A comparative study of curriculum integrated and traditional school library media programs: Fifth-grade students' reading and media program attitudes and utilization

The purpose of the study was to provide insights regarding curriculum integrated and traditional library media programs. Curriculum integrated library media programs with flexible schedules were compared with traditional library media programs with fixed schedules. Students' attitudes toward the library, utilization of library media programs, and reading attitudes were surveyed. Variables of gender; race; gender and race; type of program and gender; and type of program and race were tested in minor hypotheses. The study was conducted in USD;The sample was fifth grade students in three schools with curriculum integrated library media programs with flexible schedules and three schools with traditional library media programs with fixed schedules. The schools were matched according to student population and ethnic count. Two-hundred nine students were surveyed, 105 students in curriculum integrated library media programs and 104 students in traditional library media programs.;The survey instruments were a semantic differential to determine attitude and a utilization questionnaire developed by Hayes (1977) and the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey by McKenna and Kear (1990) for reading attitudes. Demographic data on gender and race were also gathered.;Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine significance at the.05 level.;Mean scores of student attitudes toward the library and reading were found to be significantly positive for curriculum integrated library media programs. No significant difference was found in student utilization of the library between the two types of programs. However, girls were significantly higher in utilization of the media center and reading attitudes than boys. When type of program and race as variables were analyzed a significant difference was found with minority students utilization higher in curriculum integrated library media programs and nonminority utilization higher in traditional library media programs.