The Bill 4536/08, which is being processed at the Chamber, establishes a five-year term for all private and public schools to have libraries. Authored by the deputy Marcelo Almeida (PMDB-PR), the bill considers as the ideal collection the average of three books per enrolled student, but does not set a deadline for that target to be reached.

The Ministry of Education currently develops the National Program of School Libraries (PNBE), by means of which it distributes books to all public schools, depending on the amount of their students. A school with up to 250 students, for instance, receives 20 books (0.08 books by student).

The deputy said that the requirement of three books per student is modest, but shows a way to broaden the library collection. “The proportion proposed by the American Association of Libraries [Ala, the Acronym in English] is ten books per student”, the deputy compares.

According to the bill, the libraries should release information on their collection on the internet. The bill also determines that the libraries make available by electronic means all public-domain works, and give priority to great Brazilian authors.

The bill is being processed together with the Bill 3044/08 by the Deputy Sandes Júnior (PP-GO), which also sets the five-year term for the globalization of school libraries, but establishes a target of four books per student and sets a ten-year term for the libraries to be managed only by Bachelors in Library Studies.

Procedure
The bills will be analyzed by the Committees on Education and Culture; and on the Constitution and Justice and Citizenship.

Report - Janary Júnior
Edition - Wilson Silveira
Translation – Positive Idiomas Ltda