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TL11.1_v5 16 Ontario School Library Association PROTECTING YOUR INVESTMENT: KEEPING A FULL-TIME LIBRARY AND MEDIA CO-ORDINATOR Grant allocations from the Ministry of Education are increasing 7.7% over 2002-03 and according to your budget report, you are proposing no reductions in either program services or personnel, yet there is a proposal to cut our library and media co-ordinators job by half. This comes at a time when teacher- librarians need support and guidance, espe- cially in the elementary panel where high turnover of teacher-librarians in these part- time jobs, an average of 30 per year, is draw- ing in new teachers with little or no training to run a school library effectively. Our library and media co-ordinator does have an important role to play in supporting the school library programs and in support- ing our teacher-librarians. As well, our coor- dinator has organized PD and training opportunities for both the new and experi- enced TLs, been a liaison to our 187 elemen- tary and 32 secondary school libraries, worked with media services and the catalogu- ing department (both very important services to our libraries), guided and strongly support- ed the Thames Valley Teacher-Librarians' Association, participated in our provincial library organizations (Ontario Library Association & Ontario School Library Association) and worked with a broad num- ber of other departments, administrators, and public and county libraries. We strongly support maintaining this library and media co-ordinator's position as full-time and recommend that you invest. CAPITAL GAINS: GOOD RETURNS ON YOUR MONEY Libraries are the great equalizer. As you can see in your pamphlet, your investments continue to provide a good return in learning opportunities for both our students and our teachers. In summation, we would like you to invest, insure and guarantee that our libraries will continue to be viable learning centres, and that means not neglecting your investments. We would like to recommend that you invest in: l equitable teacher-librarian staffing for all schools l library budgets for learning resources, and l maintaining a full-time library and media coordinator's position Thank you for you attendance at thisinvestment seminar. I'll now take anyquestions you may have about how we can help you to invest your money! z