Job Structure of Elementary School Library Staff in Japan.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the job structure of the staff (teacher librarians/ senior teachers with library management duties and school librarians) who work in elementary school libraries that function as media, information, and learning centers. Methods: In 2007, a questionnaire was sent to the staff of elementary school libraries in eleven cities. The number of responses received was 356 out of 876 (41%) from 223 elementary schools. The results were analyzed using deviation value, cluster analysis, and factor analysis. Results: (1)The job structure of school library staff had four dimensions: central services, fundamental services, selective services, and peripheral services from points of view of performance and needs of jobs. (2)Staff whose school libraries functioned as media, information, and learning centers did not perform most of advanced jobs needed high technical skills. (3) School library staff had three recognitions (as domains) of planned administration, support of pupil's learning, and organization of materials in school library management. And those recognitions influenced distribution of duties between teacher librarians/ senior teachers with library management duties and school librarians. In conclusion, the author proposes a model for the job structure of school library staff with four dimensions and three domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]