F A M E 2 0 0 8 L e g i s la t i v e P la t f o r m

Student
Achievement
Begins
in the
School  Library
Media  Center

“Increases to school library media centers positively influence

test scores, while overall school expenditures do not.”
—Dr. Donna Baumbach, Making the Grade: The Status of School Library Media
Centers in the Sunshine State and How They Contribute to Student Achievement
School Library Media Materials “More interlibrary loans is a correlate of student success in
Florida high schools. Students in the top third of FCAT scores
We Know: had a library where 66% more interlibrary loans took place.”
• State funding for school library media materials has remained constant at —School Library Systems Advocacy Toolkit
$15 million since 2000-2001. www.crbsls.org/slsa/student-achievement.html
• While per student funding for materials has decreased by 12.8% in the
period 2000-2001 to 2007-08, the average price of a book for school
libraries during the same time period has increased by over 25%. This
combination of decreased funding per student and increased cost per book SUNLINK – The
continues to erode the quantity, currency, and interest value of books that Florida K-12
are available to Florida's students.
Library Union
• Florida schools lag far behind the national average in number of books
available per student in the school library media center and in spending Database
per student for library books. Florida schools provide one-half the number
of books per student compared to the national average in elementary We Know:
and middle schools and one-fifth of the number of books compared to • Facilitating interlibrary loans
the national average in high schools. produces a value of more than
two to one for every dollar cur-
We Need: rently spent by the Legislature
• Funding for Library Media Materials to be increased to $18 million. on the program, and this is just
a small part of what SUNLINK
provides to students, parents, teachers and library media specialists.
• The project assists students and parents in locating needed materials
from all public school districts in Florida with nearly 29 million recorded
holdings, 2 million titles, over 28,000 reviewed web sites, and 2,000
streaming videos.
• Current professional services available to library media specialists,
teachers and administrators to review and compare their school’s holdings
with other schools or districts force accountability and improvement and
facilitate this improvement through professional communities.
• In June 2007, SUNLINK was one of only six library projects, including
the Smithsonian Institute, to receive a prestigious, national award for
“Building Better Communities” sponsored by SirsiDynix at the American
Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. Selected by an
international panel of independent library leaders, the award recognizes
libraries for “creative and enterprising uses of technology to improve their
user communities.”
• The next level of accountability data is now ready to be collected and
reported in real time allowing parents, teachers, library media specialists
and administrators to improve their
school library media centers in areas
“These links between high-quality school library programs and
that correlate to improved student
academic achievement cannot be explained away as mere performance. While this system will
artifacts of community socioeconomic factors or key school exponentially increase the value of
conditions, such as per pupil spending and teacher-pupil ratio. this renowned project, it requires
Indeed, sometimes, taking these variables into account reveals additional investment by the State.
a greater impact by school libraries than was previously
masked by those other variables.” Visit SUNLINK at www.sunlink.ucf.edu.
—Curry, Rodney and Hamilton-Pennell. We Need:
Powerful Libraries make Powerful Learners: the Illinois Study. • Funding for SUNLINK to be increased to $1.5 million to support the
2005. improved functionality for the database.

Special Teacher Benefit Programs

FAME believes that all programs designed to recruit, retain or reward high
performing teachers should include library media specialists.
 School Libraries Don’t Matter Without
Highly Qualified Library Media Specialists
Research has shown that school libraries staffed by qualified library media
specialists are needed to have a positive impact on student academic achievement.
—“Why Care About School Libraries.”
U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, March 2005.

Instructional Technology K-12 Online Resources

FAME believes that teaching 21st Century Skills requires all of the current FAME supports the continuation and expansion of the Florida Electronic
educational technology tools to be available for students and teachers. A Library as a key tool for school students and every Florida citizen in accessing
significant investment by the Legislature in hardware, software and training a wealth of useful information.
for students and teachers would improve educational opportunities.

Certification of
Library Media Specialists
We Know:
• Teachers who have been licensed as library media specialists by merely
passing an exam without any training do not meet the minimum needs of
students for learning, reading, and research skills.
• There is NOT a statewide shortage of library media specialists as
evidenced by a DOE survey that showed that there are over 115% of the
needed instructional personnel with the library media specialist subject
area certification currently employed by Florida school districts compared
to the number of library media specialist positions.
• Taking a fully trained classroom teacher out of a classroom and placing
them in the school library without training doubly reduces the effective-
ness of our needed workforce.

“The massive shift from paper as the dominant • Multiple statewide studies of school libraries, including a Florida
specific study, demonstrate the value of university trained library media
media to digital content will continue. So will the specialists on improved student reading test scores as compared to
move toward online learning, student collaboration untrained personnel.
on a local and global scale, and self-produced We Need:
content, all of which demand reconfiguration of the • University training in addition to passing an exam to be required for
learning landscape. Challenges, yes, but ones that obtaining the library media specialist subject area certification.
also present unique opportunity for media specialists,
who are positioned to lead the way in transforming
their schools.”
Space, the Final Frontier: Media Centers for the 21st Century
Alan November — School Library Journal, 5/1/2007

Intellectual Freedom
FAME supports the right of students and teachers to access information on a
wide variety of subjects with differing points of view.
 Florida Library Association (FLA)
Legislative Platform
FAME acknowledges the irreplaceable role that all types
of libraries play in the intellectual, cultural, social, and
recreational lives of Florida’s citizens, and endorses FLA’s
2007-2008 legislative platform positions.
http://www.flalib.org/advocacy.html

About the Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME)

FAME is a statewide organization composed of library media specialists and other information professionals who take
proactive leadership roles in raising student achievement throughout Florida. The Association recognizes the indispensable
contributions of school library media programs run by qualified school library media specialists and advocates for best
practices in school librarianship. FAME upholds the core values and ethics of the library profession. The Association plays
an essential role in professional development by anticipating change, addressing issues, and promoting literacy.

2007-2008 FAME LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE

Debbie Svec, Chair, North Palm Beach
Jane Claud, Pompano Beach
Helen Zientek, Palm Beach Gardens
Sandy McMichael, Jacksonville
Carol Hogue, Tampa
Louise Freeman, Tallahassee
Belinda Vose, Gainesville
Nancy Everhart, Tallahassee
Vange Scivally, Orlando

EX-OFFICIO
Dr. Nancy Teger, DOE Liaison, Tallahassee
Miriam Needham, FAME President, Ocala

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Bob Cerra, FAME Legislative Consultant
Cerra Consulting Group, Inc.
206-B S. Monroe Street, Tallahassee, FL 32301
(850) 222-4428 – bobcerra@comcast.net

Florida Association for Media in Education

2563 Capital Medical Boulevard
Tallahassee, Florida 32308
(850) 531-8351 (Phone) (850) 531-8344 (Fax)
www.floridamedia.org email: info@floridamedia.org