The Arizona Library Association (AzLA), the Teacher Librarian Division of AzLA, and EveryLibrary are partnering to support Arizona Ballot Proposition 208: The Invest in Education Act.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the education system in the United States since this past spring when classes were abruptly halted and students were sent home to complete the rest of their semesters through virtual classrooms. This is a time when smart school administrators should look to their school librarians to help fill the gap.

The Coronavirus economic shutdowns have threatened the financial stability of schools across the country. The future of school library programs and school librarian positions are tied directly to the financial health of their local districts.

School librarians, long identified as thought leaders in school communities, provide invaluable services and resources to children in times of crisis. With educators facing unprecedented challenges presented by COVID-19, school librarians and their libraries play a more important role than ever. The new report "School Libraries and the COVID Slide" from the EveryLibrary Institute looks closely at how school library programs staffed by certified school librarians can help stand in new education gaps during COVID disruptions. 

The Coronavirus economic shutdowns are threatening the financial stability of schools across the country. The future of school library programs and school librarian positions are tied directly to the financial health of their local districts. In the decade since the last recession, one in five full-time school librarian jobs were lost. Districts serving high numbers of poor and minority students were particularly hard hit.

Just one dollar per month ensures that we can continue our work!

We are facing a crisis in Pennsylvania School Libraries! Join the Social Media Storm on June 22nd to tell school boards across PA to retain their school librarians. 

We’d like to thank you for your advocacy and signatures on our online petition to support Washington D.C. school librarians. Mayor Muriel Bowser released her School Year 2020-21 budget on Monday, it includes a 3% increase in funding for public education. Please see the Washington Post article.

Editor: We are publishing this "open letter" to the School Board and Superintendent of the Greensburg Salem School District in Pennsylvania from recent graduate Melissa Paravate to highlight just how important the school library program - and school librarians - are to future academic success. If you know and believe like Ms. Paravate does that every student from the youngest age through high school should have a school librarian supporting their education, please sign the petition to the Board now: https://www.saveschoollibrarians.org/salemgreensburg

Many of our state leaders will be pushing for cuts to school libraries when budget time comes around. Without school libraries and school librarians to teach students about information literacy in the news, we face a grim future in which misinformation distorts our mutual understanding of reality. 

We are proud to see the support of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association for the Washington D.C. School Librarians. Read the full statement below.

Library Media Specialists (librarians) are very concerned about the closure of librarian positions throughout the district. Right before DCPS closed due to the Covid-19 health crisis, I’ve personally learned that colleagues at Malcolm X, King, Stanton, Wheatley (the librarian just received a major book grant), and Dunbar High Schools were informed by their principals that their positions would close at the end of the school year. Our fear is that there will be more librarians added to the list of closures.

Facing a budget shortfall, the Davenport School District has threatened the positions of 22 librarians and replacing them with paraprofessionals.

We need your support today! The vote to eliminate school librarians tomorrow (Thursday, Feb 20th).

District of Columbia Public School library programs are currently being threatened by budget cuts and we need your help to get our voices heard. 

The Pennsylvania School Librarians Association was saddened to hear the response from the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) regarding the “Rally to Restore Philadelphia School Librarians” held on January 24, in front of the SDP Administration Building, as reported by KYW News Radio and in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In case you missed the news from yesterday, EveryLibrary was proud to support the Pennsylvania School Library Association at ALA Midwinter with a rally for school librarians in support of bills in the state that would ensure that PA students have access to their school libraries staffed by certified librarians. We're also proud to host this petition on Save School Libraries sponsored by Follett.

Hundreds of school librarians and supporters call on the School District of Philadelphia and elected officials to improve school library programs for students by ensuring a certified school librarian in every Pennsylvania public school.  

Rally planned for January 24th at 12:30pm in Philadelphia. Hundreds of school librarians and supporters call on the School District of Philadelphia and elected officials to improve school library programs for students by ensuring a certified school librarian in every Pennsylvania public school.  

I know that you support school libraries in the United States. I also know that you understand how important these educational institutions are to the future success of our country. Unfortunately, many of our political leaders on both sides of the political spectrum haven’t heard from you or people like you.

That’s why I wanted to make it easier for you to reach your friends, family and colleagues to contact their state representatives about supporting school libraries through our petition platform with these Twitter and Facebook links.

Whether your 2019-2020 school year started in August or it’s just getting underway now that Labor Day is behind us, we need your help to focus on the future of school library funding. Across the country, threats to school library programs are well known and ongoing. The solution is a combination of direct action with local school leaders and a new approach to fixing state-level funding for education to include school librarians and school library programs. EveryLibrary, through our SaveSchoolLibrarians.org initiative and state library association partnerships, is hard at work on both parts of the solution. And we continue to need your help as a donor and activist to build momentum this year.

Is your School Library being threatened with budget cuts? Is there a compelling piece of legislation in your state that would support or disrupt library services? Are there organizations or government agencies that are disrupting library services, programs, or events? If so, then let us help!

