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Education Statistics Quarterly
Vol 7, Issues 1 & 2, Topic: Libraries
School Library Media Centers: Selected Results From the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002)
By: Leslie Scott
 
This article was originally published as the Executive Summary of the E.D. TAB of the same name. The sample survey data are from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002).  
 
 


Introduction

School libraries play an important role in making information available to students and in teaching students how to obtain and use that information. The constant improvement in the quality and affordability of personal computers, particularly when coupled with the increase in the availability of electronically stored information of all kinds, means that today's school libraries have become far more than simple repositories of books. One scholar suggests that, in order to meet the needs of today's students, school library media specialists "need to develop high-tech environments to provide the types of learning experiences that employers will require of their employees. Electronic access to local and remote online networks, in-house use of CD-ROM databases, and interactive media are necessary for all library media centers" (Craver 1995).

This report provides an overview of the current state of school library media centers1 that serve U.S. 10th-graders. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) provides comprehensive data from multiple sources on school library media centers that served 10th-graders in 2002. ELS:2002 is a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of 15,5252 10th-graders in 752 schools in the United States in 2002. The students will likely be followed until about age 30, with the first follow-up in 2004, when most of the students are in the 12th grade. During the high school years, ELS:2002 is a multilevel study, involving multiple respondent populations, including students, their parents, their teachers, and their schools (from which data are collected from the school principal, the school librarian, and a facilities checklist). Obtaining data from multiple respondents provides a more comprehensive picture of the home, community, and school environment and the influences they have on the student.

The ELS:2002 library media center survey, administered primarily to school librarians, examined various aspects of school libraries—their space, organization, collections, resources, staffing, and use. In addition, 10th-graders provided information on their use of and opinions about their school libraries.


Key Findings

This E.D. TAB summarizes findings for all ELS:2002 schools and students about library media centers. Findings for schools are presented by the following school characteristics: school sector, school urbanicity, school region, grade span, school enrollment, and the percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch in grade 10. Findings for students are presented by the following student characteristics: sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), composite achievement test score in grade 10, student's school sector, student's school urbanicity, and student's school region. Comparisons by these school and student characteristics have been tested for statistical significance (at the .05 level). This executive summary presents highlights of findings from the ELS:2002 library media center survey and student survey.

School library media centers: Who has them, and their organization

All participating ELS:2002 schools were asked if they had a school library media center, defined as

. . . an organized collection of printed and/or audiovisual and/or computer resources which is administered as a unit, is located in a designated place or places, and makes resources and services available to students, teachers, and administrators. A library media center may also be called a library, media center, resource center, information center, instructional materials center, learning resource center, or some other name.

Schools that answered yes were then asked to complete a school library media center survey. In approximately three-quarters of the cases, the survey was completed by the school library media specialist; in other cases, the survey was completed by someone else.3

School library media centers are almost universally available. In 2002, 96 percent of schools had a library media center (table A). Ninety-three percent of these school library media centers were centrally organized (one area in one building), while 7 percent were decentralized (collections or services located in more than one location).


Table A. Percent of 10th-grade schools with a school library media center, by selected school characteristics: 2002

Percent with a school School characteristic
Percent with a school library media center
      Total 96.1
School sector
   Public 100.0
   Catholic 100.0
   Other private 80.8
School urbanicity
   Urban 99.1
   Suburban 93.1
   Rural 98.0
School region
   Northeast 95.0
   Midwest 97.7
   South 94.3
   West 98.2
Grade span
   PK, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5–12 87.6
   6, 7, or 8–12 100.0
   9–10, 11, or 12 99.7
   10–11 or 12 100.0
School enrollment
   1–399 92.6
   400–799 100.0
   800–1,199 100.0
   1,200–1,599 100.0
   1,600+ 100.0
Grade 10, percent free lunch1
   0–5 percent 87.9
   6–20 percent 100.0
   21–50 percent 99.4
   51–100 percent 100.0

1Percentage of a school's 10th-grade students receiving free or reduced-price lunch.

