"Let’s Choose to be a More Literate Society": Pam Muñoz Ryan

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Pam Muñoz Ryan, a long-time advocate on behalf of school libraries, has written more than thirty books for young people. She recently wrote an opinion piece on    the value of school libraries for Sign On San Diego, the website of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

She wrote, “When a library is staffed by a professional, it becomes the most far-reaching service in the school, nurturing the rich and poor, the literate and those learning to be literate, the athlete, the musician, the class clown and the class artist. The school library is often a gathering place and safe haven for students. It is a service for which every person on campus benefits.

“The school librarian often holds the school’s literary climate in the palm of the hand. A library without a librarian often becomes stagnant and falls into disrepair. Imagine a classroom without a teacher, or an orchestra without a conductor.

She also wrote: “Library programs need the public’s support now more than ever. We cannot afford to lose the academic enrichment that a library brings to a school community. Please urge your congressional representatives to restore the federal budget for libraries in the coming year. Restored funding would go to improving literacy through school libraries, a Department of Education program to update books, materials and other important school library programs. Let’s choose to be a literate society.”

Read the entire op-ed, "Improving literacy through school libraries." Pam Muñoz Ryan also recently recorded a video public service announcement in support of libraries as part of ALA President Roberta Stevens' "Our Authors, Ours Advocates" national library advocacy campaign.