The Impact of School Libraries On Student Enrichment

    My topic for my blog post is school libraries post since I am a second-year teacher-librarian and completing my MLIS this semester. School libraries in major metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles are often in danger of being closed due to budget cuts and loss of special funding. To justify funding, teacher-librarians must find ways to actively support and increase student achievement in measurable ways, often collaborating with other teachers, counselors, and administration. In this case, the assessments measure the impact of the school library and teacher-librarians on student literacy and achievement.

    I found two articles that address how school libraries support student achievement. The first article addressed how ‘enriched’ school libraries continuously renew their collection and affect reading motivation, frequency, and academic skills. Many schools face a problem: students can read but do not practice reading because of a lack of interest. The study aimed to test whether an enriched school library, with a large, modern book collection and more genres, affects academic skills, particularly reading skills (Nielen & Bus, 2015).'

    The authors of the first article focused their research on fourth and fifth-grade students in the Netherlands. Fourteen schools with an enriched library were compared to fourth and fifth-graders from 10 controlled schools without an enriched library. The results showed that students from enriched libraries scored higher on standardized reading comprehension tests than those from control schools (Nielen & Bus, 2015). One of the reasons why students from schools with an enriched school library are familiar with more book titles and have higher levels of reading achievement than students from schools without an enriched school library. A second factor that contributed to students’ reading comprehension was that their library provided engaging reading materials that were interesting to them. Another factor contributing to improved reading comprehension was that employees of their local public library were available for 4 hr per week to assist students in selecting books that matched their interests to their reading levels (Nielsen & Bus, 2015). This study emphasized the importance of a large and modern book collection in school libraries. Having an enriched collection in school libraries raises students’ interest in reading, leading to more academic accomplishments.

    The second article addressed the importance of school libraries' correlation with student achievement and focused on student's ability to access reading materials during the pandemic. The initial COVID-19 pandemic triggered many schools and school library closures, resulting in shifts to online and/or hybrid instruction and limited school library access. Closures and limited access negatively influenced students’ access to school library materials, and consequently, student learning suffered during these closures (Soulen & Tedrow, 2021).

    Unfortunately, some demographic groups were more negatively affected than others. The authors issued and collected responses from students and their parents about using their school's library during the pandemic. The survey consisted of 32 questions to determine how PreK -12 students accessed public and school library materials before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (Soulen & Tedrow, 2021). They analyzed the results and explored how demographics and other factors may have influenced students' access to reading materials while they were distance learning at home due to the pandemic. They concluded that the pandemic brought forth the need to educate students, parents, and families on accessing school library materials and why it is an important part of the learning process (Soulen & Tedrow, 2021). The authors highlighted the need for school libraries to provide educational resources in electronic formats, such as databases that house current relevant information aligned with the curriculum (Soulen & Tedrow, 2021). Lastly, they suggest that school librarians need to adapt collections and programming to meet the needs of learners in transformative times (Soulen & Tedrow, 2021).

    Both articles focused on school libraries' role in student achievement. However, the first article mentioned collaborating with the local public and school libraries to support student literacy. Employees from the local library help students pick a book that interests them and their reading level. This is not normally done in most school libraries, but it should be. I want to implement this strategy with Los Angeles Unified School District students and LAPL. The study was conducted using students from the Netherlands; I would like to implement critical librarianship at a local level to determine and measure students’ reading levels and to make the practice more inclusive for students, teachers, the school’s library, and the public library (Magnus et al., 2018). I feel this collaboration would provide a more equitable outcome for student learning rather than students filling out a survey that cannot consider many factors they may be dealing with.

    The second article focuses on the accessibility of school library materials and support during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students with access to digital library resources outperformed students who did not have access to the school’s library materials. I would implement a more critical ethnographic approach (Magnus et al., 2018) by contacting parents who are not tech-literate and helping them navigate the library website and the resources available to their children through the school’s library. I would approach parents about technology in a way that is not condescending and in the parent’s primary language. I know first-hand that some parents are reluctant to ask for help out of embarrassment due to their lack of education and the language barrier. I feel that this would positively impact parental involvement in their children's education.



Magnus, E., Belanger, J., & Faber, M. (2018). Towards a Critical Assessment Practice.


Nielen, T. M. J., & Bus, A. G. (2015). Enriched School Libraries: A Boost to Academic Achievement. 1(4), 233285841561941. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858415619417


Soulen, R. R., & Tedrow, L. (2021). Students’ frequency of access to school library materials in transformative times. 96100062110377. https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006211037721