State of America's (school) Libraries, 2010

School libraries ... receive good grades in national surveys, which indicate that 96-plus percent of Americans feel they are an essential part of the education experience [bold mine - Doug] because they provide resources to students and teachers and because they give every child the opportunity to read and learn. The role of school libraries continued to grow in 2009, with school libraries open, on average, 11⁄2 hours more per week than in 2008, according to a survey conducted by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the ALA.

School librarians also play a crucial role in “keeping the digital doors open to help young people think about learning beyond the classroom,” according to danah boyd, an authority on online social networking sites and a keynote speaker at the AASL’s 2009 national conference.

But “School Libraries Count! AASL’s National Longitudinal Survey of School Library Media Programs” shows that a majority of schools received less funding for information resources in 2009 than they had in 2008. The survey revealed that there was no increase in the average number of teachers who are also school librarians, and that school librarians worked an average of almost an hour a week more in 2009 than in 2008. State of America's Libraries, April 2010

 The report is worth a look and the statement in bold above is worth sharing with your administrators.