School Libraries in Australia

Yearbook Australia 2003 reports that in August 2001 there were 9596 schools in Australia (2003:305). It can be claimed with confidence that each of these has a library and that a member or members of the school staff have specific responsibility for its operation. That this is so is primarily an achievement of the Library Association of Australia (LAA), the predecessor of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and subsequently of ALIA itself and other professional groups such as the Australian School Library Association (ASLA). However, while ASLA and state-based teacher librarian professional groups have played their part in the development of school libraries and their staffing their existence can be attributed the LAA campaign of the 1960s aimed at increasing the presence of libraries in schools.