First, I apologize for taking such a long vacation from posting. Today, I am going to discuss the variations found in defining a "school library" and how this affects statistics.
Even when statistics exist, there are often inconsistencies. Furthermore, I am sure that many of you have heard of, if not read, the infamous work by Darrell Huff, "How to Lie With Statistics." Not to say that anyone is lying. There is, of course, the thorny question of, "What constitutes a library?" This depends on who you ask. The Philadelphia School District does not define what a library is on its website. Meanwhile, the American Library Association, which is the preeminent association of librarians, para-professionals, library students, and anyone interested in libraries, defines libraries this way:
"The mission of the library program is to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information. This mission is accomplished:
-by providing intellectual and physical access to materials in all formats;
-by providing instruction to foster competence and stimulate interest in reading, viewing, and using information and ideas; and,
-by working with other educators to design learning strategies to meet the needs of individual students."
("Information Power: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs," ALA 1988).
The New Jersey Library Association defines a school library as one which strives "to prepare students to become effective and efficient users of resources, ideas, information, and other intellectual properties" (www.NJLA.org).
The US National Commission on Libraries and Information Sciences defines a school library as one which is, "provided with adequate resources to provide up-to-date print and non-print materials in all school library/media centers," and that "every school library be staffed by a highly qualified, state certified school library media specialist." (www.nclis.org, or "School Libraries Work!", 2008).
Meanwhile, the National Center for Education Statistics (housed in the US Department of Education) states that a "Library media center" (as defined in a phrase used throughout the 2007–08 Schools and Staffing Survey) is any of the following: "library, media center, resource center, information center, instructional material center, learning resource center, or some other name." This can be further broken down into centralized or decentralized, defined as, "one area in one building," or, "collections or services available in more than one location on a campus or in another building," respectively.
Obviously, there are a lot of definitions out there! But how does one define "adequate," "highly qualified," or "effective users of information"?
At Library Build, we chose to take a more qualitative definition of a school library by defining a functional library as:
"A working library is one which provides twelve to fifteen books per student, access to newspapers and academic journals, quiet study space, multimedia resources, book clubs, and research classes. Libraries in America’s public schools are important because they give all students equal access to knowledge, books, and literacy programs." (Library Build, Inc).
The Bottom Line
In the Philadelphia School District in 2009, 131 elementary schools out of a total of 208 had no library (Malloy, "Staffing in the Philadelphia Public School Libraries By Regional Areas," 2009). The study however does not define what a "school library" is, or when a library in the Philadelphia School District is considered functional. Thus, while the study acknowledges that 63% of Philadelphia's elementary schools do not have libraries, the number is almost certainly higher considering that in the case a "library" might consist of 100 books, or even, a teacher's personal collection of 20 to 30 classroom books.
In the United States, as a whole, in the 2006-2007 school year, there were 98,793 public schools (Fast Facts. IES: Institute of Education Sciences. National Center of Education Statistics. US Department of Education.) Out of these 98,793, only 76,807 had a library, though the quality or functionality of these libraries is unclear (AASL Advocacy Toolkit: The School Library Media Specialist. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslissues/toolkits/schoollibrary.cfm) Thus, more than 23% of America’s public schools do not even have a basic library for students to access.
Of those 76,807 public schools that have some semblance of a library, 25% do not have a certified librarian, and 14% only have a part time librarian.
Statistics vary (sometimes greatly) by use of source, especially for the US. These variations most likely occur because the term, "school library" has not yet been officially defined. It's not quite clear who should set the definition though; but the Department of Education, the American Library Association, or the American Association of School Librarians should all certainly be in the forefront of formalizing such a definition.
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