Automation and Its Funding in the Library Media Centers in Secondary Schools in Georgia: A Survey.

N

59

Databases; Financial Support; High Schools; Integrated Library Systems; Learning Resources Centers; Library Automation; Online Catalogs; Online Searching; Optical Data Disks; Questionnaires; School Surveys

This report presents the results of a study whose purpose was to determine what automation is present in the library media centers in Georgia secondary schools and how it has been funded. A three-part questionnaire was sent to the media specialists in 50% of the secondary schools in Georgia, which were randomly selected. The analysis of the results was expressed with percentages and one chi-square determination. Of the 180 questionnaires sent to secondary school media specialists, 141 (78.3%) were returned; all but 2 of the questionnaires were usable. It was found that the most prevalent types of automation were catalog/circulation systems and CD-ROM. There were 53 (38.1%) schools with circulation/catalog systems and 47 (33.8%) that were using CD-ROM. Over three-fourths of all funding was with tax dollars; less than 10% of the funding was from non-tax sources. It was concluded that there is a significant amount of automation present in the Georgia secondary schools. Contrary to the hypothesis and the study of the literature, media specialists are not using non-tax sources for funding automation, but are instead relying on traditional tax sources. The survey instrument, cover letter, and lists of CD-ROM programs cited and the distribution of online databases used in Georgia secondary schools are appended. (29 references/9 tables) (Author/MAB)

1992

ED345745