Only two percent of schools reported no
library site.
Overall, 36.8 % of libraries were open for
fewer than 31 hours per week; 52.0% were open between 31 and 40 hours and 11.2% were open
41 hours or longer.
Over 30% of school libraries are run without
full-time or part-time librarian or teacher involvement, irrespective of size. There was a
full time chartered librarian in 23.8% of school libraries, a full time teacher in teacher
in 30% of school libraries and a part time librarian or teacher in 14.7% of school
libraries.
Over 36% of schools reported one or more
library assistants as additional staff; 7.4% reported one or more additional librarians,
8% reported one or more additional teachers in the library. Over 50% reported pupil
volunteers in the library but only 9% used parent volunteers.
Only 29% of school libraries replace more
than 10% of stock each year; 29.5% replace between 5% and 10% each year and 41.5% replace
less than 5% each year. This latter group taking up to twenty years to replace all stock.
A fifth of all schools would take up to fifty years.
Only 25% of school libraries reported 13 or
more items of stock per pupil; 18% reported between 10 and 13 items pp, 57% reported fewer
than 10 items pp.
While the percentages stocking other types
of resource varied from over 90% for CD ROM disks, to under 24% for music recording, only
just over 30% reported an additional significant collection.
Of those responding, 8.7% of school
libraries had no computer work station; 15.9% had one, 36.8% had between 2 and 4, and
38.5% had 5 or more. As a matter of interest 12.7% had 10 or more work stations.
Only 13.1% of schools spent £10 or more per
pupil on library books and other resources; 22.7% spent between £5 and £10 , 43.5% spent
between £2 and £5 and 20.6% spent less than £2 per pupil.
Of those responding, 67.8% had a written
library policy.
Nearly 61% had a school library development
plan.
In 68.7% of cases the library featured in
the school development plan.
Only 8.9% of persons responsible for the
library reported receiving schemes of work from subject departments or faculties all or
most of the time.
Only in 27.2% of cases did the school
library work closely with all departments.
A majority of schools (85%) attempted to
teach specific information skills systematically to particular years or groups across the
school. Library staff were often involved in planning this teaching (80%); teaching (85%),
designing (72%) and evaluating work (47%).
The person responsible for the library
tended not to be involved in school meetings. For departmental meetings 35% did not attend
at all, while 23% attended most of the time. For SMT meetings these percentages were 71%
and 11.5%, and for curriculum development meeting the percentages were 52% and 20%
respectively.
There was no School Library Service for
15.7% of schools; 69.4% made use of a SLS but 14.9% did not.
Nearly 39% of schools had a computer network
that included the library.
Over 57% of school libraries had an
automated library management system.
Only just over 30% of school libraries had
Internet access.
Nearly 88% of school libraries had a CD ROM
player.
