More...

A piece of Andrew Carnegie's legacy could fall into jeopardy if the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh follows through with closing four branches, and potentially curtailing children and teen services for local communities as well.The Lawrenceville More...

U.K. author Alan Gibbons is taking his fight for school libraries on the road.After launching a petition to Prime Minister Gordon Brown to make libraries mandatory in U.K. schools, the children's book author knows he More...

If Pennsylvania lawmakers approve proposed cuts in the state budget, many K–12 students may lose access to valuable research databases at their school andpublic libraries.'Everyone is planning for the worst, but hoping for the best,'; More...

Thousands of underserved elementary children across the country are returning to their schools this fall to find fully equipped and renovated eco-friendly media centers, thanks to the Target Volunteers School Library Makeover program.Kids in New More...

School librarians can play a vital role in helping to support lessons on the Holocaust and genocide, say many of the country's Holocaust educational groups, which are watching budgets shrink as state's cut their funding.'We More...

The NEA Foundation's Student Achievement Grants encourage kids to engage in critical thinking and problem solving that deepens their knowledge of standards-based subject matter. Grant funds may be used to purchase resource materials, supplies, equipment, More...

The 2007–2008 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) has been released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Approximately 16,330 public school districts took part in the nationwide survey, including 9,800 public school library media More...

First California's Folsom Cordova Unified Schools got rid of all its certified media specialists-and now it's axing its support staff and closing its doors. As of today, all 28 K-12 libraries in California's will shutter, More...

The Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Grant Program gives small monetary grants to schools, nature centers, or other nonprofit educational organizations for the purpose of establishing outdoor learning centers. Funds are provided exclusively for the More...

They're safe for now. None of the 41 positions recently eliminated by Ohio's Cuyahoga County Public Library includes children's or young adult librarians. 'We made a conscious decision based on the library's six priorities'; to More...

Although Ohio's public library system faces deep financial cuts, its school libraries may actually get a boost if Governor Ted Strickland signs the current budget bill.Governor Ted Strickland. The state is allocating $60,000 in funding More...

Alan Gibbons, the two time Carnegie Medal nominee, is urging the British government to give kids the same rights as prison inmates-the right to have a library in schools. Alan GibbonsGibbons, founder of pro-library group More...

Looming cuts to Ohio's state budget threaten an already hobbled public library system, especially its teen and children's services.Library cutshave had an impact at story times at the Holmes County District Public Library. After absorbing More...

Librarians and Democratic lawmakers in Connecticut have spent the last two weeks rallying across the state to get Governor M. Jodi Rell to reverse her decision to cut more than $5.1 million in school, public, More...

As part of its mission to improve lives in 'literacy, knowledge, and a readiness for the 21st century';, the Verizon Foundation invites 501(c)(3) organizations and elementary and secondary schools seeking grants to apply for funding More...

This summer the American Library Association is joining with the Corporation of National and Community Service and other nonprofit organizations in an initiative to encourage more young people, particularly those from disadvantaged circumstances, to help More...

Three hundred students at the Yukon Flats School District in rural Alaska, 11,000 students in 15 urban Chicago elementary schools, and 9,000 students in Waterbury, CT, are among the 57 low-income school districts across the More...

The Bellevue School District in Medina, WA-home to Bill Gates and other affluent families-is saying good-bye to all middle and high school librarians, yet anotherresult of the ongoing recession. Come next fall, seven librarians will More...

The Liberty High School Honor Society from Issaquah, WA, recently sponsored a Walkathon for Books which was a huge success. We had more than 175 students show up and raised more than $6,000, a significant More...

Also in this article:Choosing a webcamPractice makes perfectVideo Chat in 1-2-3Illustration by John S. Dykes It was the sort of exchange that could only happen on a field trip. One of my students, noticing the More...

Kids In Need, a charity that helps teachers and librarians with school supplies, has a little need of its own-and it's hoping educators will vote to give it a big slice of a $3 million More...

