http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/178963188

Patterns of development in elementary school libraries today

Various schools applied for the encylopaedia britannica awards. From these data three levels of development of elementary school libraries were distinguished--(1) the finalists represented a special class or category, all reporting dramatic progress during the past 2 years. (2) separate from the finalists could be identified a second group of school districts which consisted of well-established school library systems where the school administration had a history of financial support of library services by regular school tax resources, where there had been considerable progress in securing employed personnel to operate both elementary and secondary school libraries, and where the collection had been continuously built to a comparable level in all schools of the system. (3) a third category of school systems submitting their records of accomplishment were those where little or nothing had been done previous to 1959-60, but where the school board had recognized the need for libraries. Qualities which should characterize the effective program of library activities in any elementary school included variety in number and kind of activities and services, a development plan, concentration on a few techniques appropriate to the schools, balance in representation of activities, and the accessibility of activities and services. The single most effective practice appeared to have been the employment of a school library specialist with system-wide responsibility for the development of all school libraries.

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