SEATTLE — As has happened in other states, cash-strapped schools in Washington state are dropping librarians to save money.

Libraries are open fewer hours, programs minimized, jobs combined. In many cases, part-timers with little formal library training are replacing skilled veterans. One rural school now employs a combination custodian-librarian — she opens the library after cleaning the locker rooms.

At one school, parents said, enough is enough.

Convinced that children and education suffer when librarians disappear, a loose-knit band of parents in Spokane decided to take action. They launched what has become a statewide campaign to bring school librarians back from the brink.

The parents blasted e-mails to everyone they knew to garner support for an online petition. They posted fliers and leaflets at coffee shops, bookstores and public libraries. They began an e-mail newsletter and advertised the campaign on online social networking sites. They gave presentations to education professionals and camped out at school board meetings.

Earlier this month, they hand-delivered 2,500 signatures to a state government committee that is examining Washington's arcane school-funding system.

"We did it to find out if anybody cared," said Lisa Layera Brunkan, who along with Susan McBurney started the petition drive. Their children's elementary school was among those affected by the cuts.

"We realized that the school libraries are hemorrhaging, and it was far worse than we ever imagined," said Layera Brunkan.

State legislators, accustomed to professional lobbyists and official representatives of public education's many special-interest groups, embraced the parents-turned-activists.

Nationally, exact figures about school library staffing are elusive, said Nicolle Steffen, director of Library Research Service, a Denver-based agency that collects research and statistics about libraries. But she said unequivocally that schools across the country struggle with library funding.

In Colorado, educators are trying to demonstrate the connection between student achievement and librarians in schools. One achievement test score there notes whether the school has a librarian, Steffen said.

To stem the loss, the parent group in Spokane hopes to change the way schools value and pay for librarians. In general, they want it written into the education code that school librarians are an essential part of every child's basic education.

Studies across 19 states tie healthy school libraries to student performance, said Marianne Hunter, immediate past president of the Washington Library Association.

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