School Library Media Center Web Sites in North Carolina

This study synthesizes and applies current criteria for quality school library media center (SLMC) websites to a random sample of web sites from public schools in the state of North Carolina and then compares the results to findings of earlier studies by Poe, Jurkowski, and Baumbach. Twenty web sites were accessed on 1 June 2005 and compared. Although the expectation was that the SLMC web sites would show considerable advances since a similar study conducted by Kimberly Poe in 1999, such was not the case. In comparison with more recent and larger studies by Jurkowski and Baumbach, the sampled web sites do not show any significant advances, with the possible exception of the North Carolina web sites placing more emphasis on either of the important service areas: information literacy and reading encouragement. Half of the study sites emphasized features of either information literacy skills or reading encouragement, but not both. Two high schools, one middle school, and one elementary school included only information literacy skills features. The six schools featuring only reading encouragement elements were all elementary schools. This result may be an artifact of the small sample size or it may reflect programmatic preferences. A future study examining this is recommended