Strong school libraries are an important investment for Indiana school corporations.  School corporations that make reading a priority provide funds to build extensive book collections.  This helps teachers and librarians collaborate to ensure that students read the books and thus practice their reading skills.

        It’s clear that there is no substitute for books.  Indeed, without access to current, appealing, and high-interest books, reading achievement suffers.  According to the recent findings of three statewide studies in Alaska, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, a strong library program helps students learn more and score higher on standardized achievement tests.

        The Indiana Youth Institute conducted a study of reading in Indiana middle, junior, and senior high schools.  It compared 20 schools with low reading priorities with 20 schools with high reading priorities and found that the latter purchased four times as many books per year, circulated almost twice as many books per student, and had higher ISTEP scores in reading (Grade 6, 7.8 compared to 6.4; Grade 8, 9.6 compared to 9.1; and Grade 9, 11.3 compared to 10.7).

        Students who score at the ninetieth percentile on reading tests read 5 times as much as students at the fiftieth percentile and 200 times as much as children at the tenth percentile.  While books can be found in homes, public libraries, and classrooms, the one place that schools can ensure that independent reading opportunities exist for all students is the school library.

        Schools that provide few local funds for school library books may believe that they have an appropriate reading program for their students.  This belief is misguided.  In a world filled with new games, new movies, new

television programs, and old books, you do not have to guess what is most attractive to students, and without practice, reading achievement suffers.  Students need new books just as they are provided with new computers, VCRs, and TVs.  Of all these choices for funding by schools, access to new books has the highest correlation to reading achievement. With high national interest in reading, this is a favorable time to increase local funding for school libraries.  The quality of a school library is a significant measure of the caliber of a school.  With that in mind, the Indiana General Assembly has provided some help by furnishing funds for books. Nevertheless, schools that value reading will not be satisfied with the limited number of books that they can purchase with state funds and the minimum required by the state for school library materials.  This approach will not keep school library book collections current.

        The library book acquisition standard for schools is to purchase two books per student per year.  This should replace about 10 percent of the books in most school libraries.  The result will be higher library book circulation and higher reading achievement.