Congratulations to Pat Bliquez!

Pat is the teacher-librarian at Roxhill Elementary, a small elementary school in a West Seattle neighborhood of modest means. For her exemplary work promoting books and reading, she just won Seattle public-television station KCTS’ coveted Golden Apple Award for making a difference in children’s lives.

For more, read the Seattle Times story, and visit the West Seattle blog which includes a video tribute presentation honoring Pat, or check out the KCTS9 citation, as well as the Roxhill Elementary Harrison L. Caldwell Library web page.

Pat Bliquez, the Washington State Library salutes you!

From the desk of Rand Simmons

A Google map details the sad status of school libraries and school librarians across the United States. Pointers indicate where communities and states have made decisions to either eliminate certified teacher-librarians (blue pointers) or have assigned them to cover two or more library programs throughout the week (red pointers). Set your cursor on a map pointer and text will appear on the screen giving details of the situation.

I assume the sites are self-reported so the map doesn’t give a full picture of what is happening within each state. As of the writing of this post, Washington school districts in Sedro-Woolley, Port Angeles, Edmonds, Bremerton, Lakewood, Wishkah Valley, Rainier, Longview, and Hockinson are reported in trouble.

For those of us who love school libraries and school librarians and believe how integral they are to the educational well being of our children the map has a visceral impact. For more information on how school libraries positively impact academic achievement visit the Library Research Service.