Sign the petition and ask your friends to sign it too. I've been posting it on Facebook and asking my friends to post it on their pages. I have been contacting library bloggers and asking them to post it on their blogs. Don't go to bed tonight without signing this! If you are fortunate enough to work in a school district that values credentialed school library professionals, that is wonderful. Here in California, credentialed school library professionals are a dying breed, and at least one school district, Los Angeles Unified, has declared an unofficial war on its teacher librarians, replacing us with non-credentialed paraprofessional staff. Please sign!!!!

Please save our school libraries and librarians. They are an essential part of helping kids grow up to be productive, free and educated citizens.

Help keep school libraries and library media specialists alive!

We live in a world overloaded with information, but learning to wade through it inteligently requires guidance. Librarians are best trained to teach kids to do that. Please save our school libraries!

Save our Librarians and School Libraries.

Even part time is better than no time. Kids must learn to research, use databases. All of the discussion of primary sources will come to naught if our children don't know how to find these sources about which they've been taught.

I received a notice about this site on twitter. I would like to sign the petition but I don't know where to click. Perhaps you could make it more noticeable on your site. Thank you.

I can't imagine not having libraries for children. What will happen to their imaginations, love for learning, and excitement for reading! What a shame this would be.

Isn't the ability to read critical? Save school libraries and librarians!

School libraries staffed with qualified school librarians/media specialists are a key factor in preparing students to be informed citizens in a democracy.

Search engines can never replace trained and certified librarians!

School libraries are a place to draw multiples classrooms together to participate in reading activities, i.e. book fairs, research projects, story-telling (a favorite pastime). I feel the library is the center of gravity for schools & their students when expanding their learning and imagination. To exclude them from schools would be a heavy loss.

Our librarians are a crucial element of our schools. They instruct, guide, motivate students to be resourceful learners. Please save our school libraries and librarians.

I agree with the following statement: "Any school receiving Federal funds should be required to have a credentialed School Librarian on staff full time with a library that contains a minimum of 18 books per student," the petition reads. "Failure to have a school library open to all students and/or failure to have a credentialed School Librarian to run that library should be punishable by a immediate withdrawal of all Federal monies."

Please save our school libraries and librarians.

better school libraries produce better students and better "test" scores!

I've been waiting 45 minutes to get the link confirming my right to sign the petition. A clumsy interface, alas. I did post the petition on my social media. Perhaps others will have better luck!

This is one of the greatest resources our schools have. We a place for kids to go to explore new worlds. The internet is great, but nothing takes the place of the stacks.

My Mom was a school librarian. Now I am an avid reader, reading across most genres. It's the only way I am still learning. These people are very important part of a child's education.

Anyone who wants to gut education is a someone wanting a source of cheap labor and an easily controlled populace. GOOD,free public education and public libraries carried this country into the forefront of the first world. Free, GOOD education created our middle class...the most American achievement of all. If you call yourself an American, a patriot, you cannot let this happen. Stand up and stop this stupidity.

Librarians use the library as an extension of the classroom.

All students deserve a school library, and one that is properly staffed, open, and available every day!

All students deserve a school library, and one that is properly staffed, open, and available every day!

Fund libraries, not war

Copy this and pass it on--- http://wh.gov/Tzj The petition will make its way to President Obama’s desk if we can get 25,000 signatures. The petition calls for school libraries to be funded and properly staffed. We have been very lucky here at Valencia and the other high schools in our district; we have continuously had a full-time credentialed Teacher Librarian. This is very rare, the state of California ranks 50th among the 50 states in school library staffing. Just over in Fullerton they have one Teacher Librarian for their 6 high schools! The petition process was created by the Obama administration to assist citizens in getting their voices heard. This petition process is how the recent changes in student loans came about. With more information at our student’s fingertips than ever, we need to ensure that students get proper training and assistance in locating and sorting through the information. Information Literacy is a critical skill and that is just one thing we do in the library. Please sign the petition—it takes just a minute or two, AND, please pass it on to your friends, neighbors, and colleagues. We have just 24 days to get the signatures. Thank you for your support and help!

Our students need as much support as we can muster for them. It is so impoortant that students have the opportunity to access libraries and libraians. Our children need these wonderful people to help engage our children in learning. Please continue the good work you do to help these children.

I find it shocking that, of all things, money for libraries is on the chopping block. It's almost like our government is trying to dumb down the electorate, the better to control the populace. You want to guarantee America's destruction? Keep defunding schools and libraries. Rely on Google to offer up quality information. Maybe we can rely on kids' TV shows to offer up the kind of literary story telling that our children won't be able to access anymore. I'm sure Big Time Rush or iCarly will eventually get around to remaking The Lord of the Flies and City of Ember. Maybe our kids can learn to be thoughtful scholars from MTV and Comedy Central. And while they're developing their 30-minute attention spans, you all can keep passing ridiculous laws that make sure American children get mediocre educations, and then blame the teachers when the test scores come in behind all of Asia, most of Europe, and half of Africa. Fund the damn libraries. Give our kids a chance.

