US School Library Usage Down

[Carlton Martz <cmartz@EEE.ORG>]

The new national study of school library media centers just published by
the US Dept. of Ed. includes some puzzling facts.  On the one hand 98
percent of all public school students are in schools with library media
centers (up from 68 percent in 1958).  But, at the same time, the total
weekly number of students using library media centers has been *decreasing*
(42.5 million weekly student visits in 1985 compared to 32.5 million weekly
visits in 1993-94).  The study only reports these figures and offers no
analysis why this happened.  What do you think are some possible reasons
for this decline?
(ref.: School Library Media Centers: 1993-94, NCES 98-282; download or
order report at NCES.ed.gov)
Carl Martz
Librarian, Yucaipa H. S.
Yucaipa CA
cmartz@eee.org

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