This study covers all school libraries at Sweden’s 6 078 school units. Both municipal schools and independent schools were questioned. Address details were taken from the Schools Register.
A total of 84% of school units answered questions via a web-based survey in the period September to December 2008. This survey was supplemented by telephone surveys, which means that information on the incidence of school libraries exists for 95% of Swedish school units.
A large part of the questions in the survey were only put to the 2 723 school units that had indicated that they have their own school library. The school libraries that are integrated with public libraries did not receive these questions as they are included in the Swedish Arts Council’s annual public library statistics.
The results of the survey show that two thirds (67%) of Swedish school units have a school library. This may be their own library, a library that is integrated with the public library or a library that is shared with another school unit, often within the same school building. There is a book collection or book room at 15% of school units. Independent schools have only a book collection instead of a library more frequently than municipal schools.
Just over one in ten school units (14%) indicate that they have no school library at all. This means that, of all pupils at Swedish schools, 18%, i.e. just over 250,000, have no access to a school library of any form.
Many schools (eight out of ten) also use public libraries for borrowing, reading and gathering facts but group visits are also common for information gathering skills or reading promotion activities. School libraries’ use of public libraries is rarely governed by agreements. Mobile libraries are also widely used by school libraries.
Of the 2 723 schools that have some form of library, 88% indicate that they have staff whose area of responsibility is the school library. One tenth of schools with libraries indicate that they have no staff responsible for the school library or that everyone has joint responsibility for the school library.
Regarding the management of school libraries, 63% of school units with their own library indicate that teachers are involved in the management of the school library. Library staff are involved in their management at 55% and school management staff at 53% of school libraries. However, it is also relatively common for pupils to be involved in their management. 49% indicate that pupils are involved in their management.
Three out of four (74%) of school units with libraries indicate that they have weekly working hours allocated to work on the school library. The weekly working hours at all these school units are 22.6 hours on average, equivalent to one half-time position. It is mainly upper secondary schools that have school libraries staffed by more than one full-time position. A total of just over 46,000 staff hours were reported for a normal school week at Swedish school libraries.
In answer to the question on the distribution of working hours between different tasks, the respondents indicated that just over half of the weekly working hours are spent on library-related work, a fifth on planning and cooperation and a quarter on educational work.
Of those school units that have school libraries, two thirds indicate that their libraries are open with staff, which results in staffed opening hours of 19.9 hours per week on average.
Information on media stocks and new acquisitions is incomplete in many cases. Although two thirds of school libraries have computerised catalogues, only one fifth of the schools supplied exact information on the number of media items. On the basis of the information supplied, there are nearly 12 million media items at Swedish school libraries. Extrapolated to all school units with libraries, this would produce a total of 14.6 million media items.
The total number of new acquisitions in 2007 was 617,956 at the school units that answered this question. On average, therefore, school libraries acquired 394 different media items, excluding teaching aids, in 2007.
Information on items borrowed is also incomplete. This means that it is not possible to draw any reliable conclusions on borrowing from Swedish school libraries.
A quarter of Swedish school libraries are responsible for teaching aids at their own schools. Above all, upper secondary schools are responsible for management of teaching aids. Likewise a quarter of school units have access to pay databases for information searches. In total the school units reported that they have 2 923 licences. As many as two thirds of the school units with school 8 libraries replied that they have access to computers with internet access in connection with the library.
It is difficult to compare previous school library statistics as the basic data and questions are different. With major reservations for uncertainty, in comparison with the 2002 survey it can be said that the proportion of schools with some form of library activities appears to have decreased and that the average staffing of school libraries does not appear to have increased.
Summary
On the basis of the overall results, the following can be established:
- Two thirds of Sweden’s 6078 school units replied that they have some form of school library.
- Just over one out of ten school units (14%) do not have access to a library or a book collection at all, which means that 250,000 pupils do not have access to a school library.
- It is mainly small schools that have no library.
- Public libraries are used widely as a supplementary library resource or in some cases as the only library resource. This is usually not governed by any agreement.
- Three out of four school units with libraries have allocated time to the school library. This means that a quarter of school libraries are not staffed. Just over half of weekly working hours are spent on library-related work and as little as one quarter on educational work.
- Two thirds of school libraries indicate that they are open with staff, while one third indicate that they are never open with staff.
- Although two thirds of school libraries have computerised catalogues, only a few are able to supply information on media stocks. Information on items borrowed is also incomplete.
- A quarter of school libraries are responsible for managing teaching aids. The majority of these are at upper secondary schools.
- Two thirds of school libraries have computers with internet access.
- In comparison with the 2002 survey, the proportion of schools with some form of library activities appears to have decreased.