Information activity in a school library: services, methods and efficiency

SUMMARY. INFORMATION ACTIVITY IN A SCHOOL LIBRARY: SERVICES, METHODS AND EFFICIENCY Today information society‘s life cannot be imagined without skills which children will need in the future not only at school but also in everyday life and later at work. So school libraries have to collect a fund necessary for learning as well as teach to use it. This topic is relevant because consistent practical application of information skills at school provides the basis for children‘s future and their information abilities. The aim of this work is to shows influence of school libraries in developing skills of information activity in comprehensive schools in Lithuania by analysing school library services, methods of their implementation and efficiency. The task of this work is to find out which information activity is done by school libraries, to analyse services provided by school libraries and their availability for a school community, to find out methods used by school libraries to develop skills of information literacy and legal documents as well as recommendations regulating school libraries activity, to give practical and efficient examples of information literacy teaching and to analyse if provided services and used methods are efficient. The object of this Master‘s paper is information activity in school libraries. The goal of this work is to analyse development of information skills in school libraries, school library services, used methods and their efficiency. The following methods are used in this paper: nonfiction, document analysis, comparison, inductive, deductive and empirical. Nonfiction, comparison and inductive methods were used to draw a conclusion that school libraries engage in information activity for their school community. Information activity is related to services provided by libraries, service providers – school librarians and consumers of these services. In order to have efficient development of information skills researchers provide a variety of models and methods that can help to find and use information. Librarian‘s competence, collaboration between a school librarian and school community are essential in using methods of information skills development. Empirical short-term practical research in Lithuanian comprehensive schools helped to draw a conclusion that services provided by school libraries and used methods are efficient in development of information skills. Although school librarians face financial problems, information activity is smooth, various methods are used and new methods that could improve quality of provided services are searched for