School librarians fail to make the cut in some Chicago Public Schools, leaving classroom teachers left to fill the staffing gaps by building classroom-reading rooms.John J. Pershing West Middle School in Chicago has never had More...

President Obama may talk about the importance of libraries, but now that his budget is out, librarians are wondering, where's the love?President Obama released the 2010 budget on May 7, 2009. The president is proposing More...

Students in Washington are hoping to stack the shelves at Liberty High School one step at a time at their 2nd annual walkathon. Their goal? To raise $5,000 and add more international titles to their More...

The Earth Island Institute Brower Youth Award recognizes young people for their outstanding activism and achievements in the fields of environmental and social justice advocacy. Maximum award: $3,000, a trip to California for the awards More...

Want to increase your chances of landing some of the stimulus funding? Register now for the 'Stimulate This Library!'; webcast, scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 19, sponsored by Follett Library Services, Capstone More...

Anthony Salcito understands the economic challenges K–12 schools face today. That's why the general manager of U.S. education for Microsoft says the $115 billion in federal stimulus money earmarked for education has spurred the tech More...

Chances are you've heard about the recently passed stimulus funds-and you're also probably wondering how you can get your hands on it.With passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a considerable amount of More...

The Washington Moms have helped make history again. For the first time,media specialistsand library materials are now officially part of the state's definition of basic education for"prototypical"schools.After months of wrangling, Washington lawmakers late last nightpassed More...

Also in this article:Staffing cuts to the boneBudget constraints impact media center effortsLibrary collections remain staticTechnology access peaksTechnology use goes interactiveWeb 2.0Collaboration and planning growsTakeawaysThe Year Ahead: Let's Just Skip to 2011About the SurveyIllustration by More...

The economic downturn has claimed an influential nonprofit organization, Libraries for the Future (LFF), which is closing its doors after 17 years.Teen participants in Libraries for the Future's "Reading America" program perform a traditional Colombian More...

Bookshare, the world's largest accessible digital library for persons with print and learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, is providing free membership to qualified U.S. schools and students thanks to an award from the U.S. Department More...

School libraries nationwide are feeling the economic crunch-even those districts in affluent neighborhoods with stellar library programs.Suburban school districts on the outskirts of New York City, for example, have long been immuneto budget hardships, but More...

As far as fund-raising efforts go, the one by Balmagie Primary School on the island nation of Jamaica was a huge success-it raised a whopping $100,000 for the library.Media specialist Janet Headlam had recently asked More...

To Texans, public and school libraries are crucial to their communities-especially for the technology they provide, according to a survey sponsored by the Texas Library Association (TLA). Access to computers as well as the Web More...

If you haven't yet read my article 'Don't Worry, Be Scrappy'; outlining some of the cheaper/greener/smarter computing solutions, you may want to hit that first. For some of us, the cheaper part of that equation More...

Also in this article:Virtual desktopsOpen source softwareCloud computingNetbooksIllustration by Hal Mayforth. When asked to weigh in on what might be the next big thing in educational technology, I first did what I felt an SLJ More...

If you're a little confused about what the $787 billion economic stimulus bill just signed by President Obama means for school and public libraries, there's a new Website that hopes to clarify things.In Denver, President More...

The plan to add a 300-student high school to a proposed $185 million central library in downtown San Diego is moving at a snail's pace-and now there's a proposals to waive state building safety codes More...

If you'd like to see more federal money for school and public libraries, now is your time to do something about it. The American Library Association is urging its members and other library supporters to More...

It looks like school and public libraries are going to benefit from the impending $825 billion economic stimulus package.The House has already passed its version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and libraries are More...

While no stranger to business partnerships, Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools (FCPS) has befriended one of the biggest, inking a new deal with Google to start this year. FCPS, the 12th largest system in the More...

If your school's short on both desktop workstations and cash, consider going virtual. 'Virtual desktops'; allow a single computer to be shared among several workstations, ideally without users even realizing they're not on individual PCs. More...

