over education vested in governing bodies of school districts. For example, the authorization "to do all things necessary for the best interests of the school" could be construed as allowing them to do this. However, as a matter of practice it is well known that many school districts are unable to do so because of lack of funds. Table 1.-Legal provisions for the establishment of school libraries in 21 States 1 1 Limited to States in which laws expressly provide that libraries shall be established. tain' an adequate supply of library Compulsory if school wishes to receive Board of education. Patrons and friends of school. "May use" State library fund for establish- County board of education. "Shall have power to establish" school County commissioners may levy tax for See column 4. Board of education. County superintendent of com- County board of education. 1 State board of education shall promote the establishment of libraries throughout the State. Financial support Laws in 33 States (listed in column 1 of table 2) expressly provide financial support for school libraries. The types of districts or schools affected in the 33 States are given in column 2 of table 2. In order to avoid misinterpretation in listing these districts and schools, the plan used in column 2 of table 1 is followed here, namely, to enclose in quotation marks the terms used in the law. One very important point about the laws relating to financial support for school libraries is whether they are compulsory or optional. Owing to the difficulty of determining this from the phraseology, the attempt to do so has not been made, and instead, the exact wording of the law has been given, just as in the case of table 1, column 3. Whether the phrase, "duty of trustees" to apportion money to libraries should be interpreted as compulsory and whether "authorized" to approve the purchase of library books should be interpreted as optional is often a matter which only a court decision or a ruling of an attorney general can decide. The sources of funds for financial support of school libraries, as provided by law, have been placed in three categories district, county, and State (columns 4, 5 and 6, table 2). In some instances it is difficult to determine the source because of the overlapping of funds. For example, the laws of Iowa provide that the money withheld by the county auditor for school libraries shall be taken from the "apportionment" of the several school districts. The "apportionment" referred to comes from three sources: The proceeds of the county-wide property tax, the interest on the State permanent school fund which is distributed through counties, and the proceeds of fines from violations of State penal laws. In this case the source was designated as State and the explanation made under a note in the State digest. (See Iowa digest, p. 72.) Iowa has also another source of funds for school libraries which is the "general school fund" of the district. This is undoubtedly made up of funds from district, county, and State sources, but was designated as district. An examination of columns 4, 5, and 6 of table 2, shows that in the following 12 States the source of funds appears to be district only: In 4 States it is county only-Nevada, South Dakota, Washington, and West Virginia; in 3, State only-California, Louisiana, and North Carolina. It is from both district and county in 4 States-Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, and Oregon; district and State in 7-Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Wisconsin; district, county, and State in 2-South Carolina and Virginia; and county and State in 1-Florida. |