Utah Educational Library Media Association
Working for Librarians, Teachers, and Students of Utah
Legislators are cutting budgets and the line item, “School Library Books and Electronic (Digital) Resources” could be eliminated. The Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee reduced the funding by 10%, from $850,000 to $765,000, but they did not eliminate it. We appreciate the retention of this line item by the Subcommittee.
Now the budget cutting will move to the Executive Appropriations Committee, whose members will most likely deal with final budget cuts next week. Although the line item has been saved temporarily, there are no guarantees that this funding will continue at all.
The funding level, $765,000, is not a great deal of money when you consider that Utah has over 1,000 schools. For some schools, it is all the funding they get to add new books, print and ebooks, and online database subscriptions. Both books and database subscriptions are needed for students to use along with internet sources. Unlike information on the internet, these purchased materials are of high quality in accuracy, currency, relevancy, and literary style; designed for the interest and reading levels of young people; and selected with Utah’s curriculum in mind. School library resources, both print and digital, are important for students who do not have them provided in their homes. In addition, digital resources are extremely important as we have seen our students compelled to participate in online and distance learning due to the Covid 19 Pandemic.”
In the past, this line item funding has been reduced and later increased. But if the line item is eliminated, it will be nearly impossible to re-establish.
Your help is needed now. Please email members of the Executive Appropriations Committee, telling them that the line item, “School Library Books and Electronic (Digital) Resources” is indispensable to Utah students and their success in school, in particular in learning to read and to read in depth and learning to analyze and apply information. This makes a difference in K-12, higher education, and the work place.
Your help will make a difference.
Executive Appropriations Committee Members:
Leadership:
Sen. Jerry W. Stevenson, Senate Chair
Rep. Bradley G. Last, House Chair
Sen. Don L. Ipson, Senate Vice-Chair
Rep. Jefferson Moss, House Vice-Chair
Senators: Sen. J. Stuart Adams; Sen. Luz Escamilla; Sen. Daniel Hemmert; Sen. Jani Iwamoto; Sen. Derek L. Kitchen; Sen. Karen Mayne; Sen. Ann Millner; Sen. Evan J. Vickers
Representatives: Rep. Francis D. Gibson; Rep. Brian S. King; Rep. Karen Kwan; Rep. Carol Spackman Moss; Rep. Val L. Peterson; Rep. Angela Romero; Rep. Mike Schultz; Rep. Brad R. Wilson
jwstevenson@le.utah.gov; blast@le.utah.gov; dipson@le.utah.gov;
jefferson moss@le.utah.gov; jsadams@le.utah.gov; lescamilla@le.utah.gov; dhemmert@le.utah.gov; jiwamoto@le.utah.gov; dkitchen@le.utah.gov; kmayne@le.utah.gov; amillner@le.utah.gov; evickers@le.utah.gov; fgibson@le.utah.gov; briansking@le.utah.gov; kkwan@le.utah.gov;
csmoss@le.utah.gov; vpeterson@le.utah.gov; angelaromero@le.utah.gov;
mikeschultz@le.utah.gov; bradwilson@le.utah.gov
Thank you to School Library PALS for putting this possible cut on our radar!
In order to make next year’s conference even more successful we request that you fill out conference evaluation survey. You will also be able to request an attendance certificate for re-licensure points and USBE credit at the end of the evaluation. We thank you in advance for your comments and suggestions and we assure you that each will be given consideration so that future conferences and events will be even more of a success. We hope that you found the conference informative and worthwhile. No matter if you were an attendee, presenter, exhibitor/sponsor, or all three, your presence helped to make this event a great success!
As a reminder, if you were a presenter, please remember to upload your session resources to your Sched page so late attendees can access them online. Please refer to the sched help document on how to do that.
UELMA continues to function as an organization because of the support from you! We look forward to our 2021 conference and in order to receive updates and information, please subscribe to our page, UELMA.org.
Sincerely,
The UELMA 2020 Conference committee
Leave it to librarians to come up with resources for current topics! Great stuff here. Please comment or send me any other suggestions you have to share.
Now that #UELMA2O is over I am sure we will see many of you at UCET20. It’s no secret that there is a lot of overlap between these two conferences – we also know that there is a whole lot of overlap in our jobs. Many librarians also do the technology in our school. And many of the technolgists work through the libary or media center. Whether you’re a seasoned Libraian or a technology specialist you can enjoy and learn at both conferences. Visit UCET.org for more information.