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), "Base Year, School Survey, 2002." (Originally published as table 1 on p. 18 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

Library resources, staffing, and circulation

The library media center questionnaire asked numerous questions about the availability of library resources and services. The types of technology and equipment that many libraries had (and the percentage that had them) were internet access (96 percent), personal computer (94 percent), VCR (91 percent), audio equipment (89 percent), telephone (88 percent), and automated book circulation system (74 percent). Few libraries had these resources: electronic book reader (2 percent), technology for persons with disabilities (16 percent), and videoconferencing equipment (20 percent).

Of the database services that ELS:2002 asked school librarians about, 88 percent of school libraries had reference/ bibliography databases, 82 percent had general articles and news databases, 62 percent had college and career databases, and 56 percent had academic subject databases (table B).

Sixty-two percent of school library media centers participated in some type of interlibrary loan (ILL) program with other libraries. School libraries were more likely to have an ILL program with public libraries in the area (43 percent) and area high schools (42 percent) than with colleges/universities (31 percent), the state library (30 percent), or other high schools in the state (25 percent). Public schools and schools in the Northeast were more likely to participate in ILL programs than Catholic and other private schools, and schools in the South and West.

Seventy-six percent of school library media centers had a state-certified librarian on staff. Combined elementary/ secondary schools (schools with grades PK, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 through 12) and smaller schools (schools with 1-399 students) were less likely to have a state-certified librarian on staff than schools with other grade spans and larger student enrollments.

Seventy-five percent of school library media centers had fewer than 16,000 books (table C).4 An average of 280 library materials (books, etc.) circulated from school libraries during a typical week (table D). On average, about one book (or other library material) per student circulated from school libraries each week.


Table B. Percent of school library media centers with various services, by selected school characteristics: 2002

School characteristic
School library media center has
Online catalog
Other libraries’ online catalogs
Internet access
E-mail or chat room access
Educational software1
Multimedia production facility2
      Total 69.2 60.5 96.0 67.8 70.2 17.6
School sector
   Public 76.2 62.4 99.4 68.2 69.8 19.3
   Catholic 67.3 66.2 95.7 58.4 72.3 19.6
   Other private 36.5 49.9 79.7 69.0 71.6 8.8
School urbanicity
   Urban 66.2 62.1 92.3 65.5 65.0 11.0
   Suburban 76.7 57.2 95.7 66.0 72.2 18.5
   Rural 62.5 63.4 98.5 71.4 71.1 20.5
School region
   Northeast                                 78.7 76.2 93.7 63.4 65.8 15.7
   Midwest 68.5 68.9 96.8 65.5 78.4 23.1
   South 71.6 54.8 96.4 70.8 76.0 18.6
   West 58.4 47.8 96.0 69.1 52.5 9.4
Grade span
   PK, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5–12 41.1 47.4 89.5 69.6 78.0 22.9
   6, 7, or 8–12 67.1 66.9 96.8 62.0 66.4 15.0
   9-10, 11, or 12 83.4 65.0 98.8 68.8 67.3 15.3
   10–11 or 12 68.2 65.4 100.0 62.7 77.3 34.5
School enrollment
   1–399 48.7 47.9 93.7 68.5 69.8 16.4
   400–799 75.2 61.8 98.3 61.6 67.1 18.0
   800–1,199 84.6 71.8 99.3 86.1 78.7 21.4
   1,200–1,599 91.4 79.7 100.0 60.2 76.0 18.4
   1,600+ 97.1 76.2 100.0 68.7 75.5 26.0
Grade 10, percent free lunch5
   0–5 percent 61.0 60.6 87.9 65.8 72.2 9.4
   6–20 percent 86.0 84.3 99.9 56.7 67.9 29.8
   21–50 percent 65.5 54.4 99.5 73.9 74.6 17.7
   51–100 percent 63.1 41.0 99.0 80.2 57.6 12.5

