Libraries to Benefit From Added Funds

After a period that saw officials using elementary school libraries as classrooms to meet state-mandated class-size reductions, the school district can look forward to some relief.

The district is expected to get $28 in additional state funding for every student every year for up to three years, said Becky Wetzel, the district’s director of elementary education. That could amount to nearly $600,000 per year for all Simi Valley school libraries, an unprecedented figure.

“We have not seen that kind of money in libraries for well over 20 years,” she said. Wetzel and other school officials plan to use the funds to increase the use of technology in libraries, creating online card catalogs, CD-ROM encyclopedias and--some day--science programs and other software to be accessed from classroom computers.

More libraries would also mean Internet access if the district gets its wish.

And, where elementary school libraries have typically lacked a large body of nonfiction and reference works, the district would like to include more of those materials so students can improve their research skills.

“At the elementary level, the libraries have typically been a place where children can come check out books,” Wetzel said. “I see the libraries continuing to do that . . . but I also see it now as a resource center and media center where children have access to all different kinds of information.”