(16 May 2022) From the National Library of New Zealand:
The surveys and reports paint a clear picture of the current state of school libraries in Aotearoa New Zealand including:
- the nature of the school library workforce and how it might change
- trends relating to school library collections and resources, including funding for these
- in this year’s report, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on school libraries.
Findings include:
- Almost all school library staff work term-time only, which equates to 40 weeks of work per year.
- Most primary school library staff work part-time, often in more than one position. Most secondary school library staff work full-time. For intermediate and composite schools, it’s about half-and-half.
- Library staff are confident that their skills are a good match for their role. However, most say that the pay is not a good match for the role and responsibilities.
- Library staff qualifications vary across school types. Primary school library staff are most likely to hold no qualifications.
- Collection holdings are still mainly print, and respondents say this is likely to continue. The formats with the strongest expected growth are graphic novels, comics and manga, and free digital content.
- 2021 collection development budgets at responding schools dropped by an average of $2.49 per student from 2019 figures. Per-student budgets vary across school types, but the gap between the highest and lowest has decreased.
- For responding schools, the COVID-19 pandemic had a big impact on their library services. This is as you’d expect with school closures and other public health measures in place. But most schools said that staffing, collections and funding had not changed.
Find out more from the original announcement here.
The report can be downloaded here.
