The Brain of the School or the Neglected Activity? An Organisational Study of the School Library and Its Status

This study is an attempt to shed light on problems and possibilities of the school library of the Swedish comprehensive school concerning library law and goals of the school and the school library. Many investigations about the role of the school library of the comprehensive school have been carried through. They have all more or less come to the same conclusions. In spite of Swedish library law and goal documents of the school library, the school libraries are often neglected, if not will and commitment are to be found among teachers. Using a model of the school organisation by Gunnar Berg, three cases of school libraries are presented and analysed in a larger organisational and political perspective. According to Gunnar Berg the organisation of the comprehensive school is complex and has to deal with several conflicts inside the organisation. The history and the tradition of the Swedish school library are being presented and analysed as well as Swedish library law and national goals of the comprehensive school and school library. Lack of communication on the local level, local culture at the specific school involving informal rules and habits, are reasons of dysfunctioning school libraries in spite of an existing library law. Some of the interviewed express wishes for more public involvement.Uppsatsnivå: