IASL Research Abstracts: 106

Findings: Major factors that influence the role of the teacher librarian in creating a reading environment within a secondary school library include attitude, relationships, library organizations, access, ambience and professional debate.

Abstract: The concept of the reading environment is fundamental to this study. In essence a reading environment within a school library is the atmosphere that is created that encourages young people to read. An analysis of factors that impinge upon, or contribute to, the creation of an effective reading environment forms the major focus of this research. The factors include the attitudes of the teacher librarian, the relationships between the teacher librarian and all members of the school community, teachers and students, library organization, and external constraints such as budget allocations and support from school administration. Data was collected from six schools of varied types, predominantly through interviews. The primary source of data was the teacher librarian in each school. See:

Marca, S.La (2003) An enabling adult: The teacher librarian and the reading environment. In S. Zinn, G. Hart and E. Howe (Eds.) School libraries: Breaking down barriers (pp.244-257). Seattle: International Association of School Librarianship.

Subject Categories: 3, 15, 22