Students' effective use of the library as an Information Resource Centre - a case of Senior Secondary Schools in Botswana

Abstract

This paper investigated the extent to which secondary school students make use of school libraries. It pursued this objective by first looking at the history of libraries; the concept of a library and the important role libraries play in society; how libraries world-wide have been lately under-funded and the effects thereof. The theoretical aspect of the paper was located in the school effectiveness literature. The empirical investigation was done using questionnaires administered to fourteen randomly selected high school classes of about 38 students each, the teacher librarian, and the school library. The paper concluded that although students satisfactorily use libraries, this is constrained by poorly funded and poorly stocked libraries.