School libraries are a huge issue in America today and unfortunately have been for a while and frankly probably will be for a while to come. That's why we held this rally at the American Library Association Conference in Chicago. You can read the whole article on Huffington Post.

We are excited to announce that the campaign to keep school librarians from being “optional” in Iowa State Senate Bill 1190 in Iowa was wildly successful and the language was removed from the bill. In less than 12 hours over 500 people across the state of Iowa signed the petition. Your actions made this possible!

Thank you to everyone who voiced your support for media specialists and all certified educators to be part of the pay raise!

Thanks to your actions, we were able to include ALL certified educators in the House FY20 budget.

Passing SB 143 would give all Nevada students access to the best educational resource: a school librarian. 

The Utah Library Association and EveryLibrary invite you to take the Pledge to Vote For Question #1 this November.

Question #1 is an important and necessary proposal to increase school library funding in Utah through a new motor fuel tax. If it passes, 70% of the funding will go directly to improve education in local school districts. School Library Media Specialists are named in the proposal, and that is why we are endorsing Question #1.

Please join EveryLibrary, the Colorado Association of Libraries, and the Colorado Association of School Librarians in taking the Pledge to Vote YES on Amendment 73 this November.

EveryLibrary is thrilled to report that our colleagues at the Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME), the state association for school librarians there, have succeeded in having three bills introduced in their legislature that would go a long way to restoring school librarians to each and every school in the state!

We are excited to announce a win in the Tamalpais High School District in California where the teacher-librarians at Tamalpais, Redwood, and Drake High Schools were given preliminary lay-off notices. We were able to work closely with individuals on the ground to mount a campaign to contact the school board and push back against these cuts.

The teacher-librarians at Tamalpais, Redwood and Drake High Schools were given preliminary lay-off notices on Friday, March 9 at 11:15 am. This preceded the posting of the Board of Trustees Meeting agenda at 5:46 pm which included Resolution 17-10 Reducing Certificated. The resolution passed with a 3-2 vote.

With just a few months left in this school year, Atlanta Public Schools (APS) are eliminating at least 14 school librarian positions across the city next school year. Several schools are reducing their school library staffing to a part-time school certified librarian while others are replacing them with paraprofessionals. The Georgia Library Media Association is calling on members of the School Board and Superintendent Carstarphen to review and reverse this decision. Eliminating school librarians from Atlanta schools would negatively affect reading and test scores, and student achievement across our city.

Across the country we are seeing school library budgets get slashed. Children all over the United States are losing access to this important resource. We’re working really hard at EveryLibrary to help support these school libraries and ensure that our children are not denied the education that they deserve with a well-funded library. But we can’t do it without your support. That’s why we’re asking you to sign and share some of our most recent school library petitions.

One thing that just infuriates us is when politicians use libraries as political props, especially when those same politicians have spent their careers closing or defunding them!

A message from Elissa Malespina

Almost two years ago hundreds of people took action and signed a petition on this platform to stop the cuts to the school libraries in South Orange, New Jersey. Last night the South Orange/ Maplewood Board of Education voted to hire a second full time certified librarian for the High School. This action means that all the cuts that first occurred in the Spring of 2016 have now been restored! THANK YOU!!!

EveryLibrary and the ISTE Librarians Network announce a new “From Advocacy to Activism” webinar series for 2018 supporting school librarians and school library program budgets. These four free interactive webinars are designed for school librarians and school library activists to learn new skills and hone effective strategies that are focused on library funding. Taught by the EveryLibrary team, participants will hear about real-world examples from SaveSchoolLibrarians.org funding fights and other issue campaigns that can be put to work in their own schools and districts.

I am thrilled to announce the launch of our new SaveSchoolLibrarians.org site and an expanded partnership with five state school library associations and Follett Learning to work on restoring school librarians to schools and districts - and to expanding funding for school library programs - in their states.

EveryLibrary and the Illinois School library Media Association (ISLMA) announce a joint advocacy pilot-project focused on restoring school librarian positions and school library programs and collections budgets in certain schools and districts across Illinois. This unique and targeted advocacy project is intended to bring together research, activism, and support systems to help encourage school boards and leadership to make a renewed choice about librarians and libraries in their schools. It builds upon the strategic effort that ISLMA has made to highlight the importance of effective library programs in the state ESSA Implementation Plan. It will go beyond policy and into action to lobby for positions and programs across the state.

We're excited to support the the Illinois School Library Media Association's rally to put school librarians back in school libraries across Illinois during ALA in Chicago!

We know the solution to a big problem in Pennsylvania education, and we need your help getting the state legislature in Harrisburg to fix it. If we could have at least one school librarian in every school we’d see better reading scores and writing scores, improved critical thinking, and more work-ready graduates coming out of every Pennsylvania school. Together, we’d be able to fix low achievement. And all it takes is one school librarian....