toledoblade.com --

Imagine the world before the Vietnam War, before men on the moon, back when cloning only appeared in fiction. Imagine a world unaffected by the changes of the last few decades.

When students at Nathan Hale Elementary school visited the library in recent years, they found that world enshrined in outdated history tomes and science books that were missing five years of scientific advancements.

Until recently, school librarians opted for shelves packed tight with outdated material, rather than a thinner, yet more current, collection.

"Maybe we did a disservice to the kids," librarian Sue Whalen conceded.

School librarians throughout the Toledo Public Schools have been reviewing their collections over the last three years in preparation for changing to an automated system with a computerized catalog and bar codes on books. That meant going book by book - 53 libraries in the last three years - to weed out "inappropriate" materials, ones that were torn, disfigured, or out of date.

For some school libraries, that eliminated up to half their collection. Ms. Whalen, librarian for five public elementary schools including Nathan Hale, said she removed between 3,000 and 4,000 books from the about 9,000-volume Hale library. Nathan Hale is the norm, she said; she removed about one-third of the collections at other libraries.

Now that the shelves are cleaned out, the librarians have seen kids newly enchanted with the books on their shelves, even asking where the "new" books came from.

That is also the lingering question for librarians: where will the next wave of books come from?

With current library financing, schools can't rebuild their library collections with quality materials to anywhere near their former size, librarians said.

Although the budget for school libraries has actually increased in recent years, bringing the total book funds for this year to almost $180,000, the money will be spread thin among all the libraries.

A children's book, specially bound to withstand years of use, costs about $18. And while the libraries can buy about 100 books a year, they lose that many each year as well.

Library collections should be, on average, about a decade old, said Nina Dudgeon, long-term media specialist for Toledo schools. But some areas of Toledo school collections have an average copyright date from the late 1970s, even after removing many of the older books, she said.

Beginning in the late 1960s, the federal government directed money specifically to elementary school libraries to help build collections. After 1984, those funds opened up for other school uses, while standards for the number of books that libraries should have stayed the same, Ms. Dudgeon said.

With no money to purchase new books, librarians let the ones they had linger.

New standards demand that schools have current materials and computer access, instead of a book quota, said Deb Dusseau of the North Central Association, which accredits schools in Ohio and elsewhere.

"`Current' has to do with how old the materials are and whether it historically reflects what is happening in the field," Ms. Dusseau said. "Books in the science field are going to have to be updated frequently. A history book might have twice the life of a science book."

The new emphasis on proficiency scores, weighted toward nonfiction topics like the sciences, puts pressure on libraries to keep up to date with what's happening in the classroom, Ms. Dudgeon said. The libraries need books, she said, but not just any books. They need quality books that support the curriculum, will catch reader interest, and stand up over time. And librarians point to research out of the University of Denver and Colorado State University showing that good media resource programs are linked to high achievement scores.

Ms. Dusseau explained why that might be true. "Having those resources available to students will increase their ability to explore ideas and add rigor to the curriculum," she said. "If you have access to more materials, then you can expect kids to learn more. You can expect them to synthesize information."

Although younger kids may not be using a library for serious research, the books are important at the elementary-school level, Ms. Dudgeon said.

"Research also says that to learn to read, students need to read," she said. "Not all students have books at home."

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