Library media centers in public day schools for the deaf.

Abstract

The overall results indicate that the current conditions in library media centers in public day schools for the deaf do not meet those recommendations of the 1967 Standards. Although certain individual items found in some schools did meet or surpass the recommendations of the Standards, this was not generally the case with most schools for all five areas on the questionnaire.

This study was designed to determine if the Standards for Library Media Centers in Schools for the Deaf, published in 1967, are inappropriate as standards for the current status of library media centers in public day schools for the deaf in the United States. To do this a questionnaire was developed to ascertain the current status of the library media centers in the areas of: (1) personnel; (2) program and services; (3) expenditures; (4) collections; and (5) facilities. The questionnaire was mailed to 63 public day schools for the deaf as listed in the April, 1981 and April, 1982 issues of American Annals of the Deaf. Twenty-five schools were eliminated from the study because they did not meet the criteria of being a public day school. Thirty-two schools (84%) responded while six schools (16%) did not. Of those responding 56% had library media centers while 44% did not.