BOUND FOR NEW BOOKS; SCHOOL LIBRARIES FLUSH WITH FUNDS.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Daily News Staff Writer

Madera Elementary School Principal Nancy Mason took one look at the state budget allocation for school libraries and knew just what that meant: boxes of ``Harriet the Spy,'' ``Berenstein Bears'' and ``Goosebumps'' books.

With an estimated $28.50-per-pupil grant, Mason wasn't alone as educators started thinking about all the stories that could now be told.

``The principals are jumping up and down,'' said Mason, whose school site council will begin drawing up the wish list. ``They've been waiting for this money for years.''

Across the area, districts are holding meetings to draft a library plan - the state's main requirement for securing the funds - so they can collect the money. Large districts such as Simi Valley and Conejo Valley will be getting about $500,000 each.

Oak Park Unified is meeting this week to work on its document, which will be anchored by the library being built at Oak View High School. Conejo Valley, Moorpark and Simi Valley school districts hope to have their plans in place in coming months.

``It's very good news. The libraries in California public schools are notoriously poor,'' said Richard Simpson, assistant superintendent of instructional services for Conejo Unified, adding that most students bypass shabby school libraries to look elsewhere for books. ``If you talk to city librarians, a very high percentage of their traffic is students.''

For years, school libraries have survived on bare-bones budgets as the state cut extras for schools, and libraries inched down on the priority list.

Many school libraries relied on PTA fund-raisers or book sales, where publishers donate books to a school after parents purchase a specified amount for at-home reading.

That means that not only are shelves stocked with few books, many of those in the collection are the same ones that have been on shelves when libraries opened decades ago, educators said.

Experts suggest that each elementary school classroom maintain a stock of 1,500 volumes, which means about 30,000 at a typical campus. High schools with a few thousand students need substantially more, officials say.

``We always have a list we'd like to do, but can't afford it,'' said Marilyn Lippiatt, superintendent at Oak Park Unified. ``Our library needs to match the expectation we have for our students; our library has not been that.''

Because the state budget increase approved by Gov. Pete Wilson is expected to be only a one-time allotment, most districts are planning to use the funds to buy new goods rather than hire librarians and staff.

Though the governor's decision came late in summer, when the state budget was approved, educators say they're willing to burn the midnight oil to get the shelves stocked.

``We'll take those kinds of challenges any day,'' said Oak Park's Lippiatt.

In Conejo Valley Unified, most of the plan focuses on computer upgrades, including computerized encyclopedias, scanners and software to allow students to create multimedia presentations for their classroom projects.

``But we're still buying books,'' said Westlake High School Librarian Joyce Delson, who said the wish list includes classics, contemporary fiction and anything related to recent scientific breakthroughs, such as in genetics.

``We're very excited,'' she added. ``Finally the state is seeing the library as the hub, as the resource, as the place where the curriculum is.'' In Simi Valley, which is just beginning to craft its plan, officials echoed the need to have shelves stocked not just with more books, but books that are relevant to youngsters.

Mason, the Madera principal, is trying to find books about in-line skating, science and biographies that will capture students' interests.

``You take many books off the shelves and you see (they have been) there 40 or 50 years ago,'' she said. ``We're going to try to beef up what we have.''

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2 photos

PHOTO (1 -- color -- Simi edition only) Kids listen to a volunteer read a story in the library at Madera Elementary School, which will benefit from a budget allocation for books.

(2 -- color -- Simi edition only) Elisa Longstreth, 7, holds a library book on frogs printed in 1957.

David Sprague/Daily News