In his inaugural address, President Obama called on Americans to confront 'our collective failure to make hard choices.'; Well, I've got a hard choice I'd like Americans to make: let's lobby harder for increased funding More...

Responding to the economic downturn, Ron Shank, Group Publisher of School Library Journal, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly, has created a new management structure at the Publishing Division, naming Brian Kenney, SLJ's Editor-in-Chief, as Editorial More...

Philadelphia may be called the City of Brotherly Love, but there seems to be very little left forlibraries these days.The city's public library services were recently on the chopping block, with 11 branches of thePhiladelphia More...

It's that time of the year again. The U.S. Department of Education's Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program is now accepting grant applications.But remember, individual librarians and schools aren't eligible to apply for the federal More...

If you're a librarian short on cash but in need of new technology, sign up on Digital Wish, a nonprofit online charity that helps educators modernize their classrooms with up-to-dateresources that they ordinarily can't afford.All More...

Why are 17,000 kids in at least 42 high-need Bronx schools without libraries despite the fact that New York requires one in every public high school in the state? The main reasons are lack of More...

Who says teens aren't big on libraries? Kids at the Ridgefield Library in Connecticut are such huge fans of their library that they recently raised more than $1,000 for teen programming.Members of the library's teen More...

Philip Pullman,the best-selling author ofthe"His Dark Materials" trilogy (Knopf), has slammed the headmistress of a school in Chesterfield, England, for her decision to close the library and get rid of its librarian.Author Philip Pullman has More...

Not so fast. That's the message the Metropolitan Nashville School District in Tennessee is telling Mayor Karl Dean about his plans to consolidate the library services of the school district and the Nashville Public Library. More...

Here's an easy way to gain $1,000 for school library books. The National Education Association Foundation is sponsoring the Books Across America Library Books Awardsto help schools that serve kids in economically disadvantaged areas-and the More...

It's not all about work-sometimes it's about play. Organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm is teaming with the nonprofit organization KaBOOM! to bring play back into thelives of children.As part of the Stonyfield KaBOOM! Double Play More...

Wouldn't it be nice to have Sarah Jessica Parker and Caroline Kennedy looking out for your school libraries?Well, New York City kids were lucky enough to have those women and others support their media centers More...

The Cenral Crossing Library is closing to the public next June. After serving as a public and school library for more than six years, the Central Crossing Library near Columbus, OH, will no longer serve More...

California's Long Beach Public Library has been saved. The city council recently adopted a $3.1 billion budget, which would keep the once-threatened main library open and save several other slated cuts, reports the local Press-Telegram.In More...

The Washington moms have reached another milestone-they've hit their goal of 10,000 signatures for their petition in support of school libraries and information technology. In fact, to date, they've even surpassed that number by more More...

It looks like Fund Our Future Oregon is making some headway. The founders of the campaign to save school libraries across the state recently obtained word that Representative Peter Buckley (D-Ashland)will sponsor a bill to More...

School libraries in Mesa, AZ, don't look the same this fall. That's because more than half of last year's media specialists are gone, leaving only 31 certified librarians to serve a total of 87 schools.Ann More...

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has announced $18.3 million in grants to enhance libraries in 59 low-income school districts across the country. The funds, which come from the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program More...

The House last month authorized more than $6 billion annually for the next few years to help states build and renovate greener schools. The 21st Century Green High-Performing Public Schools Facilities Act, which passed 250 More...

Despite last-ditch efforts by library supporters, the Mesa Public School Board in Arizona voted this week to eliminate all teacher librarians over a three-year period.As a result, one-third of the schools in Mesa will not More...

Budget cuts at one southern California district have parents protesting a school board decision to move their beloved children's librarian to other schools.Renee Hanvey, a librarian at the Bernardo Elementary School, one of 17 elementary More...

The Spokane Moms have something more to brag about. Thanks in part to their efforts, Washington is considering long-term funding for school librarians and educational technology.A joint task force on Basic Education Finance is currently More...

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