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Survey of Secondary School Libraries

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS
 
 
 
 

Main Findings

A Report Prepared for CILIP

October 2002

Survey and Statistical Research Centre
Sheffield Hallam University
Church House
City Campus
Pond Street
Sheffield S1 1WB
Telephone 0114 2255185
Fax 0114 2255186
Email ssrc@shu.ac.uk
www.shu.ac.uk/schools/cms/ssrc


CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Executive Summary
1. Introduction, methodology and response details (PDF, 93KB)
2. School profile (PDF, 437KB)
3. Library access (PDF, 678KB)
4. Bookstock and other resources (PDF, 1432KB)
5. Borrowing (PDF, 169KB)
6. Staffing (PDF, 455KB)
7. Spending (PDF, 391KB)
8. Curriculum Development (PDF, 802KB)
9. Inspection (PDF, 203KB)
Appendix Comments/Recommendations In Most Recent Ofstead/Hmi Report (PDF, 118KB)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This report was written and prepared by Maria Smith, Project Manager at the Survey and Statistical Research Centre of Sheffield Hallam University.

Thanks are due to the following people

Jonathon Douglas of CILIP
William Wallace for the chapter on additions
David Marsden for data capture and analysis
Elizabeth Flower for survey administration
Rachel Ibbotson and Tony Harrison for coding of open questions

