SAUL LOEB/Arizona Daily Wildcat Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-Tucson) gestures last week at his office in South Tucson. Grijalva sent a letter to UA President Pete Likins asking him to reconsider his decision to eliminate the SIRLS program.

Kathy Fox works every day encouraging children to read. Now, Fox is speaking out, encouraging the Tucson community to support UA's School of Information Resources and Library Science.

Images of librarians tiptoeing across the library shushing students are "old school," said the librarian at Gale Elementary School.

"That's an old stereotype," she said. "I'm a fairly political person, so I really do a lot of activism for the library."

And now with the School of Information Resources and Library Science on the cutting block, the soft-spoken public school librarian has become politically active in the campaign to save SIRLS.

Fox is speaking out in support of SIRLS, along with the many other librarians nationwide who are

concerned that the elimination of SIRLS would be disastrous for America's library systems.

Librarian Shortage · An estimated 58 percent of professional librarians will reach the age of 65 between 2005 and 2019. · One out of four librarians will retire in the next 6 years · Each year, thousands of jobs go unfilled. As an example, SIRLS graduated 87 students last year. · There are 125,152 professional librarians in the United States. Of these, less than 3 percent are Hispanic, and Native Americans make up less than .6 percent.

Last month, administrators announced that they would consider eliminating SIRLS as part of the Focused Excellence initiative.

Likins said that unless SIRLS could become financially self-sufficient, administrators could not justify draining resources away from other departments in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences in order to sustain the growth it needs to maintain accreditation.

At first, students and alumni took to the streets to protest the proposals. They attended press conferences wearing "SAVE SIRLS" stickers on their chests, and they rallied before a campus town hall, shouting slogans and holding signs to protest the proposed elimination.

But after President Pete Likins told them they needed plans and not slogans, they softened their voices and got to work behind the scenes.

"We're working within the system," said Lisa Bunker, SIRLS alumna who now chairs the SAVE SIRLS steering committee.

Already, SIRLS has been in contact with the director of the Tucson public library, the director of the Phoenix public library, the state librarian, the editor of the American Library Association newsletter, the editor of the Library Journal, local school librarians and Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-Tucson), said director of SIRLS Brook Sheldon.

Grijalva said he wrote a letter to Likins asking him to designate the survival of SIRLS as a priority.

"If it's eliminated, someone will be having a conversation in five to 10 years about the need for library schools," he said.

Grijalva said he not only plans to follow up with Likins later this month, but he will bring the issue up in his next meeting with Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano.

While Grijalva gives SIRLS some political clout, Fox is helping SIRLS take its campaign to the communities, networking with teachers and parents.

"I'm just getting the word out to people," she said.

Librarians like Fox have been focusing on getting information out about their concerns that the elimination of the only library science school in the Rocky Mountain region could set back a profession already struggling with a shortage of librarians.

During a Library Day conference last month, the proposal to eliminate SIRLS was addressed to over 300 people, said state librarian Gladys Ann Wells.

"I think it's tragic," Wells said. "All state librarians from 21 Western states are concerned."

It is estimated that one out of four librarians will retire in the next six years with few new librarians to replace them, and according to data compiled by SIRLS, 4,000 jobs were posted last year on the SIRLS Web site to attract a graduating class of 87 students.

The American Library Association, the organization responsible for accrediting SIRLS, is also taking an active step to support the school.

Only a few days after Likins held a press conference to formally announce his list of proposed program eliminations, the American Library Association also wrote up a resolution to Likins and the Arizona Board of Regents.

Pointing to the national shortage of librarians and the diversity of the program, the American Library Association council declared its support for SIRLS and stressed the importance of the school's survival.

While Likins said that he admires the support for SIRLS and the ideas being sent to him in the letters, he also said that the survival of SIRLS rests primarily on whether the school can become self-sufficient.

"It boils down to financial planning," he said. "We need a financial plan to manage that growth without sucking resources from other departments."

With so much relying on financial self-sufficiency, Sheldon has begun putting together a financial plan that will ensure the school's survival.

Next month, administrators will ask the Regents to approve a program fee of $100 per credit hour for in-state students and $400 per credit hour for out-of-state students.

The fee is the central part of a plan that will generate enough revenue for SIRLS to support all future growth, Sheldon said.

The business plan, if approved by administrators, will bring in enough money so that SIRLS will not receive funding from the university to supplement its $625,000 allocation, Sheldon said.

To complement the business plan, a SAVE SIRLS steering committee has been formed to kick off the most aggressive fundraising campaign in the school's history for an endowed professorship, Bunker said.

The steering committee has planned a fundraising dinner with author J.A. Jance that will cost $100 per plate.

Fox said there's no doubt that people will pay the price for dinner.

"While I wouldn't do it for J.A. Jance, I'd do it to save the school," she said.

Fox believes that it is worth every penny to make a donation to help SIRLS. Other librarians and organizations agree and continue to explore ways to financially assist the school.

Wells said she has already pledged federal money to Likins to help fund an assistant professorship and a set of scholarships for SIRLS.

Usually, federal money goes to the public libraries in the form of grants, but all the directors of Tucson's public libraries agreed to pledge that money to SIRLS.

They need librarians more than they need grants, Wells said.

Also, a foundation set up in honor of former SIRLS professor Arnulfo Trejo has committed $20,000 towards an endowment, Sheldon said.

And the editor of the American Library Association's newsletter will devote the entirety of the next newsletter to SIRLS and its struggle to survive, Sheldon said.

In the newsletter, he will challenge all readers to match his $500 donation to SIRLS.

"It's heartwarming to see people doing this out of loyalty to SIRLS," Sheldon said. "The rewards will be the success of the program."