DECATUR - Two years ago, Keith Curry Lance spoke to school librarians at Decatur's Holiday Inn Select Conference Hotel.

School libraries, he said, are a critical component of a child's academic success. But that library must be staffed with a trained librarian and stocked with up-to-date materials.

In February, Lance and RSL Research Group of Louisville, Colo. released a two-year study of Illinois school libraries and their effect on student achievement, one of a series of studies done since 2000 in 14 states, and the results in all the states were very similar.

"The results aren't identical," Lance said, "but they're incredibly consistent."

The top four findings that stood out most: Schools with better-staffed libraries have more students who succeed on standardized tests; high schools with computers that connect to library catalogs and databases average 6.2 percent better ACT scores; students who visit the library more frequently have higher reading and writing scores; students with access to larger, more current book collections achieve higher reading, writing and ACT scores.

Yet librarians are often one of the first things to go when a school district's finances are tight, said Beverly Obert, library development coordinator at Rolling Prairie Library System in Decatur.

"The librarian is the one who has the impact on those reading and writing scores that are so crucial, especially now in the time of the No Child Left Behind Act," Obert said.

In many Decatur elementary schools, libraries are manned by teaching assistants who can check books in and out, but who don't have the training to help teachers develop unit studies, order materials or guide children through learning to research, Obert said.

The Illinois School Library Media Association has urged librarians like Obert to give presentations to school boards, Parent-Teacher Associations, and whomever else they can think of who might be able to provide funding to put librarians back in schools, Obert said.

"In most states, they have professional librarians at the high school level," Lance said. "It's getting downright unusual (to have librarians) at the elementary level, and that's a cause of great concern. We hope, by having the evidence of such research, that the people speaking for school libraries will be heard."

Valerie Wells can be reached at vwells@;herald-review.com or 421-7982.