Teacher Librarians (School Librarians) are the only qualified staff to teach students information literacy (how to access, evaluate, and use information efficiently, effectively, and safely). Without teacher librarians, Los Angeles Unified School District students will be at a severe disadvantage in today's information age.

Research repeatedly shows that students with access to a well-stocked, well-staffed library including a credentialed teacher librarian and library aide do much better academically than students without.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is under a legal obligation from the Office of Civil Rights to provide all students, particularly African-American and English language learners, equal access to the library and library materials. By laying off teacher librarians, there will be no information literacy instruction, no one qualified to maintain the collection, and little if any library supervision. Libraries will most likely fall under disrepair and library collections, some costing as much as $100,000 each, will begin to disappear. LAUSD will be in non-compliance with OCR's mandate.

By signing this petition you are showing your support for teacher librarians and Los Angeles school libraries.