School characteristic
School library media center has
Reference and bibliography database3
General articles and news databases
College and career databases
Academic subject databases4
Electronic full-text books, journals, references, or magazines
      Total 88.1 82.1 62.1 56.0 62.0
School sector
   Public 92.5 87.9 67.6 59.4 66.7
   Catholic 84.3 78.8 60.8 54.6 46.1
   Other private 69.0 55.4 36.5 40.4 44.7
School urbanicity
   Urban 78.5 71.0 53.9 54.2 51.2
   Suburban 85.2 77.2 62.9 55.8 59.2
   Rural 97.0 94.1 66.0 57.2 71.7
School region
   Northeast                             87.6 85.1 56.9 67.1 66.0
   Midwest 94.7 89.2 71.4 63.2 64.4
   South 86.8 80.8 60.8 57.4 58.5
   West 82.0 72.7 56.2 35.3 62.1
Grade span
   PK, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5–12 80.3 73.4 50.4 46.5 46.5
   6, 7, or 8–12 89.4 79.8 72.4 50.5 65.5
   9–10, 11, or 12 91.0 86.3 64.1 61.5 67.7
   10–11 or 12 97.4 100.0 81.7 77.7 72.9
School enrollment
   1–399 86.2 76.2 55.6 42.4 49.8
   400–799 85.2 83.8 63.4 59.0 69.9
   800–1,199 97.3 89.9 74.3 78.5 67.7
   1,200–1,599 96.8 96.8 69.5 75.7 80.2
   1,600+ 96.2 97.7 76.6 70.1 80.7
Grade 10, percent free lunch5
   0–5 percent 79.4 73.0 49.0 52.5 53.3
   6–20 percent 92.2 90.6 66.1 77.4 81.1
   21–50 percent 97.0 93.0 67.7 50.5 63.2
   51–100 percent 80.7 70.2 63.4 48.8 48.1

1Examples include CD-ROMs and Math Blasters.

2A multimedia production facility is a studio containing a computer and equipment using text, full-color images and graphics, video, animation, and sound.

3Examples include encyclopedias and dictionaries.

4Education, business/management, humanities, science/engineering/math, or English databases (e.g., ERIC, Science Direct).

5Percentage of a school's 10th-grade students receiving free or reduced-price lunch.

NOTE: Two similar questions on internet access were asked in the Library Media Center Questionnaire. Table 5a in the full report presents the results of respondents' answers to question 11K, whereas this table presents respondents' answers to question 12C. Estimates across the two tables differ, perhaps due to the slight wording differences of the two questions.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), "Base Year, Library Media Center Survey, 2002." (Originally published as table 6 on pp. 27-28 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

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Students' self-reported use and opinions of their school libraries

The ELS:2002 student survey contained several questions about students' use of and opinions about their schools' libraries. Students reported using the school library sometimes or often for research papers (54 percent), in-school projects (53 percent), internet access (41 percent), and assignments (41 percent). Females used the school library more often than males for assignments, in-school projects, homework, research papers, and to read books for fun. Students from different SES backgrounds used school libraries for different reasons. Students from high-SES families were more likely than students from middle- or low-SES backgrounds to use the library sometimes or often for assignments and in-school projects. Students from low-SES families were more likely than students from middle- or high-SES families to use the school library sometimes or often for homework, leisure reading, to read magazines or newspapers, to read books for fun, and for interests outside of school. Students with different test scores also used the library for different purposes. Students with high test scores were more likely than students with low or middle scores to use the library for assignments, in-school projects, and research papers. Students with low test scores were more likely than students with high or middle test scores to use the library for homework, leisure reading, to read magazines or newspapers, to read books for fun, and for interests outside of school.

The majority of students reported that their school library's reference materials were useful (58 percent reported they were useful and 22 percent reported they were very useful). The majority of students also reported that school library staff were helpful with different tasks. For example, 79 percent of students reported that library staff were helpful or very helpful with finding research resources, such as books, magazines, and newspaper articles, on a research topic.


