There's more to being a school librarian than checking out books and charging fines. Certified teacher librarians can teach students how to use the technology that they are already using for other activities for research.

She said the first four sites on a search page aren't always the most correct and valid sources. "Not everything that you find on the Internet is real, and you can't just steal it," Sawyer said.

Sawyer is a certified teacher librarian at Orem Junior High. She taught Spanish for 20 years before becoming a librarian. Some state legislators want students to have more access to librarians like Sawyer in an effort to improve student achievement. They have proposed funding that would help districts pay for 50 new teacher librarians over three years.

Rep. Tim Cosgrove, D-Murray, is supporting the appropriation that would give schools $1.7 million to help pay for the librarians. The program would run for three years, and students would be assessed to see if scores improve with the addition of teacher librarians.

Teacher librarians are certified by the Utah State Office of Education and usually have a teaching certificate. They can teach the state's core curriculum for library media.

"More and more, students are vastly unprepared for college because they are not being taught how to do quality research," Cosgrove wrote in an e-mail. "Putting more certified teacher librarians into our schools will help students think more critically about the research they are doing."

John Spencer, human resources director for Alpine School District, said librarians with more skills are usually good for students.

"I think any time you can give a [librarian] more training that students will benefit from that expertise," Spencer said.

Georgia Loutensock, the state's library media specialist, said certified librarians in all schools could help students.

"I just really think that certified librarians in our schools could do so much more to help student achievement," Loutensock said.

There are only six districts in the state that have teacher librarians in all of their schools. In Utah County, most of the teacher librarians are in secondary schools.

Sawyer said she didn't want to sound demeaning, but called non-certified library aides "glorified secretaries."

School districts offer training for non-teacher librarians to be able to teach some of the library curriculum, but Sawyer said it doesn't quite make the cut because it's not as thorough as certification.

The problem is that certified librarians have a higher price tag.

"They definitely cost more, but how much more that would depend on the individual," said Al Mosher, human resources director for Nebo School District.

• Brittani Lusk can be reached at 344-2549 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it