A record 15 Atlanta Public Schools media centers received $6,000 grants from the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries on Friday — by far the most of any school district in the nation. The former first lady made the announcement in Miami. The grants are awarded to help media specialists expand, update and diversify their library book collections. APS represented 8 percent of the 188 school libraries that were selected throughout the nation (earning a total of $1,098,634 in grant money). Last year 10 of the 158 libraries selected were from APS.
According to APS Media Services Coordinator Warren Goetzel, funding for book collections has never been more important. Right now the elementary schools get $15.31 per student per year in state funding, while middle schools and high schools get $13.03 per student per year. “And that’s for all media materials, not just books,” said Goetzel, who made a strong push for his media specialists to apply for the grant this year. “The average cost of a book is $25. Books become obsolete pretty rapidly these days, and they don’t have the money to update them.” He added that the average usable life of a non-fiction is about five years due to rapid changes in science and technology. “Consider that Pluto’s not a planet anymore,” he said. “Any time there are those changes, you have to discard the book and start over.”
Goetzel was particularly proud of his media specialists for rising to the challenge and taking advantage of this crucial funding opportunity: “External funding is critical to build and maintain balanced book collections. Our media specialists are so dedicated to their staff and students to make sure they have the most updated resources availability.”
Here is the list of the grant-winning APS media centers and their media specialists, after the jump …