A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF STAFFING PATTERNS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LIBRARY MEDIA CENTERS ON PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

The purpose of this investigation was to gain an understanding of the impact of staffing patterns on elementary school library media center program development by determining if there were differences between the program activites described by library media specialists and those reported by library media aides. In determining differences in programming activities implemented in elementary school library media centers, staffing patterns and level of certification were considered. The library media program activities analyzed were: (a) planning, (b) budget, (c) purchasing, (d) production, (e) access and delivery, (f) maintenance, (g) public information, and (h) evaluation. Directional hypotheses were constructed to determine if differences in library media center programs could be identified.;Some of the conclusions in the study were: (1) District-level library media specialist support for building-level library media specialists did not contribute to higher levels of professional performance. (2) The library media specialist without district-level support performed professional activities on an equal basis with the library media specialist whose program was supported by a district-level library media specialist.;The results of this study suggest that a specific analysis be made of leadership provided by the district-level library media specialist's support of building-level library media programs. Since there is a national trend, toward staffing elementary school-level library media centers with uncertified personnel, it becomes necessary to understand how district-level support can improve the quality of library media center programs. Further, the contributions made by certified building-level elementary school library media specialists were only marginally different in most cases from programs offered by elementary school library media aides.;A survey research design was employed to collect information. The accessible population was the elementary library media personnel in the State of Utah. A questionnaire was distributed and a response rate of 75.8% was achieved. In the analysis of the data, both the statistical and practical significance of the data were examined as the data was compared using content analysis, descriptive statistics, and statistical analyses such as one-way ANOVA and the Scheffe post hoc test of pair-wise comparisons.