“For as long as Anna Zhang has attended Bache-Martin Elementary School, the library was a locked room with old books she could not access.

That changed recently, when the public school in Fairmount re-opened its library after a nonprofit organized to support the school rallied the community — and raised $90,000 — to make it happen.

It is a rarity in Philadelphia, where in a school district of 220 schools, just seven have certified librarians. (About a dozen more libraries are open through outside volunteer partnerships, or by other means.

It wasn’t always that way. In 1991, the system employed 176 librarians, and more schools had libraries staffed by trained library assistants. But budget cuts decimated their ranks.”

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