The "Colorado Study"

[Lonnie King <Lonnie.King@KUENTOS.GUAM.NET>]

Recently, an M. Matecum requested suggestions for providing "proof" that
library professionals are needed in the schools.  I would recommend
providing administrators and district officials with a copy of the
Current Research column that appeared in the Spring 1994 issue of School
Library Media Quarterly on pp. 167-172.  In it, Keith Curry Lance
summarizes the results from a study he did in Colorado.  It was published in
book form in 1993 as "The Impact of School Library Media Centers on
Academic Achievment".  To quote from the summary, "the study findings
indicate the importance of library media expenditures--and particularly
the staff and collections they make possible--in promoting academic
achievement.  The study also verifies the importance of the library media
specialist's instructional role."  We have mentioned this study in our
school librarians' presentations to administrators and made sure that our
new superintendent and gubernatorial candidates received copies of the
summary.

Cheryl King, Librarian, Agana Heights Elementary School, Guam
E-Mail:  Lonnie.King@KUENTOS.GUAM.NET