Please save our school libraries and librarians. They are an essential part of helping kids grow up to be productive, free and educated citizens.

We have to do more about education, we can't keep cutting the budget and hoping for the best. Children are our future. Education is of the utmost importance.

Please save school teacher librarians. They are an integral piece of our students education.

Please support school libraries and credentialed library staff to help make books available to all students....books are a way to touch kids' lives and change their mindset. Books open up the world to kids and adults, alike....Children need direction and guidance to help them find the authors and books that speak to them.

If you could witness the "beam in the eyes" of students who are able to visit their school library, you wouldn't hesitate one moment to support this cause. No words have I found to express what my heart feels when my eyes witness.

Having worked in a high school library as a media clerk for 19 years, I personally atest to the neccesity of certified teacher librarians in all schools. I was very good at my job, but there is no way that a clerk or paraprofessional can ever meet the needs of students who must prepare for a world with ever changing requirements for careers and colleges.

School libraries and librarians are integral components of a child's learning and study habit development.

Where does one sign?

Study after study has shown that school libraries that are adequately staffed with licensed school library media specialists have a direct impact on student achievement. Please make sure that all schools have fully licensed librarians and that they have adequate funds to provide up-to-date relevant materials.

School libraries and librarians are critically important to education.

How could closing school libraries even be a consideration? Regardless of internet availability in today's world, everyone should have the opportunity to read and learn. School ibraries serve many children who do not have access to books otherwise Please help keep school libraries open and readily available to the children who need their resources. They are the future of the country.

School libraries are essential for high performing schools. Reading is the basis for all academic success. Practice improves reading skills just like practice improves sports performance. School librarians make sure students have access to quality books and helps students find books that interest them so they will read. School librarians also teach essential research skills for both print and online searches.

We need school libraries desperately. Our kids and our society need them. Please save them.

Several studies in various states by Keith Curry Lance show positively that school libraries and the professional librarians who staff them provide excellent information services and teach information literacy skills to the students lucky enough to be in these schools. Students with these services consistently show higher reading scores on standardized tests. These skills are vital to succeed in college, vocational schools, the workforce and, in fact, to function in our 21st century. Please include school libraries in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

I was unable to create an account to sign the petition. The form would not load. Instead, I created a fax using the information from the "Call Now" alert and submitted it to my state senators that way instead.

Save our libraries. Our children need them.

I have seen plenty of "new" products/methods come and go in my many years as a school librarian and I do not like the many research findings I have been reading about for all of this new "stuff." An organized, centralized library, with a certified librarian. has too many benefits to mention here.

Libraries are essential for pure learning. A dedicated librarian can definitely enhance the education of all students.

Please protect our knowlege based learning for our children and youth by keeping our school libraries open.

SAVE OUR SCHOOL LIBRARIES!!

Research has shown that student achievement, demonstrated by test scores, positively correlates with those schools who have library programs staffed by certified library media specialists. Please help us maintain those programs which demonstrate positive student impact.

A library and a librarian (or several) are critical to every school. Don't undermine education by creating substandard schools. Americans should be ashamed to even think of having schools without librarians.

Every school deserves a full time librarian!!! How fair is it that we need children to learn how to read but no one is in the library to check books out to them.

Please save our school libraries. The students need the libraries and the librarians. Please keep the libraries at each school and keep the doors open.

I think ALL schools should have a well-funded, current and accessible library. It is the one central location that all students share and learn from.

My daughter and I love the school and public library... we read ALL the time!!!

Please save our school libraries and librarians. They are an essential part of helping kids grow up to be productive, free and educated citizens.

Librarians are necessary and any cut in schools is now a wise move. Our students lag behind other nations already, they need all the help they can get. My sister is a middle school librarian and I know the hours she spends after her workday is done to assure her school has a first rate program. I have heard politicians and other public officials say libraries are not necessary, "just google what you need to know" a sad state for our country to consider any cuts in librarians and school libraries. thank you for reading this from a retired university art professor

I am an elementary library media specialist in Lockport N.Y. City School District. I support havinga certified librarian ( library media school specialist in every school building be it elementary, middle or school school building.

Adequately funded and staffed school libraries are needed to build life-long readers and learners!

Yes, It is a crime to this that schools are losing their Libraries. How are students to receive access to information.

Many schools are staffed with Media Assistants who have worked and trained for many years to provide Library materials to children. What will happen to their jobs if this is passed? Many counties do not have the resources to fund a full time state-certified Librarian at every school. These schools do still have a Library and a staff member that continues to train, learn, and spread a passion for reading.

Intellectual freedom; ability to expand ones knowledge and understanding; educating our youth is planting and fertilizing the future of our great nation. Let's get it done!

I've tried to sign it but it a no go. Either I get redirected to a 404 error page after I sign in, or it says I'm already signed in. Either way the sign this petition button is grayed out. Could it be someone is getting nervous this petition will succeed? I can't pass the link on to parents and staff until I am assured there is an active link.

