Graduate Research Papers

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Open Access Graduate Research Paper

Abstract

This study explored the role of cooperation between teacher librarians and public librarians in Iowa's North Central Library Service Area. The methodology used for this study was a qualitative study of current cooperative attitudes and methods among the school and public librarians of Iowa's North Central Library Service Area. The researcher conducted a survey among 48 school districts including 143 buildings located in the North Central Library Service Area (NCLSA). A second survey was conducted concurrently with the first and inciuded 83 public libraries in the North Central Library Service Area. The survey response rate included 56 school libraries and 59 public libraries. Once data collection was completed, the researcher discovered that a majority of school and public library staff in the NCLSA value the pursuit of cooperation. As high as 90% of public librarians indicated that they do not consider themselves to participate in a cooperative relationship while as much as 73% of school library staff expressed a similar result. It should be noted that as many as 25% of the school library respondents gave no answers for the questions in this portion of the survey. When they did cooperate, school and public library staff shared an acquaintance with one another either in person or over the phone and made it a point to obtain one another's contact information. They also felt comfortable asking another librarian for help and were generally willing to share resources such as reference or reading materials. A link to another library's online public access catalog was also seen as cooperative behavior. On the other hand, activities that would require staff time or financial resources were not highly favored forms of cooperation. A very small minority have developed a joint mission statement, policies and procedures, materials for student use, goals or cooperative buy agreements. Both groups acknowledged that cooperation between teachers and public librarians is higher than that of school library and public library staff. Both groups were willing to publicize one another's activities. School and public library staff saw barriers to cooperation that included time constraints, financial concerns, staffing limitations, divergent missions, disinterest, transportation issues and a tendency for teachers to cooperate more often with public librarians than school library staff.

Year of Submission

2008

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Department

Division of School Library Studies

First Advisor

Barbara Safford

Comments

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Object Description

1 PDF file (vi, 135 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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