Re: US School Library Usage Down

[Dan Robinson Indexing Services <drobinson@INFO.HWWILSON.COM>]

Carlton, a quick notion comes from the term "weekly visits".  I'm
sure this is geared to the old idea that a teacher brought a class to
the library once a week for a 'visit'.  This would be part of the
teachers' "prep time" and the teacher would disappear from the
library. The 'visit' would include circulation,  lessons,  project
work, etc.

Now, the practice is moving away from regular visists to independent
work and variable class visits. Students come in for books to borrow
on their own. Classes may come in for projects or research at times
scheduled independently. There is a much looser flow to library use
now.

Browse the archives (you can get there from
http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/ ) for the scheduling and time subjects.
I think you'll find that use is increasing, but can't be measured by
the 'class visit' function.

Dan Robinosn
Indexing Services
H.W. Wilson Company
Bronx, NY
drobinson@hwwilson.com



On 22 Dec 98 at 19:56, Carlton Martz wrote:

> 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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