Development of the Avalon and Stone Harbor school library media programs: a case study

This case study was an attempt to discover the circumstances that prompted the Avalon and Stone Harbor schools to establish school library media centers and how each school district developed its program. The people who were personally involved in establishing the libraries and former students who attended the schools at the time each library was established were interviewed. Questionnaires were designed to collect oral history data. Archival documents, such as school board minutes, annual reports from the Cape May County Free Library, and New Jersey Department of Education records were consulted to verify the oral history information and provide additional details. The study found that both librarians kept pace with the development of New Jersey school libraries; however, both schools did not plan adequate space for growth. It recommends for future development all school library media centers leave space for growing collections, programs, and technology. Certain salient questions are still not answered, such as who selected the first collection for the Stone Harbor library? The researcher was unable to determine if the work of Mary Gaver influenced the establishment of these two libraries and if her bibliographic tool, The Elementary School Library Collection, was used to select the first collections