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Before libraries existed
Schools only had collections that they made into small classroom libraries. -
Period: to
Library History taken from The School Library Media Manager by Blanche Woolls. Click timeline boxes to read the information about each time on timeline.
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First Librarian Appointed
Her name was Mary Kingsbury. She was appointed to Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. -
Second Librarian Appointed
Her name was Mary E. Hall. She was appinted to the Girls' High School in Brooklyn. -
Slow starts
There were 10,000 public high schools. No more than 250 of them had collections of 3,000 volumes or more. However, the libraries that did exist were operatin very well. New facilities were built as they overflowed the single eading room, but the process was slow. -
Secondary school library expansion
In the mid 1920's, secondary school libraries were explanding due to the fact that in order for schools to recieve accredidation by their associations, they had to have a high school library with a trained librarian. -
Elementary school library standards
The elementary school library standards were published. However, there were not many schools that had libraries or librarians. Money that was allocated for library books went to teachers for their classroom collections. -
Sputnik's effect
With the Soviet Union's launching of the Sputnik satalitte, the U.S. Congress decided to provide funds for education workshops, programs, and institutes. Money also was given for materials, like textbooks. -
Expansion of school libraries and especially elementary libraries
In the early 1960's there were several events that propelled the expansion of libraries and the concept of elemetary libraries. The first, in 1960, was the completion of the Standards for School Library Programs, which replaced the 1945 School Libraries for Today and Tomorrow. -
More expansion
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) recieved a grant from the Knapp Foundation. This $1.13 million grant was for the devlopment of school libraries, and more specificall for a 5 year demonstration program. -
Yet more expansion
A report developed by Mary Helen Mahar and Doris C. Holladay for the U. S. Office of Education was realeased that showed that less than 50 percent of U. S. Elementary schools had libraries. This raised attention and materials were prepared to help fix this. -
Passage of the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
All the events bringing attention to school libraries in the early 1960's caught the attention of Congress when people started lobbying for school libraries. The efforts of Cora Paul Bomar, the head supervisor in the Library & Instructional Materials Section of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the efforts of the American Library Association's Washington office, as well as key librarians all over, led to the passage of this act, which provided funding for school libraries. -
Library Decline
After the libraries were created and operating, trouble hit in the early 1980"s when federal, as well as state and local funding declined. There wasn't money for the libraries to keep operating the way they had been. -
Further Decline
In the late 1980's and early 1990's schools that needed to cut and determine which programs were essential didn't deem the library media specialist one of them. Eventually teacher certifications requirements were changed & bew librarians didn't have to have a teacher certification.
