To use this site, please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page.
This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content, and analyzing our website traffic. By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies.
Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
School libraries are important places for children to learn about the appeal of books and the significance of reading. Their services need to be improved so that children can encounter books that will stay with them in their hearts.
Teacher librarians at elementary, junior high and high schools are responsible for book selection and reading instruction in school libraries, but 80% of them reportedly cannot secure time for library duties.
School libraries have school librarians, or administrative staff who assist teacher librarians and oversee such practical matters as lending out books and managing the library collection. Teacher librarians are supposed to manage school libraries in cooperation with these school librarians.
However, many teacher librarians also serve as homeroom teachers and spend much of their time on teaching classes as well. As a result, they are not able to do their jobs as teacher librarians adequately.
In recent years, it has been pointed out that teachers feel they are busy. But school libraries also function as a place for children to stay. It is essential to review school duties so that teacher librarians can focus on the importance of school libraries and work to improve them.
There are also problems with the assignment and treatment of school librarians. Forty percent of all school librarians at public elementary and junior high schools work at more than one school. Moreover, the majority of them are employed on a nonregular basis, and it is not unusual for most of them to face nonrenewal of their contracts.
On the other hand, there is one high school that has managed to increase the number of books borrowed by students tenfold in one year, thanks to the efforts of a highly motivated school librarian who has devised the layout of the bookshelves, among other measures.
The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry aims to assign one school librarian per school. It is hoped efforts will be made to improve the treatment of school librarians and increase their number in order to enhance school library services.
How much reading activities are emphasized at a school depends largely on how principals and the heads of local governments think about it. It is only hoped that they will understand the importance of children becoming familiar with books from childhood and acquiring the ability to think for themselves.
The central government allocates funds to local governments for book purchases. However, because these subsidies do not specify the purposes of their use, they are often used for other policies. Of the ¥22 billion allocated to local governments in fiscal 2021, only ¥12.6 billion was actually used to purchase books.
Not a few schools rarely purchase new books and hold on to their old books without disposing of them.
School libraries are becoming increasingly important as places for inquiry-based learning through books. The central government should consider changing the current subsidy system, which leaves the use of the funds entirely up to local governments, to one that specifies purposes of their use.
In Tottori Prefecture, a center was established within the prefectural library to support school libraries, and this center holds training sessions for teacher librarians and school librarians. Effective use of school libraries will also require cooperation with local public libraries.
