A STUDY OF URBAN AND RURAL PUBLIC ELEMENTARY PRINCIPALS AND TEACHERS: PERCEPTIONS TOWARD THE SCHOOL LIBRARY MEDIA CENTER

The purpose of the study was to provide insights regarding the perceptions of rural and urban public elementary principals and teachers toward the effectiveness and operation of the school library media center. The study was conducted in the state of Kansas during the school year 1984-1985.;The survey instrument used was a Likert-type questionnaire divided into two parts. The upper portion of the instrument collected demographic data while the lower portion consisted of 20 statements regarding the library media program.;The statistical methods used to gather and analyze the data were: Identifying the population and presenting the demographic information using percentages as well as numerical count; a composite numerical count and percentage response for each of the 20 questionnaire statements, the Pearson product-moment correlation procedure for examining the degree of correlations among several variables; a two-way analysis of variance based on five specific variable groupings--administration, curriculum, professionalism, public relations, and technology; and chi-square values were used to generate the differences between rural and urban schools.;The results of the study revealed there were no significant differences found in perceptions of public elementary rural and urban principals and teachers toward the school library media center. Urban and rural library media centers need to utilize more microcomputers, improve local media production services, expand instructional development services, and increase involvement with the curriculum. The percentage of time a library media professional spends in the library media center affects the administration, services, and programs of the library media center; the number of distribution of print and non-print materials; the library media professional's involvement with the curriculum; the teacher's opinion of the library media center, and the integration of the library media program with the school program.;The population of this study included all public elementary schools in the state of Kansas with a student population of 100 or more. The sample was 100 public elementary urban schools and 100 public elementary rural schools randomly selected from the unified school districts listed in the Kansas Education Directory for 1984-1985.