CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Executive Summary
1. Introduction, methodology and response details
2. School profile
3. Library access
4. Bookstock and other resources
5. Borrowing
6. Staffing
7. Spending
8. Curriculum Development
9. Inspection
10. IT
11. Conclusions

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. The aim of this research was to build up a picture of current secondary school library provision, aiming to identify good practices and resourcing implications for secondary schools. Also comparisons with the previous survey conducted in 1997 will be made.
2. The research was conducted jointly by The Library Association (LA) and the Survey and Statistical Research Centre (SSRC) at Sheffield Hallam University, with funding from The Library Association.
3. Information was collected by sending out a self-completion questionnaire to a sample of 2041 secondary schools across the UK. The overall response rate was 48%. This was lower than the response rate for the previous survey (56%). There were several reasons for the lower response. Firstly, the survey period covered the Christmas break and secondly it was established through telephone 'chase-up' that many questionnaires had not been passed on by the head teacher. In many of the sections below the results from the previously conducted survey of school libraries are shown in parentheses after the current survey result. In situations where some school libraries report large values the mean (arithmetic average) can be inflated. In such cases the median (the value such that half of the respondents report above and half below this value) is the preferred statistic.
4. In comparison with national proportions schools in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are over represented. This disproportionate sampling only slightly distorts the overall UK figures and allows reasonable comparisons on aspects of provision and practice between countries.
5. Looking at the types of school sixty-four percent described their school as being for 11 to 18 year olds, 23.4% as for 11 to 16 year olds and only 2.5% as for 12 to 17 year olds. The 'Other' category (10.2%) included numerous alternatives across the age range 2 to 20 years, with 13-18 being the most common (a quarter of the 'Other' category.
6. Fifty six percent described themselves as LEA maintained. The small 'Other' category generally comprised a variety of voluntary aided or maintained grammar, denominational, schools or controlled secondary schools. The profile is very similar to that of the previous survey with the exception of special schools which show a lower proportion here.
7. Nearly half of the schools had pupil numbers between 500 and 1000. There are fewer very large and very small schools in this survey respondents compared with the previous survey.
8. Approximately eighty-eight percent of schools reported a single library site; ten percent had two sites and two percent three or more sites. Nearly 2% of schools were without a library site. These figures are very similar to the results from the previous survey.
9. Eighty-three percent of libraries were seen as a multimedia collection. This is slightly higher than for the previous survey.
10. The majority of school libraries were open during the day and many after and before school. Not many libraries were, however, available during holidays. There has been a general increase in library opening hours across all types of opening compared with the previous survey.
11. Just over 28% of libraries were open for fewer than 31 hours per week (36.8% in previous survey); 55% were open between 31 and 40 hours (52%) and 16.7% were open 41 hours or longer (11.2%). A general increase in library opening hours has occurred between the two surveys.
12. The library was used for other purposes in nearly 80% of the schools surveyed (75% in previous survey). Some schools make considerable additional use of the library for planned classes.
13. Overall, the library provided promotional activities during the school day in 87% of cases.
14. Just over 52% of libraries provided out of hour's activities.
15. For library study places there was an average of approximately 11 places per 100 pupils; the median value was 5.7 places per 100 pupils; showing that some schools had a particularly large number of study places compared with the majority. There was no noticeable difference between sectors. The picture is similar to that found in the previous survey.
16. For non-fiction bookstock there was an average of approximately 7.6 (9.12 in last survey) items per pupil with a median value of 5.8 (6.04). Again some schools have much larger book stocks than the majority. This information was not recorded by 12.8% of the responding schools.
17. For fiction bookstock there was an average of approximately 3.8 (4.60) items per pupil with a median value of 3.1 (3.00). Again some schools have much larger book stocks than the majority. Approximately half of the libraries in the sample take between 10 and 50 titles of journals or newspapers (Figure 10); the mean was 4.5 per 100 pupils with a median of 1 per 100 pupils. The numbers of journals and newspapers held has remained static. For the total book stock the average per pupil was 11.3 (13.4) with a median of 9.4 (9.2) items per pupil. The effect of some very well resourced school libraries has pushed up the mean for the previous survey. The medians suggest little change between the two surveys for book stock per pupil. For total resources the mean and median were 11.7 and 9.6 respectively.