Table C. Percent of school library media centers with different size library collections, by selected school characteristics: 2002

School characteristic 2001 holdings—books (all copies) 2001 holdings—video materials (tape, DVD, or laser disc titles; not duplicates)
Fewer than 8,000 8,000– 15,999 16,000– 23,999 24,000 or more Fewer
than 250
250–999 1,000– 1,749 1,750
or more
   Total 38.8 36.1 18.9 6.2 60.5 31.1 7.1 1.3
School sector
Public 32.4 39.0 22.3 6.3 56.1 34.7 7.7 1.5
Catholic 32.0 50.4 14.3 3.3 62.7 32.5 4.8 #
Other private 69.5 18.8 4.7 7.0 79.1 14.8 5.2 0.8
School urbanicity
Urban 42.6 28.3 18.1 11.0 56.0 31.4 10.3 2.3
Suburban 31.9 37.1 24.8 6.2 56.5 31.9 9.8 1.8
Rural 44.4 39.6 12.5 3.5 67.3 30.0 2.4 0.2
School region
Northeast                              31.1 34.4 26.6 7.9 60.0 32.5 6.1 1.4
Midwest 31.2 43.5 18.5 6.9 62.1 30.1 6.7 1.1
South 43.2 34.8 16.9 5.1 49.8 38.2 10.5 1.4
West 47.1 29.7 16.9 6.3 77.7 18.6 2.4 1.3
Grade span
PK, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5–12 58.2 25.8 12.5 3.5 77.8 16.5 5.2 0.5
6, 7, or 8–12 46.8 41.8 9.0 2.3 60.3 34.7 4.5 0.5
9–10, 11, or 12 27.9 38.9 24.7 8.5 51.6 37.8 8.9 1.7
10–11 or 12 6.1 56.7 24.1 13.2 53.5 30.7 7.9 7.9
School enrollment
1–399 60.1 28.8 8.6 2.5 77.8 21.1 1.1 #
400–799 32.5 46.1 18.5 2.9 54.8 37.7 7.5 #
800–1,199 18.2 53.7 23.1 5.0 38.7 44.6 14.3 2.4
1,200–1,599 3.9 40.0 43.0 13.1 41.2 42.5 16.3 #
1,600+ 1.1 29.3 41.6 28.0 35.3 31.6 22.1 11.0
Grade 10, percent free lunch1
0–5 percent 44.8 33.7 11.8 9.7 68.0 24.6 6.6 0.8
6–20 percent 38.5 32.9 22.4 6.2 55.0 38.2 3.9 2.9
21–50 percent 29.3 41.5 24.8 4.4 61.8 31.5 5.7 0.9
51–100 percent 49.4 34.1 12.8 3.7 61.7 28.5 8.4 1.4
School characteristic 2001 holdings—periodical subscriptions (current print or microform subscriptions) 2001 holdings—electronic database subscriptions (online, CD-ROM, electronic journals, electronic books; not duplicates)
Fewer than 25 25–49 50–74 75 or more None 1–3 4–6 7 or more
   Total 42.3 35.8 12.3 9.6 25.0 44.1 14.3 16.5
School sector
Public 34.8 40.6 14.2 10.4 20.2 45.3 16.0 18.6
Catholic 49.8 29.6 14.8 5.9 37.1 28.1 18.8 16.0
Other private 73.6 16.2 3.1 7.0 42.8 44.0 5.7 7.6
School urbanicity
Urban 46.2 29.2 12.3 12.3 29.6 38.6 14.4 17.4
Suburban 37.8 36.5 14.4 11.3 27.0 34.4 19.0 19.5
Rural 45.3 38.9 9.9 5.9 20.1 58.6 8.8 12.5
School region
Northeast                               34.3 39.6 12.7 13.5 17.2 35.3 21.3 26.3
Midwest 36.1 36.8 15.2 11.8 22.8 43.3 19.2 14.7
South 44.1 35.0 12.6 8.3 31.2 39.4 10.3 19.1
West 53.4 33.1 7.7 5.8 22.8 59.7 9.9 7.5
Grade span
PK, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5–12 64.8 31.2 1.4 2.7 30.9 54.2 5.2 9.7
6, 7, or 8–12 36.9 47.2 11.3 4.6 32.1 31.3 18.4 18.2
9–10, 11, or 12 33.2 34.4 18.1 14.3 21.0 42.2 17.0 19.8
10–11 or 12 34.2 45.7 8.2 11.9 # 55.3 34.9 9.8
School enrollment
1–399 59.3 30.4 6.4 3.9 36.3 46.4 10.1 7.2
400–799 35.1 45.5 11.5 7.8 22.0 44.1 14.0 19.9
800–1,199 27.0 42.2 13.6 17.2 16.0 43.4 16.9 23.7
1,200–1,599 19.6 34.2 26.5 19.7 4.3 38.9 26.7 30.1
1,600+ 19.7 33.7 24.7 21.9 6.1 42.6 22.9 28.5
Grade 10, percent free lunch1
0–5 percent 50.3 31.1 10.2 8.4 34.4 34.7 15.4 15.5
6–20 percent 37.2 33.2 15.1 14.5 15.3 49.4 13.1 22.3
21–50 percent 35.4 44.1 12.1 8.3 20.0 54.4 10.9 14.7
51–100 percent 42.4 40.0 10.9 6.7 36.2 34.0 14.1 15.6

