Baltimore County School Libraries
Eye $10-Million Upgrade
Targeting outdated book collections, Baltimore County Schools Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione has proposed spending $10 million over the next three years to bring the system closer to compliance with state standards.
School officials say that 21 of the system’s 23 high school libraries contain books and items considered outdated by county standards, the Baltimore Sun reported February 6. In addition, per-student funding in the county also lags, with 1997 figures showing that $2.77 is spent per student, compared with the state average of $12.24 per student.
Library Media Specialist Beth Shapiro told the newspaper that book collections have suffered in recent years as schools have opted for new computers to run encyclopedia CD-ROMs and to provide Internet access. Shapiro said half of the nonfiction titles at her school, including science, technology, and geography texts, were copyrighted in the 1960s.
Posted February 14, 2000.
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