BILL NUMBER:  S3024

 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
specialist 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
specialists 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
independent individual to gain the necessary information to attain
intellectual maturity.

It is of utmost importance that competent professionally trained
personnel 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 professionally astute to be able to select and
acquire those materials that will assist each student to reach out for
his or her intellectual potential 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