#Rounds to zero.

1Percentage of a school's 10th-grade students receiving free or reduced-price lunch.

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), "Base Year, Library Media Center Survey, 2002." (Originally published as table 4 on pp. 21-22 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)


Table D. Mean total circulation of library materials (books, etc.) checked out from the library media center during a typical week, and per student, by selected school characteristics: 2002

School characteristic Mean circulation per week Mean circulation per student, per week
   Total 279.5 0.7
School sector
Public 277.6 0.6
Catholic 82.3 0.2
Other private 359.0 1.0
School urbanicity
Urban 291.8 0.3
Suburban 231.8 0.4
Rural 330.2 1.2
School region
Northeast 191.3 0.3
Midwest 323.0 1.0
South 249.0 0.5
West 343.0 0.8
Grade span
PK, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5–12 423.9 1.3
6, 7, or 8–12 185.5 0.4
9–10, 11, or 12 237.0 0.4
10–11 or 12 209.4 0.2
School enrollment
1–399 252.5 1.1
400–799 264.5 0.5
800–1,199 314.9 0.3
1,200–1,599 323.6 0.2
1,600+ 453.2 0.2
Grade 10, percent free lunch1
0–5 percent 251.8 0.7
6–20 percent 265.9 0.6
21–50 percent 305.7 0.8
51–100 percent 268.2 0.5

1Percentage of a school's 10th-grade students receiving free or reduced-price lunch.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), "Base Year, Library Media Center Survey, 2002." (Originally published as table 16 on p. 88 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)


Reference

Craver, K.W. (1995). Shaping Our Future: The Role of School Library Media Centers. School Library Media Quarterly, 24(1): 13-18.

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Footnotes

1The terms "school library" and "school library media center" are used interchangeably.

2This sample size (15,525) includes 163 students who were unable to complete the student questionnaire and cognitive tests due to disability, language barriers, etc. However, contextual data are available for these students on the ELS:2002 restricted-use data file. They are not on the public-use data file (where the sample size is 15,362).

3Seventy-three percent of library media center questionnaire respondents were certified librarians/media specialists, 4 percent were principals or other school administrators, and 23 percent were other.

4We recognize that a better measure would have been number of books per student, but the ELS:2002 variable for library holdings is not available as a continuous measure. The number of library book holdings is correlated with school size. For example, schools with the smallest enrollment size (1-399 students) were more likely than schools with larger enrollment sizes (400-799; 800-1,199; 1,200-1,599; 1,600 or more) to have fewer than 8,000 books. Likewise, the largest schools (1,600 or more students) were more likely than schools with fewer students to have 24,000 or more books in the library.


Data source: The NCES Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), "Base Year, Library Media Center Survey, 2002," "Base Year, School Survey, 2002," and "Base Year, Student Survey, 2002."

For technical information, see the complete report:

Scott, L. (2004). School Library Media Centers: Selected Results From the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) (NCES 2005-302).

Author affiliation: L. Scott, Education Statistics Services Institute.

For questions about content, contact Jeffrey Owings (jeffrey.owings@ed.gov).

To obtain the complete report (NCES 2005-302), call the toll-free ED Pubs number (877-433-7827) or visit the NCES Electronic Catalog (http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch).


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