Elgin-based District U-46, the second largest school district in the state, is among the vast majority that does not employ certified librarians in all of its libraries, something the Association of Illinois School Librarians is striving to change.
If a district has someone working in their school library who is not certified, they technically do not have a librarian at all, according to AISLE President Janine Asmus.
“We want to make parents and community members aware that while many districts do have what they call librarians, these are often aides and not teachers, sometimes even unpaid volunteers, selecting and putting reading materials into the hands of students,” Asmus said.
“You don’t call a paralegal a lawyer or a nurse practitioner a doctor, even if they seem to perform some of the same functions. Paraprofessionals and volunteers running libraries should not be called librarians.”
Certified school librarians have specialized training in library sciences and education, she said. They hold a professional educator’s license issued by the Illinois State Board of Education and and a library and information science endorsement, meaning they have taken an additional 18 hours of coursework and passed a specialized content area exam, she said.
There are different pathways to getting certified in Illinois, among them completing the endorsement at stand-alone coursework at colleges that offer it, including Dominican University, Chicago State University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Illinois State University, Asmus said.
The libraries at U-46’s 38 elementary schools are staffed by elementary library paraprofessionals, who attend several days of relevant professional development each year, U-46 spokeswoman Tara Burghart said.
“(The paraprofessionals) are valued members of our team, and we appreciate the work they do to help inspire a love of reading among our students, to provide students with the knowledge to confidently use libraries and to assist teachers with library activities that support classroom instruction,” Burghart said.
U-46 does employ some certified librarians in its middle and high schools, where there is more student access to the library throughout the school day, Burghart said.
Last September Asmus said, she put out FOIA requests to all 852 school districts across the state to determine how many certified school librarians they employ.
“There are 3,977 public schools in Illinois. There are a total of 1,257 certified school librarians in Illinois public schools currently employed in school libraries,” she said. “Some parts of our state have no school libraries or school librarians.”
With that data in hand, AISLE created a Certified Librarian Task Force “to begin advocating for all Illinois students to have what they deserve — school libraries staffed by properly trained, certified school librarians,” said Gail Meyer, the organization’s advocacy chair.
They’ve been providing information to school districts, including U-46, she said.
U-46 Superintendent Suzanne Johnson has responded to them, and plans to share the resources the association sent with the rest of U-46’s administration team, Burghart said.
In her statement to the group, Johnson said, “As we continue to update our instructional programming across U-46 in alignment with our Unite U-46 work, transforming the learning commons (libraries) is one of the considerations.
“Additionally, as we begin our strategic planning work, I expect this to be a consideration. However, this work will take the next several years to bring to fruition and will not be considered in isolation.”
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.