A Pain in the Pocketbook
Media specialists nationwide tell ALA their funding woes
By Kathy Ishizuka -- School Library Journal, 6/1/2004
These are just two tales of budget woes submitted by librarians nationwide that appear on the American Library Association's (ALA) new Tell Your Story! section of its Library Funding Web page (www.ala.org/libraryfunding). Launched in April, Tell Your Story! provides a state-by-state collection of anecdotes by librarians on how funding issues have affected their communities.
Carlson says the lack of a materials budget, down from $5,000 last year, prevented Killingly's K–4 students from participating in the 2004 Nutmeg Children's Book Award program. Despite her lengthy Tell Your Story! post, Carlson wonders whether such personal accounts will actually persuade lawmakers to restore library funding. "So many areas of the school need help," she says. "Everyone is in the same boat." Moreover, there is a general lack of understanding of "how much it costs to support a library," says Razza, adding that parents were shocked to learn that a quality science encyclopedia set cost $3,000. That's a good portion of Razza's total budget of $11,000—slashed from $22,000 in 2001–2002.
Ray Van Diest, district librarian for the Shasta Union High School District in Redding, CA, says this year he had $7,000 to purchase materials for his three high school libraries, down from an annual $100,000 budget. But he cautions that librarians should keep their heads held high. "We know that we have a powerful product, literacy, and infinite tools with which to nurture that literacy."
