School librarians' impact on elementary students study

 Restricted data from North Carolina and propensity score matching was used to compare students who attended school with a full-time certified school librarian to similar students who did not attend schools with a full-time certified school librarian. In addition, this relationship for both reading and math over a four-year time span was examined. Findings include that students who attend schools with a full-time certified librarian score significantly higher on math and reading tests than do matched students who attend schools without a full-time school librarian.

Wine, L., et al. (2023). Impact of school librarians on elementary student achievement in reading and mathematics. Library & Information Science Research, 45(2). 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2023.101252

Democrats and Republicans Disagree on Appropriateness of School Books

New survey data from YouGov shows that the majority of Republicans feel that books with homosexual or transgender characters should be banned from all elementary school libraries, and slightly less than half think that they shouldn’t be present in public libraries. In comparison, only a quarter of Democrats agree that this sort of literature should not be accessible to grade school students. Similar results are evident from this study, including the fact that over half of Republicans want books which employ blasphemous language to be banned from elementary schools, in comparison to only a third of Democrats. Again, a majority of Republicans also feel believe it is inappropriate to exhibit books with sexually suggestive images on the cover in a public library, while only a third of Democrats feel this way. Lastly, slightly less than half of Republicans want certain books banned from elementary school libraries – including Harry Potters and The Sorcerer’s Stone and other books featuring witchcraft, wizardry, and magic. These results help portray the differing views between Democrats and Republicans regarding what types of books are appropriate for students to read in elementary school libraries. 

YouGov Omnibus (2017). Daily survey: Book banning. YouGov Omnibus. https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/8vt29l12m4/tabs_YG_Book_Banning_20171016.pdf