School Library Evaluation and User Satisfaction in Japan

In recent years in Japan, school libraries are beginning to be required to conduct evaluations as part of their schools’ management plan. The currently utilized School Library Evaluation Form (2008) is antiquated, and does not match the present conditions of the school libraries, nor does it address user satisfaction. In this study, I created a new School Library Evaluation Form, and investigated the validity of the form in correlation to the level of satisfaction of the school library users. First, I created two forms, School Library Evaluation Form and School Library User Satisfaction Survey, and then conducted a questionnaire survey in elementary schools. In each school, the School Library Evaluation Form was collected from one school library teacher, and the School Library User Satisfaction Surveys were collected from two teachers. Then, I analyzed the correlation between the level of achievement and the level of satisfaction. As a result of correlation analysis, major questionnaire categories in the School Library Evaluation Form that were related to the services directly provided by the library to the users, including 1.Facilities and Equipment, 2.Library service, and 3.Guidance and Support showed correlation with the data from the School Library User’s Satisfaction Survey. Thus, the validity was satisfied. In contrast, no correlation was seen in the major questionnaire categories related to indirect services provided by the library to the users, including 4.Management and Operation, 5.Organization, and 6.Collaboration and Cooperation. In addition, since the new School Library Evaluation Form included one hundred items which was a burden to the respondents, I also experimented with developing an abridged version of the form including fifty items and using the same method as described above.