In an age of misinformation, why are there so few librarians at Chicago Public Schools?

Brenda Garcia, a librarian at Cooper Dual Language Academy in the Pilsen neighborhood, sees a need for more librarians at Chicago Public Schools. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)

After eight years as the librarian at Reilly Elementary on the Northwest Side, Brenda Garcia moved to a school in Pilsen, where she grew up and still lives.

When she got to Cooper Dual Language Academy in her Southwest Side neighborhood, she saw clear signs of a school without a librarian for nearly a decade: Some kids didn’t know how to find books that appealed to them, many lacked key computer skills and most weren’t able to decipher online facts from fiction.