Do school libraries make a difference?: some considerations on investigating school library impact in the United Kingdom

摘要

The findings of the pilot phase suggest that the hypothesis that school libraries do have a positive impact on pupil learning and development will be demonstrated. The research cannot however expect to show any direct cause and effect relationship on pupil attainment because there are so many external factors which impinge upon pupil experience and the study does not map individual pupil test results to library participation. The full study will now take place across 2011-12. There remains a risk that participation will be greater from schools predisposed to positive library involvement which could skew the final picture. However it is hoped that the expected project outputs of an open-access case bank of good practice examples where libraries are contributing impact to pupil learning, and of teacher, pupil and student 'stories' will be of value to practitioners and to decision-makers in deciding how to target time and resources.