Stephanie Rosalia, a librarian, teaches students to assess a Web site’s accuracy.

By MOTOKO RICH


It was the teachable moment that Stephanie Rosalia was hoping for.

A group of fifth graders huddled around computers in the school library overseen by Ms.Rosalia and scanned allaboutexplorers.com, a Web site that, unbeknownst to the children, was intentionally filled with false facts.

Ms.Rosalia, the school librarian at Public School 225, a combined elementary and middle school in Brooklyn, urged caution.

Most of the students ignored her, as she knew they would. But Nozimakon Omonullaeva, 11, noticed something odd on a page about Christopher Columbus.“It says the Indians enjoyed the cellphones and computers brought by Columbus!”Nozimakon exclaimed, pointing at the screen.“That’s wrong.”

It was an essential discovery in a lesson about the reliability - or lack thereof - of information on the Internet, one of many Ms.Rosalia teaches in her role as a new kind of school librarian. Ms.Rosalia, 54, is part of a growing cadre of 21st-century multimedia specialists who help guide students through the digital ocean of information.

“The days of just reshelving a book are over,”said Ms.Rosalia, who came to P.S. 225 nearly six years ago.“Now it is the information age, and that technology has brought out a whole new generation of practices.”

Some of these librarians teach children how to develop PowerPoint presentations or create online videos. Others get students to use social networking sites to debate topics from history or comment on classmates’ creative writing. Yet as librarians increasingly teach students crucial skills needed not only in school, but also on the job and in daily life, they are often the first casualties of school budget cuts.

In Spokane, Washington, the school district cut its librarians’ hours in 2007, prompting an outcry among parents. More than 90 percent of American public schools have libraries, according to federal statistics, but less than two-thirds employ full-time certified librarians.

Lisa Layera Brunkan, a mother of three in Spokane, said she recognized the importance of the school librarian when her daughter, who was 7 at the time, started demonstrating a Power- Point project.“She said,‘The librarian taught me,’” Ms.Brunkan recalled.“I was just stunned.”

At P.S. 225 , Ms.Rosalia faces special challenges. More than 40 percent of the students are recent immigrants. Language barriers force her to tailor her book collection to readers who may be in seventh grade but still read at a second-grade level.

Ms.Rosalia introduced herself to her new colleagues as the“information literacy teacher”and invited teachers to collaborate on lessons. The early sessions focused on finding books and databases and on fundamental research skills. Soon Ms.Rosalia progressed to lessons on how to ask more sophisticated questions during research projects, how to decode Internet addresses and how to assess the authors and biases of a Web site’s content.

Not all of Ms.Rosalia’s efforts involve technology.

During a recent lunch period, Gagik Sargsyan, 13, came into the library and opened a laptop to research a social studies paper on the 1930s and 1940s.“Have you looked at any books?”Ms.Rosalia asked.

A look of horror came over Gagik’s face.“No,”he said.

Ms.Rosalia, who has a friendly manner, went to a shelf and returned with a stack of volumes on the Empire State Building, fashion in the 1930s and life during the Great Depression .

Still, Ms.Rosalia understands the allure of the Internet. Speaking last fall to a class of a dozen seventh graders who recently immigrated from Russia, Georgia, China and Yemen, Ms.Rosalia struggled to communicate.“We have newspapers in all of your languages,”she said.

She turned to the digital white board. When she clicked on the home page of Izvestia, the Moscow-based newspaper, the Russians in the group cheered.

“Does anybody like books?”Ms.Rosalia asked. Several students stared blankly.

So Ms.Rosalia pulled up the home site for Teen People magazine, and Katsiaryna Dziatlouskaya, 13, immediately recognized a photograph of Cameron Diaz, the actress. Ms.Rosalia knew she had made a connection.“You can read magazines, newspapers, pictures, computer programs, Web sites,”Ms.Rosalia said.

“You can read anything you like to, but you have to read. Is that a deal?”