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 2000 will be made.
  2. The research was conducted by the Survey and Statistical Research Centre (SSRC) at Sheffield Hallam University, with funding from CILIP.
  3. Information was collected by sending out a self-completion questionnaire to a sample of 2058 secondary schools across the UK. The overall response rate was 55.9%.
  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 52.6% described their school as being for 11 to 18 year olds, 25.4% as for 11 to 16 year olds, 5.1% as for 13 - 18 year olds and only 2% as for 12 to 17 year olds.
  6. 64.1% described themselves as LEA maintained pre 1999, 14.8% as independent and 11.6% as grant maintained. Only 3.8% of the sample described themselves as special, however, this is a significantly better proportion than was achieved in the last survey (only 1%).
  7. Post September 1999; for those that had been LEA maintained the largest proportion (51.7%) now described themselves as Community and for the non LEA maintained schools, the largest proportion (72.5%) described themselves as independent.
  8. The largest group of schools (39.9%) had pupil numbers between 500 and 999. There is a much better proportion of small schools than in the previous survey.
  9. 89.2% of schools reported a single library site; 8.4% had two sites and 2.4% had three or more sites. Only 2.3% of schools were without a library site. These figures are very similar to the results from the previous survey.
  10. 81% of libraries were seen as a multimedia collection. This is similar to the previous survey.
  11. The majority of school libraries were open during the day and many after and before school. Not many libraries were, however, available during holidays. These results are very similar to the previous survey.
  12. Just over 26% of libraries were open for fewer than 31 hours per week (28% in previous survey), 54.9% were open between 31 and 40 hours and 18.7% were open 41 hours or longer. There has been a general increase in library opening both since the last survey and the survey previous to that.
  13. The library was used for other purposes in nearly 95% of the schools surveyed (80% in previous survey). Some schools make considerable additional use of the library for planned classes.
  14. Overall, the library provided promotional activities during the school day in 87% of cases.
  15. Just over 53% of libraries provided out of hour's activities.
  16. For library study places there was an average of approximately 5.9 places per 100 pupils; the median value was 4.7 places per 100 pupils. Overall, there appears to have been a small drop in library places since the last survey.
  17. Nearly 6% of schools had no computer workstations (falling from 9%) last survey. Of those that had computers some 13.1% were not internally networked and 9.3% were not linked to the Internet.
  18. For non-fiction bookstock there was an average of approximately 8.2 (7.6 in last survey) items per pupil with a median value of 6.1 (5.8).
  19. For fiction bookstock there was an average of approximately 4.7 (3.8 last survey) items per pupil with a median value 3.5 (3.1). Approximately half of the libraries in the sample take between 10 and 50 titles of journals; the mean was 6.2 per 100 pupils with a median of 1.2 per 100 pupils. For the total book stock the average per pupil was 13.4 (11.3) with a median of 10.0 (9.4) items per pupil.
  20. 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 3.2% (1% last survey) of the school libraries. 36% (50% last survey) of school libraries will replace stock in 10 years or less (i.e. have replenishment rates of 10% or more per year).
  21. For additions to book stock this represented an average of approximately 1.13 (1.23 last survey) books per pupil, the median being 0.73 (0.93). For additional materials the numbers are 12.4 (8.6 last survey) items per 100 pupils on average and less than 4 (3) items per 100 pupils for the median.
  22. Just over three-quarters of school libraries recorded loans from the library. An average of approximately 6.7 (7.5 last survey) resource items were borrowed per pupil per year with a median value of 4.8 (4.8 last survey. The mean for fiction borrowing was 3.6 per pupil (4.02 last survey) and the median for fiction was 2.3 (3.33 last survey). For non fiction borrowing the mean was 2.7 per pupil (4.02 last survey) and the median was 1.9 (1.67 last survey).
  23. For other resource borrowing this represents an average of approximately 0.27 (0.3) other resource borrowing per pupil with a median value of 0.02 per pupil.
  24. Overall, 29.7% of schools had either a full time or part time chartered librarian. Nearly 35% of schools are run by a library assistant. The proportions of chartered librarians to pupils have remained very similar to the last survey although the proportion in Wales shows a dramatic deterioration.
  25. When it comes to the number of hours worked, two thirds worked between 30 and 40 hours a week.
  26. While 37.2% of persons responsible for the school library reported directly to the head teacher, 7.5% to the bursar and 12.6% to the head of English, approximately 50% reported to another person in the school. In only 16.4% of schools was there a library committee, but if one existed, 95% of those responsible for the library attended.
  27. On the point of additional staff, 8.7% of those responding indicated that the library employed an additional chartered librarian and 0.7% indicated two or more additional chartered librarians.
  28. Of those responding only 8.3% employed an additional teacher - librarian and 1.9% employed two or more additional teacher - librarians.
  29. For library assistants; 26.0% indicated one library assistant in addition to the person in charge of the library, 6.7% indicated two assistants and 2% indicated that they employed three or more.
  30. Of the responding schools 43% reported pupil volunteer assistance. Of those responding 41.0% had up to 20 pupil volunteers and 2%% had over 20 pupil volunteers.
  31. Only 6.0% of schools reported some parent volunteer assistance. 3.2% had one parent volunteer; 1.2% had two parent volunteer helpers; 4.4% had three or more parent volunteer helpers. 6.0% reported some other form of help in the library.
  32. The school's spending on the library in the last financial year shows an overall decrease since the previous survey was conducted. The mean spending per pupil was £6.62 compared to £7.18 in the last survey and the median per pupil was £4.06 compared to £5.69 per pupil in the last survey.
  33. There is little difference between the money spent in the last financial year and the expected spending this year.
  34. For expected spending (for the current financial year) on materials for the school library this gives an average of approximately £6.56 (£5.60 last survey) per pupil; the median is £4.01 (£3.91).
  35. Overall, 56.1% of schools have a written Library Policy (60.5% from the previous survey). Nearly two thirds of those without a policy intended to introduce one in the next twelve months.
  36. Overall, 58.9% of schools have a current written Library Development Plan (59.6% from the previous survey).
  37. Overall, 58.3% of libraries featured in the School Development Plan (61.4% from the previous survey).
  38. Only in 6.7% of cases does the person responsible for the library receive schemes of work from subject departments all or most of the time (this was 5.8% in the previous survey).
  39. Only 26.5% of libraries worked closely with all departments or faculties.
  40. Overall, 49.3% of schools attempt to teach specific information skills systematically as a whole school approach to particular years or groups across the school.
  41. 79.5% organise induction programmes to the library, 53.1% design learning activities to develop information skills, 21.3% evaluate information skills work and 18.7% have a key role in supporting key stage 3 strategy.
  42. The person responsible for the library tended not to be involved in school meetings. For departmental meetings 49.6% (36.4% last survey) did not attend at all, for SMT meetings these percentages were 78.6% (70.2% last survey) and for curriculum development meeting the percentages were 64.8% (52.6% last survey). These results show a general trend of reducing involvement.
  43. There was no School Library Service for 21.6% (15.7% last survey) of schools.
  44. Overall, 73.8% (74.2% in previous survey) of school libraries were inspected during the most recent OFSTED / HMI inspection and 77.7% indicated that the inspector had spoken to the person responsible for the library.
  45. Over two thirds (70.5%) stated that a portfolio of information about the library was available. Over half of school libraries (59.3%) that had been inspected were also referred to in the most recent OFSTED / HMI report (this was 66.1% in the previous survey).
Updated: 15 May 2008