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Research Findings (National)

Researchers have proven that a quality school library program with a certified school librarian who teaches information literacy skills to students improves academic achievement. Conducted over the past 30 years and 22 states, these statewide studies examined students’ standardized reading test scores and other indicators of student learning and correlated them to components of school library programs.

For a review of this research, visit the following sites:

AASL Strong School Libraries Build Strong Students
Quotes from School Library Research Studies 

School Library Impact Studies Project

The first edition of this booklet was developed in by the Spring 2011 class of LSC 5530, School Library Advocacy, of the School Library & Information Technologies Graduate Program, Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA. The revised edition of this work was published in June 2013.

The Background on the School Library Impact Studies
Begun in the early 1990's by Dr. Keith Curry Lance and his associates at the Colorado Department of Education and the University of Denver, these reports primarily correlated standardized language arts test scores of students to components of school library programs, such as staffing, budgets, collections, etc. To date, 23 states and one Canadian province, Ontario, have conducted similar research by a variety of researchers.

 

“School Library Research Summarized: A Graduate Class Project” (Rev. ed. 2013)

School Library Research Summarized: A Graduate Class Project. (ed. 2011)


School Library Impact Studies
Links to the research done in 21 states  by the Library Research Service. 

Impact Studies of School Libraries
Links to the research done by the School of Communication and Information. Rutgers University.

School Libraries Work! 
A 2016 Compendium of Research Supporting the Effectiveness of School Libraries