MA to Lose More School Librarians

School districts facing budget deficits have eliminated librarian positions across Massachusetts, already ranked among the poorest states in library funding. As a result, some media specialists are being forced to serve up to 12 schools and a handful of schools don't even have full-time librarians.

Elementary librarians are hardest hit because they're not state mandated, says Dorothy McQuillan, president of the Massachusetts School Library Media Association, which is seeking to make certified librarians a state requirement in every school. "We need this because funds get siphoned off along the way, and libraries are constantly short-changed," she says. Massachusetts ranks 49th nationwide when it comes to school library funding, according to a 1990 Simmons College study. Here are examples of the districts most affected:

• Three Hanover school librarians are getting the axe in September due to a $800,000 shortfall in the local budget.
• Veterans' Memorial Elementary School in Saugus has a newly built school and library, but there's no money to hire a full-time professional librarian.
• The Framingham school district already has eliminated one librarian position this year and may lose another, leaving one librarian to serve 12 elementary and middle schools, unless a tax override is passed in June.
• Northampton school officials have chosen not to replace a librarian who served four elementary schools after she left in September to take another job. As a result, hundreds of books remain uncataloged, children are now without library instruction, and the schools have lost their membership in a regional library system.

Jeanne Proia, one of two librarians serving nine Framingham elementary schools, says it's already "an impossible job to do well." If residents approve the referendum to raise the local tax base by $4.5 million, she and librarian Dan Fleming will be forced to cover 12 schools. If the override fails, Proia will lose her job. "When we don't have enough money, we have to look across the board," says Superintendent Mark Smith. "These are hard choices to make."