Council member seeks annual city report on school librarians and libraries

Council Member Lincoln Ressler introduced legislation (Intro 11-25a) at a New York City Council session to require the Department of Education to publish an annual report showing the number of licensed and nonlicensed school librarians, the number of school libraries and additional data on student access to library staff and facilities.

Ressler said the measure is aimed at filling a gap in the city’s data and helping restore library staffing that he called essential to literacy. “It totally shocked me to find out that there are 480 schools in the city of New York that don't have a library. Don't have a library,” Ressler said. He added that two decades ago the city had about 1,500 librarians across roughly 1,600 schools, and that the current number of certified librarians is “under 300.”

The bill would ask the Department of Education to include in its report compliance information tied to applicable state staffing requirements, giving the council a consistent, citywide dataset to monitor library access and staffing. Ressler told colleagues that librarians and school libraries contribute to “better academic outcomes, better test scores,” and help foster lifelong reading habits.

Ressler credited library advocates and colleagues for supporting the measure and said the data requirement would make it easier for the council to pursue policies to place librarians where they are most needed. He noted the shortfall of certified librarians in city schools and framed the bill as a step toward the council’s goal of “a library in every school and a librarian in every library.”

The legislation was introduced during the stated agenda portion of the meeting and proponents described it as a data and accountability bill; the transcript does not record a council vote or final disposition of the measure.