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Jenny Takeda, who had been a district librarian for Beaverton schools, worked as a substitute teacher during the 2012-13 school year after her library job was eliminated. Few Oregon high schools have licensed librarians on the faculty anymore.

(Benjamin Brink / The Oregonian / 2012)

Oregon schools, which had 818 full-time librarians in 1980, are down to just 144 full-time-equivalent licensed school library specialists, the state school library group reported Thursday.

The group decried the absence of trained librarians in schools as a change that has harmed students' reading, writing and research capabilities.

Since 2010, Oregon schools have been required to give the state official documents that show how they will provide comprehensive and equitable library services and resources to their students, the group says.

Specifically, the law calls on school to say how they provide:

Schools are not required to have certified librarians, however, and tend to operate them instead with library aides, volunteers or teachers who bring their classes to libraries that are no longer staffed at all.

The library group said its leaders are optimistic that, as Oregon schools recover from the worst economic times since the Great Depression, they will see values in certified librarians and hire a lot of them. The Oregon Association of School Libraries has a lot of other advice for schools about how to get maximum value from their libraries.

"In response to the need for more instructional support with the new Common Core Standards, some districts in Oregon are currently bringing back school librarian positions," OASL president Nancy Sullivan wrote. "Medford School District in southern Oregon recently posted three job openings for licensed school librarians. More positive changes like this one are needed in all areas of our state."

-- Betsy Hammond