18. Looking at total stock and comparing additions to stock with this allows an approximate rate of replenishment to be estimated. Care must be exercised with these figures since it is unlikely that any school would replenish the whole stock in about 50 years, which is suggested by 1% (20.4%) of the school libraries. As can be seen, 50% (29%) of school libraries will replace stock in 10 years or less (i.e. have replenishment rates of 10% or more per year). Figure 16 below shows the picture. There has been considerable improvement compared with the findings from the previous survey.
19. Stocking of other types of resource (952 out of the 961 responding libraries answered this question): while the results are very similar to those from the previous survey there are noticeable reductions in those with other collections and to a lesser extent published resource packs and commercial videos.
20. For additions to book stock this represented an average of approximately 1.23 (1.11) books per pupil, the median being 0.93 (0.49). For additional materials the numbers are 8.6 (6) items per 100 pupils on average and less than 3 (1) items per 100 pupils for the median. The difference between mean and median reflects the feature of a few school libraries having large additions to stock. Comparing the two most recent surveys suggests that a substantial increase in additions to bookstock has taken place. For other learning materials, there has been some change with fewer school libraries adding fewer than 50 items and more school libraries adding more than 100 items. It should be noted that over a quarter of school libraries did not record additions to bookstock and over one third did not record other additions to stock. Also 10% of respondents did not report whether or not this information was recorded.
21. Nearly three-quarters of school libraries recorded loans from the library. An average of approximately 7.5 (8.5) resource items were borrowed per pupil per year with a median value of 4.8 (5.0) was the finding in this survey. As with the other per capita calculations the effect of some school libraries pulls up the average figure. There has been a drop in book loans between the two surveys. The means and {medians} for fiction and non-fiction borrowing were 4.02 (2.33) and 3.01 (1.67) respectively.
22. For other resource borrowing this represents an average of approximately 0.3 (1.0) other resource borrowing per pupil with a median value of 1 per 100 pupils. As with the other per capita calculations the effect of some school libraries pulls up the average figure. There has been a reduction in this usage compared with the findings from the previous survey.
23. Over 40% of school libraries are run without full-time or part-time librarian or teacher involvement. The figure from the previous survey was 30%. As can be seen below the percentage of school libraries with a full time chartered librarian was 29.3 (23.8% in the previous survey). There is, however, a large drop in full time teacher involvement (down from 30.3% to 12.8%). There has been a large increase in the proportion of schools with a library assistant or clerical officer responsible for the library (31%).
24. When it comes to the number of hours worked, just over 44% of those responsible for the library worked a normal week of between 35 and 37 hours. The distribution is shown below.
25. While 37.8% of persons responsible for the school library reported directly to the head teacher, 6.8% to the bursar and 9.5% to the head of English, 51.3% reported to another person in the school. In a few instances the person responsible for the library reported to more than one person. In only 21.2% of schools was there a library committee, but if one existed, 95% of those responsible for the library attended.
26. The range of salaries and modes of attendance suggest much variation between schools in terms of the importance and roles of librarians in schools. This may suggest that firm guidelines should be developed.
27. On the point of additional staff, 85 (9.0%) of those responding indicated that the library employed an additional chartered librarian; 9 (0.9%) indicated two or more additional chartered librarians. These are generally higher than in the previous survey.
28. Of those responding only 77 (8.1%) employed an additional teacher- librarian; 14 {1.5%} employed two or more additional teacher - librarians, slightly higher than the results from the last survey.
29. For library assistants 256 schools (27.0%) indicated one library assistant in addition to the person in charge of the library; 53 schools (5.6%) indicated two assistants and 26 schools (2.7%) indicated 3 or more assistants. Again there appears to be an increase between the two surveys.
