An Investigation and Comparison of High-School Teachers and Students of Ahvaz Viewpoints on the Necessity of School Libraries and Librarians

Purpose: The purpose of the research is to compare the viewpoints of Ahvaz high-school teachers and students about the necessity of existence of school libraries and professional librarians, to determine the position of libraries in the education system. Methodology: Present research is a survey and the research population includes all the teachers and high school students of Ahvaz city in the academic year 1391-92. The data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire and t-test and analysis mean scores were applied. In this study, subscales consisted of necessity of existence of school libraries, necessity of existence of professional librarians, the curriculum relevance to school library resources and services, and the amount of "ketabyar" ability in answering the information needs of teachers and students were examined. Findings: The results showed that students and teachers are persistent for the necessity of school library. It seems that Students were suspicious about abilities of “Ketabyar” (a master student as librarian) in handling school library. Also, The results showed that there were significant differences among teachers and students' viewpoints in subscales of necessity of existence of school libraries, the curriculum relevance to school library resources and services, and the amount of "ketabyar" ability in answering student’s information needs. Originality/value: this research is valuable in showing the necessity of school library and librarian in Iran and the fact that “Ketabyar” as librarian is unreliable. Iranian schools nowadays approximately don’t have good conditioned school libraries and the ministry of education has banned employment of educated librarians for handling school libraries.