Please do not close libraries...they are the life blood of education and our future as a democracy. Other government things should be cut, not libraries.

we need our libraries

As a parent and teacher, I truly value the role of the school librarian plays in each child's education. We have to be committed to school librarians, and hope that our voices will be heard.

It is absolutely mandatory to empower librarians in our schools and in our community. They offer the needed skill that enables us to find information and to manage our educational needs. Without their skills, our libraries will become decrept, out of date and a source for political tyrany. Librarians can NOT be replaced by clerks or by search engines. We are a species who learn from each other, not from machines. Believing otherwise is an error of the first order.

Please save our school libraries and librarians. They are an essential part of helping kids grow up to be productive, free and educated citizens.

All kids deserve a teacher-librarian to call their own! They can't get 21st century skills without them!

Please keep school librarians they ate essential for students to excel in all subjects! Thank you

School libraries are still beneficial to student learning.

School libraries be included in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which would ensure that every school is served by a state-certified media specialist and that library programs have access to the resources students need to become lifelong learners.

School libraries staffed by certified librarians is an important asset to our schools.

Libraries are an essential part of our daily education. We need to keep them operating in order to provide our students resources that will help tthem achieve their academic and personal goals. Libraries are the foundation of excellence in education.

School librarians and libraries are a necessity in schools not an extra.

Libraries are vital to education. Libraries allow children to become life long readers, by providing opportunities to read for pure enjoyment.

School libraries are essential for learning, thinking, community building, quiet, inquiry, discovery, wonder, cultural awareness, technology. School libraries are an essential part of any American public school that values democracy, public service and free thought. School librarians keep it all happening!

School libraries are essential!

Hello to you. I am the librarian for an elementary public school. I would love to have a stronger yet secure background in my job.I also have a few ideas for what i would like to do enhance the fluency of reading for our students. Please send me more information. Thank you.

The libraries play and important part in literacy. The question is "Are we still trying to improve literacy in the U.S.?"

Please save our libraries in our school districts.

Keep School Libraries Open!!! How sad will it be to see the school library doors closed and the books sitting on the shelves with dust. What a sad day that will be. Please keep this very imporant part of our education alive and well.

I feel that school libraries staffed by qualified librarians are an important and necessary aspect of a quality education.

I have a been a school librarian for almost 20 years. I have also been a public as well as a corporate librrian. Without the school libraries, our students will not, I REPEAT, will not receive the foundation skills to do any meaningful research whatsoever.

We need a library and full-time librarian in EVERY school. Our childrens' future depends on it.

Save all libraries which support freedom to learn.

Save all school libraries and keep hiring school librarians/teacher librarians we make a difference.

As a retired school librarian, I wholeheartedly support this. I also support Obama's plan to forgive student loans.

Lets keep at least one librarian at each school at least one per district!!! JWS

We need school libraries to be open and properly staffed by trained professionals for our children and school staffs to have access to good information and someone who can help them access good information. Please support school libraries!

Please keep school libraries open. They are an essential part of learning for children. Children get one to one attention from their librarians that they can't always receive in large classrooms and homes. Librarians are a necessary part of learning.

Please keep libraries and librarians as part of learning for children. One to one attention is possible in school libraries for children who need it and take advantage of it.

Advocating for the School Library. School librarians wear many hats from administrator to collaborator to mentor. As recently as the 3rd edition of Scholastic Library Publishing paper, School Libraries Work, from Alaska to North Carolina, more than 60 studies have shown clear evidence of this connection between student achievement and the presence of school libraries with qualified school library media specialists. I am a first year Library Media Specialist in Baltimore County. I have seen the role of the library change in this school year alone. It is becoming the hub and heart of the school. At Deep Creek Middle School students have not met AYP for the past few years and are in a restructuring phase. However, I have never seen a student body so interested in learning and gathering information. Yearly students across Maryland participate in choosing the Black Eyed Susan book winner. At the middle school level these books range from 200-300 pages in length. One of the FALS students wanted to participate, but is not at the reading level necessary. Our school library purchased audio versions of a number of the titles so he would be able to participate. He was so overjoyed to be able to participate and I was so happy to help. Students are overcome with so much emotion when new materials arrive in the library. It was like Christmas when our yearly shipment of new books arrived. After our supplies came in I displayed them around the library and numerous students peeked in excited asking if I was selling books. I told them that they were for general checkout. Squeals of delight in regards to new books are not something that one might expect in an urban middle school, but excitement abounded. During lunch shifts I offer 30 library passes. Mostly if you ask students their favorite subject they respond “lunch”, at Deep Creek Middle they might respond “library”. It is a virtual feeding frenzy to get those passes. While in the library they use computers, check out books and periodicals, or work on group projects. It is actually during lunch times when I believe the library is at its most productive and is fulfilling its intended use. Libraries are often taken for granted, but it is imperative that the importance of libraries stay in the forefront of the minds. During tough economic times libraries are of vital importance, but budgets are threatening them. Don’t put libraries and librarians on the endangered species list.