Conceptions of school libraries and the role of school librarians: findings from case studies of primary schools in Lahore

The latest issue of the open access journal Information Research is a bumper one, including proceedings from two conferences as well as the usual articles. I will blog the full issue on Monday, but first I'll highlight an article by Syeda Batool and me ;-) It presents some results from her PhD work here at the Sheffield iSchool: Syeda (pictured) is a Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Management at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
Batool, S.H. & Webber, S. (2017). Conceptions of school libraries and the role of school librarians: findings from case studies of primary schools in Lahore. Information Research, 22(1), CoLIS paper 1606. Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/22-1/colis/colis1606.html
Introduction. This paper explores the conceptions of library as a place, conceived by primary school children and the role of school libraries in terms of meeting children's information needs. The article is based on a PhD study. This paper presents the selected findings related to the conceptions of libraries and the role of school libraries.
Method. The study used a multiple qualitative case study approach and data was primarily collected from children's focus groups, librarians' interviews, teachers' interviews, documents and observation.
Analysis. The present study used a combination of thematic and situational analysis approaches to analyse the data. The Nvivo 10 software was used to organize the data from coding to the final six broad themes. The themes were used in reporting results.
Results. It was found that primary school children conceive of the library as a place for reading, playing and a room to store books. In Pakistan, primary schools lack school libraries and offer limited services to children.
Conclusion. The majority of the children studying in state schools did not see libraries as physical places, they have different conceptions of the library. School libraries are playing a limited role in developing reading habits and making children independent learners.