The use of information and communication technology in a school library

Abstract

Now that Computer technology has come to stay, and computers have taken up a very important position in the field of education, we have looked into the information and computer requirements of a school library. As a case study, we considered the library at Sir M.A.Refalo Centre for Further Studies at Victoria, Gozo. After looking into the historical background of libraries and the development of Computers, we go into what the current trends are in computer-related fields. The aim of this study is to find out what is taking place in other libraries, both school and public, especially abroad. We will attempt to describe how we can adopt progressive IT applications in our libraries. Regarding the library in our case study, there are plans to extend the user services to make the library educational resources part of a wider network by linking IT facilities to other local and foreign sources. In analysing present practices we base our comments and arguments on local sources of literature (e.g. dissertations, papers, etc.) and foreign material. Having been in contact with the grass roots levels of the local scene in education, we also bring in our own personal reflections and observations. However, to be more focal and authentic, we also acquired data from a questionnaire which we administered to the teachers of the school under study. We finally attempt to establish the present and future needs and ways to manage both material and human resources.