LISNews: Librarian News

Greenville News has this story on the creative ideas that school librarians have to get books on the shelves.\"In addition to holding the usual book fairs and cranking out applications for grants, they\'ve cashed in aluminum cans, sold candy and school supplies, urged parents to shop at certain grocery stores and use certain credit cards and accepted hand-me-downs from college and university libraries updating their collections.\"\"You\'ve got to use your imagination,\" said Boris Bauer, one of two media specialists at Berea High School.\"

\"Federal money for school libraries has fallen sharply over the past three decades and allocations received from the school district have remained stagnant over the past 15 years.\"

\"In the meantime, the price of books keeps rising and school media centers must also buy computer software, magazines, newspapers and supplies such as copy paper and archival tape.\"

\"People just assume the books are there,\" said Peggy Rubin, media specialist for the third- through fifth- grades at Sara Collins Elementary School. \"They forget you have to cultivate a collection. You have to weed it, you have to add new books. It\'s an ongoing event.\"

\"And it takes money.\"