Real school libraries, i. e. Library Media Centers, are not mandatory in German schools, although almost every school has a small library. These libraries range from a dark room at the outskirts of the school site to a corner in the staff room.
There are some school libraries combined with public libraries on the school site in major cities like Frankfurt/Main, Cologne or Bremen. There are two states (Bayern, Rheinland-Pfalz) that have school libraries in almost all grammar schools. The number of educated librarians who work in school libraries may not succeed 100. There are about 35,000 schools in Germany.
The responsibility for school libraries officially falls under that of local authorities and not to the State Education Ministry. Unfortunately, schools, teachers, school administration, school boards, all are not concerned with the development of school libraries. The funding for public libraries is quite low and the development of school libraries is definitely not the number one goal of the local authorities. There is no legislation or funding and no nationwide organization of school librarians.
Teachers and parent helpers are the “backbone” of school libraries, because there are generally no paid positions for a media center teacher or specialist. There is no additional education available. All work is done on a more or less voluntary basis.
In the German state of Hessen there is a small school library association: LAG Schulbibliotheken.
LAG started several projects:
- a reading promotion project “Books in an Box”;
- giving a small award for good ideas in the field of reading in schools and outstanding teacher-librarians;
- providing teacher training in using school libraries and in-service-training for teacher-librarians;
- publishing booklets on Hessian school library development;
- With the help of the Hessian Ministry of Education, LAG bought cataloguing software, which is used in 800 of the 2,000 Hessian schools;
- a biannual school library conference, a meeting of some hundred teachers, parents and librarians.
LAG promotes in a way that is totally new for Germany: The teacher-librarian, i.e. the teacher is responsible for the school library and plays an active role in “selling” the library to the staff, offering reading promotion ideas like all-night read-ins, author visits, and provides materials for the training of information skills.
It is a Catch-22 situation: No one experiences a school library as a student, therefore, no one is interested in establishing a library when they become adults. Things are a little bit better now because there is rising worry about reading deficits among German students. There is also a tendency to more whole-day-schooling. The school library may be more important when students stay on the school site in the afternoons too. They can use it for individual studies, pleasure reading or homework.
Guenter Schlamp, head-teacher, member of the board of LAG, e-mail: gs@schulbibliotheken.de
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