Ohio School Libraries May Net MoreFunding

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By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 07/15/2009

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 for a licensed librarian or media specialist for Ohio’s school districts, phased in over the next 10 years, starting in 2010. The number of librarians funded in each district will be determined by how many students they have—but each district will be granted at least one.

The bill’s language authorizing this new funding has been a long haul for Ohio’s librarians, including the Ohio Educational Library Media Association (OELMA) whose past President Kathy Halsey and current President Marie Sabol worked with members for the last eight years passing a resolution, commissioning a study, and even inviting Strickland to speak at their state conference before he was governor. All along, the group advocated how critical school libraries and school librarians are to Ohio’s student achievement.

“Ohio has been hemorrhaging school librarians,” says Deb Logan, librarian and media specialist at Mount Gilead High School in Mount Gilead, Ohio, and he former chair of the advocacy committee of the American Association of School Librarians. “So our first step was to create awareness and presence. But not to advocate for school librarians—to advocate for students and learning.”

Their message almost didn’t work. Just last month, the legislature eliminated the section in the budget that included additional funding for school librarians. That language was finally restored to the current version that lawmakers approved Monday, and now sits before Strickland for his signature. He signed a third interim budget bill Tuesday giving him until July 21, to read the apparently 4,000 page bill before signing it.

Ohio’s school librarians are willing to wait. To them, their efforts have already been rewarded.

“The school librarians/media specialists have been working very hard on this for some time now and I would like to think that this had an impact,” says Jo Budler, state librarian of the State Library of Ohio. “I know that our Governor is very supportive of education—that is reflected in his budget. I believe that also influenced this outcome.”