Evaluation of School Libraries in Terms of Quantity and Quality

Abstract

School libraries are supplementary places enabling students to acquire reading habits and reading culture. The purpose of this study is to determine the status of libraries in schools and to take the opinions of teachers towards school libraries. For this purpose, a case study design has been utilized in the current research and observation and interview techniques have been employed. In the research, the libraries of all schools in a city centre have been observed. Through stratified purposeful sampling and criterion sampling methods, interviews were carried out with teachers working in school libraries. The research data were analysed via content analysis. As a result of the research, it was determined that two-thirds of the schools had libraries. Besides, it was revealed that the capacity of the school libraries is inadequate due to the limited physical space of the libraries in schools. Although there were computers and the internet in libraries, digitalization was determined to be limited. It was also shown that there were mostly classical works and the libraries covered inadequate number of contemporary books. When examining the genres of the books in libraries, it may be said that there were novels and story book by a majority, referring to a limited variety of genres. It has been concluded that students can not effectively use school libraries as expected due to by virtue of the limited library facilities. Accordingly, in order to ensure the effective use of school libraries by students, the physical conditions of the libraries should be improved as well as the variety and quality of the documents should be increased.