Libraries in secondary schools: a report on the libraries of secondary schools in Victoria, with suggestions for a post-war plan for school libraries prepared for the Australian Institute of Librarians (Victorian Branch)

In order to ascertain the present position with regard to library provision in Victorian secondary education, questionnaires were sent to 91 schools, 50 government and 41 private. Answers were received from 51. No replies were received from 37 schools, while 3 schools explained that circumstances prevented them at that time from complying with our request. Although it is to be regretted that 37 schools failed to return replies, we may reasonably assume that this negative result indicates that most of these schools either have no library, or that the library is so small that it was not considered worth while reporting on it. The following figures show the range and type of school represented in the answers received: Private schools 19 (14 metropolitan, 5 country). Government schools 32 (4 metropolitan High Schools, 11 Technical and Domestic Arts Schools, 17 country High Schools). The number of pupils in the individual schools varied from 107 to 1,100; the total number was 22,666. Since government and private schools exist side by side in Victoria under entirely different systems of control, it has been considered advisable, in some instances, to give separately the figures for each type of school