BILL NUMBER: S1227

SPONSOR: RITCHIE
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the education law, in relation to maintaining school
libraries

 
PURPOSE:

To ensure that each elementary and secondary school in New York State
maintains a school library and employs a certified school librarian.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

This bill adds a new Section 274-a to the Education Law to require all
school districts to maintain a school library in each elementary and
secondary school and to employ a certified school library media special-
ist or duly licensed teacher of library for each such school library.

The bill also provides a waiver process that can be used by districts
              

that fall within a designated shortage area for library media special-
ists or by districts that have demonstrated that their needs can be met
through a sharing amendment with a public library.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

School libraries are an integral part of the educational program. They
support and complement all phases of the formal instructional program in
the various areas of the curriculum, and enrich each student's life. For
many, the school library is the first introduction the student has to
any library facility. Because of this unique aspect, the school library
will be the only place the student can learn the proper usage of a
library and its valuable resources.

An adequate, comprehensive school library program is essential in
providing quality education for all students in today's modern and
progressive society. The library, therefore, becomes that place where
the student can reinforce his language art and reading skills, become
aware of how to retrieve background reference materials for his everyday
life and school assignments, and learn to think and act as an independ-
ent individual to gain the necessary information to attain intellectual
maturity.

It is of utmost importance that competent professionally trained person-
nel who are certified or licensed in their area of responsibility staff
a school library. The librarian should be a professional trained to look
at and work for a total school program.  The librarian should be profes-
sionally astute to be able to select and acquire those materials that
will assist each student to reach out for his or her intellectual poten-
tial and to be able to achieve a wide, unencumbered view of the world
and how the student can best fit into it. Only a competent certified or
licensed librarian can add that dimension to a child's life.

If maintaining a school library would place an extreme financial burden
on a district, the waiver provision allows the district to explore
alternative ways to meet the needs of their students through a sharing
arrangement with a public library. The waiver process is also available
if there is a shortage locally of library media specialists.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
The first day of July next succeeding the date on which it shall have
become a law