That's a trend the Sunnyvale School District hopes to buck. The district is in its first year of a pilot program to place a certificated librarian--a librarian who has a teaching credential and can coordinate lesson plans with teachers--in each of its 10 schools by the year 2010. The Sunnyvale Education Foundation hopes to raise $1 million a year to make that goal possible and will continue reaching toward that sum with a phone campaign coming up in May.

But the difference seen at the pilot program's test site, Lakewood Elementary School, has made those involved even more determined to see the program succeed.

"It's going pretty well. We're seeing circulation figures going up because we're creating awareness of the library," says Valerie Torres, Lakewood's certificated librarian. "It seems like [the students] are getting really savvy. It's coming naturally."

Torres was part of a group of master's students from San José State University who became involved with the librarian project early on. One of her instructors, David Loertscher, went into the Sunnyvale School District several years ago with Torres and her classmates to perform a full audit of its libraries and the materials within.

Loertscher had heard about the district's plans through the Sunnyvale Education Foundation, the nonprofit group that raises money for Sunnyvale School District schools. The foundation chose the project after discovering that most public school libraries lack the most basic resources--actual librarians.

"We found out how backward the libraries are," says Geoff Ainscow, with the foundation. "Nationwide, there's one certificated librarian for every 700 students. In California, there's one for every 4,500 students. In Sunnyvale, until last September, there had been zero librarians for our 6,000 students for the last 15 years."

Certificated librarians hold a distinct advantage over the clerks who staff most libraries these days--a teaching credential. Torres had taught in the classroom for four years before returning to school for a degree in library and media science. Much of what she does involves working with Lakewood's teachers to find and coordinate the appropriate supplementary materials--both in the library and online--with lessons occurring in all subjects at all elementary grade levels.

"The intent of the librarian is to help teachers," says Dr. Joe Rudnicki, Sunnyvale School District superintendent. "That way, our students can develop better thinking skills and better research skills."

When the project first got underway, Rudnicki and Ainscow turned to San José State--one of the two public universities in the state that offer courses in library science--for assistance. Loertscher volunteered his students to help the school district as a summer project for them and a service for the district. "That was the miracle of all miracles," Rudnicki says. "They performed about $35,000 worth of research for free, and we got an awesome report that detailed what modern-day libraries are all about."

"They found that the biggest thing missing is brainpower," Ainscow says. While some of the materials in Sunnyvale school libraries were outdated, the greater issue was that no one knew how to navigate them.

But the problem had been the cost--the library attendants who shelve books and check them in and out are classified employees. Teachers with credentials have higher salaries. The foundation offered to take on that cost, and partnered with the district to make it happen.

As research, the foundation and district officials visited renowned public school libraries in places like Merced. The district then launched the pilot program and chose Lakewood as the site due to its large student population and low test scores.

Torres taught for four years in the North Monterey County Unified School District, and went back to school because of her interest in the power of the library. "It all starts with literacy," she says. "The power of connecting to a good book is so huge, especially at this age." She's also getting some help through an information center filled with Dell computers, which she has also received training in.

At Lakewood, she works hand-in-hand with all the teachers on staff. "I'm providing support for the whole school," Torres says. "It's almost like team teaching. It's opening up the curriculum." Teachers will bring their classes into the library, where Torres will help run a lesson.

The project's plans involve expansion next year to Columbia Middle School, which counts Lakewood as one of its feeder schools. Rudnicki also says the district hopes to partner with the city's library to turn the school libraries into extensions of the city library that stay open later in the evening.

The foundation is bankrolling this project entirely on its own.

It normally holds a fundraising event every year that covers basic costs, but Ainscow says individual donations and support from local organizations will be key toward reaching its $1 million goal. He is organizing a phone-a-thon from May 3­5 to drum up support.

For more information or to volunteer, contact Ainscow at gbainscow@aol.com.