Librarians at a California public school stamp outdated books 'obsolete' RELATED VIDEO CNN's Siobhan Darrow reports on a California elementary school library's effort to stamp out obsolete books. Windows Media 28K 80K

June 16, 1999
Web posted at: 7:59 p.m. EDT (2359 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- The state of California has allocated nearly $159 million to the public school system in an effort to replace books filled with ethnic and gender stereotypes or outdated information.

One such book on the shelves of a Los Angeles school library, entitled "Asbestos," describes the cancer-causing building material as "our friend."

"At the time in 1941 when this book was published, we didn't know the harmful side effects," said library supervisor Bonnie O'Brian.

"There are so many books about how boys fix things and girls need things fixed. Boys can be scientists, doctors and engineers. Girls can be teachers and beauty parlor workers," O'Brian said, describing the outdated volumes.

Racial stereotypes are also rampant, with books about "Negroes" and "Redskins."

"When the Negro walked proudly into his village, dozens of fuzzy heads popped out of the yellow huts," reads a passage from one book.

Although the program to modernize the books is the largest of its kind, critics say the system has been neglected too long for just a quick fix. They say that more money is needed to bring the libraries up to speed.

"If the goal is to have every child become a reader and to have a lifelong love of reading, you have to have books," said Shirley Gideon, an elementary school principal.

The ratio of librarians to students in California is the worst in the nation and the ratio of books to students falls well below the national average.

Until those problems are directly addressed, many fear that California students will continue to do poorly on standardized reading tests.

Correspondent Siobhan Darrow contributed to this report.