30. Of the responding schools 495 (53%) reported pupil volunteer assistance. Of those responding 46.5% had up to 20 pupil volunteers and 5.8% had over 20 (the largest number reported was 80!). This is similar to the previous survey.
31. Only 93 (8.8%) of the 961 schools reported some parent volunteer assistance. In 45 cases one parent volunteer helped in the library; in 13 cases there were two parent volunteer helpers; in 25 cases there were three or more parent volunteer helpers. Only 57 schools (6.0%) reported some other form of help in the library. Except for volunteers and clerical workers the work was full time.
32. The school's spending on the library shows a significant increase over the previous survey findings. With the 'Books for Schools' grant 17.5% of schools reported no grant but also 20% did not complete this question. Whether there was no grant or the amount was unknown cannot be established.
33. For spending on materials for the school library for the current financial year this gives an average of approximately £7.18 (10.16) per pupil; the median is £5.69 (3.75). The large difference between the mean and median demonstrates the dramatic effect that some high spending schools can have on the average. The median is the preferred value, here. For 'Books for school grants' the mean was £2.94 per pupil with a median of £1.99 per pupil.
34. Compared with the previous survey there are fewer libraries spending less than £1000 and more in the £5,000 to £10,000 range (with a small increase in the next band up). It should be noted, however, that 12.6% of responses were missing.
35. For expected spending (for the current financial year) on materials for the school library this gives an average of approximately £5.60 (10.63) per pupil; the median is £3.91 (3.70).
36. Comparing last year's spending with the current year the figures show an expected drop is spending between the two years.
37. Overall, 60.5% of schools have a written Library Policy (67.8% from the previous survey). Nearly two thirds of those without a policy intended to introduce one in the next twelve months.
38. Overall, 59.6% of schools have a current written Library Development Plan (60.7% from the previous survey).
39. Overall, 61.4% of libraries featured in the School Development Plan (68.6% from the previous survey).
40. Only in 5.8% of cases does the person responsible for the library receive schemes of work from subject departments all or most of the time (this was 8.9% in the previous survey).
41. Only 22.7% of libraries worked closely with all departments or faculties (this was 27.2% in the previous survey). Also, 12.3% worked closely with no department or faculty (an increase from 5.1% in the previous survey).
42. Overall, 41%% of schools attempt to teach specific information skills systematically as a whole school approach to particular years or groups across the school. This was half of the response to the previous survey but the wording was changed and so is not really comparable.
43. When the school attempted to teach specific information skills across the school the questionnaire asked respondents to indicate the involvement of library staff. Of those reporting this teaching: Organise induction programmes to the library: the overall figure was 80.4%. Design learning activities to develop information skills: the overall figure was 54.9%; Teaching the specific information skills: the overall figure was 53.7% (this was 85% from the previous survey - a considerable drop); Evaluate information skills work: the overall figure was 25.4%. No similar question was asked in the previous survey.
44. The person responsible for the library tended not to be involved in school meetings. For departmental meetings 49% (35%) did not attend at all, while 13.5% (23%) attended most of the time. For SMT meetings these percentages were 76% (71%) and 9% (12%), and for curriculum development meeting the percentages were 63% (52%) and 13% (21%) respectively. These results show a general trend of reducing involvement.
45. There was no School Library Service for 63% (16%)% of schools, 64% (69%) made use of a SLS but 18% (15%) did not.
46. Over 70% (57%) of school libraries had an automated library management system.
47. Nearly 69% (30%) of school libraries had Internet access.
48. Nearly 89% (88%) of school libraries had a CD ROM player.
49. Overall, 74.2% (74.5% in previous survey) of school libraries were inspected during the most recent OFSTED / HMI inspection.
50. Most school libraries (72.2%) that had been inspected were also referred to in the most recent OFSTED / HMI report (this was 81.8% in the previous survey) although 27.8% were not.
51. In 82.2% of inspections the person responsible for the school library was talked to and 73.6% had made available a portfolio of information about the library.