Graduate Research Papers

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Open Access Graduate Research Paper

Abstract

School board members may make personnel and other budging decisions without being aware of the roles and contributions of school library media programs to student learning. This study demonstrated the levels of knowledge school board members in a small K-12 school in Northwest Iowa have about their school library programs. The board members in this study are the five members of a small school in Northwest Iowa with a student population of approximately 600.

The survey was given in two parts. For the first part of the survey, the participants were instructed to write down the top five professional tasks they believe are the responsibility of the school librarian. The second part of the survey consisted of a list of tasks. The participants were instructed to check yes if they believed the task was the responsibility of the school librarian and check no, if they believed the task was not the responsibility of the school librarian. The responses to the first part of the survey were coded according to the level of the task. The two levels used were professional and clerical. The tasks listed in the second portion of the survey were coded according to the levels of the tasks and function, of four professional roles of a school librarian. Some of the tasks listed in the second portion of the represented clerical or technical roles rather than librarian's roles and served as control devices.

Of the five delivered surveys, four were returned. The first portion of all four surveys were valid and used in this study. The second portion of one of the returned surveys was invalid and not used in this study because all of the answers were simply marked yes.

All five hypotheses predicting sixty percent of the board members in this study would give knowledgeable responses to the survey data were rejected. While some of the members did recognize some of the professional duties for which school librarians are responsible, none of the members recognized all of the duties. Only one board member was able to recognize all of the duties in one of the categories on the second portion of the survey.

Year of Submission

2005

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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Date Original

1-2005

Object Description

1 PDF file (v, 38 pages)

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