I've been made aware that because of proposed state budget cuts, there is a possibility that the Fremont Unified School District library media technician hours may be cut by as much as 50 percent, or more.

The district's board needs to reconsider.

Taking this action would be to the detriment of our students and to the literacy rates in our schools, and ultimately would result in lower test scores for the Fremont Unified School District.

While I am not a library media technician, I am a longtime volunteer in district libraries, a literacy advocate, volunteer co-director of the Bookleggers of Alameda County Library, and a parent of three Fremont students. I have seen first-hand what previous budget cuts have done to our school libraries, and I am disturbed that more are being considered.

Our library media technicians do not just read "little" stories, check books in and out and file books away. That is a misconception. Their jobs entail much, much more.

They must:

4 Customize their library book collections to meet the needs of both students and teachers.

4 Raise money. The budget provided to each school library is less than 80 cents per student per year.

4 Buy new books, and replace lost or stolen books. Every new book has to be bar-coded, stamped, labeled, entered into the computer system and covered.

4 Repair damaged books (there are a lot of these because of

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shelving wear and tear, backpacks, sheer volume of use, etc.).

4 Connect students who are having trouble reading with books that interest them and are at their reading level.

4 Read new titles continually to be able to present them coherently to the students.

4 Maintain their inventory.

4 Help students access research materials on Internet computers.

The Alameda County Library is open limited hours weekly. For many children whose parents work, their school library is the only chance they have to check out books, either for casual reading or for research for school projects.

The suggestion that our library media techs could function effectively with fewer hours or that our school libraries could do without our library media technicians shows a lack of understanding of how critically needed these people are.

They are the main conduit to our students for a love of reading.

We want all our students to succeed.

In order to succeed, our children must be able to read. The more they are encouraged to read and the more they practice reading, the better they will be able to do all the tasks and to meet all the goals set for them.

Literacy, our libraries and our library media technicians are the key to that success.

We must not cut library media technician hours in the Fremont Unified School District, no matter how tight the budget.

Dominique Hutches has lived in Fremont more than 20 years. She is the mother of three book-loving daughters. She volunteers for libraries at Fremont schools and for the Alameda County Booklegger program. She also posts reviews of her favorite books for all ages at giantstepsbooks.com.