Evaluación del impacto de las bibliotecas escolares en Españaaproximación desde una doble perspectiva metodológica cuantitativa y cualitativa

Resumen

This research deals with the school libraries impact evaluation, by adopting the international standard on library impact ISO 16439 as a conceptual framework and methodological guide. The state of the art of library evaluation as well as the evolution of this matter from the perspective of performance and quality evaluation to impact evaluation studies is reviewed. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the contribution of school libraries to the educational system in Spain, by combining both quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches. According to ISO 16439, three areas of library impact are analysed: 1) impact on individuals (including changes in skills and competences, changes in attitudes and behaviour, higher success in study or career and individual well-being); 2) impact on the library’s institution or community; and 3) impact on society. Firstly, we used the Spanish datasets released from the PISA 2009 and PIRLS 2016 international studies to perform the quantitative analysis. Then, average results on reading literacy of two different groups were compared: pupils that have access to library resources and use them, and those pupils that don’t have access to library resources or, even if they could, they hardly use them. The results confirm that, in Primary School, school libraries positively influence four dimensions of reading skills: Reading for literary experience; Reading to acquire and use information; Retrieving and Straightforward Inferencing and Interpreting, Integrating, and Evaluating. The positive effect on reading to acquire and use information is confirmed as the main impact. Concerning library resources, the quality of library collection as well as having access to digital books positively influence reading performance. As for Secondary School, pupils that have a positive attitude towards libraries get better results in reading performance. Concerning library resources, borrowing books for reading for pleasure as well as borrowing books for school work positively influence reading performance. Secondly, a case study which is focused on a Spanish school library is performed. The school library from the Virrey Morcillo Primary School (Villarrobledo, Albacete, Spain) forms part of a school library network: the Grupo Cooperativo Bibliotecas Escolares en Red – BERED- (Albacete). This representative, information-rich case was selected from a sample of Spanish school libraries. As a research strategy, we registered the libraries impact as it was perceived by the teachers. Different techniques were used for questioning them about their perception and experience of library effects. Among them, online surveys, interviews, focus groups, and analysis of documents, including official documents and a blog. Then, four steps procedure was performed to analyse qualitative data: identification of relevant information, their categorization, verification and synthesis, and interpretation. The special software ATLAS.ti, was used to run the analysis. xv Results corroborate that school library is perceived as an efficient resource which contributes to improve reading literacy skills, especially those informational skills. Also, it is perceived to foster related competencies, i.e., critical thinking, creativity, digital skills and communicative and linguistic skills. The quality of library collection is the most valued library resource, when it is used in specific projects and when formative and reading promotion activities are planned. Also, the school library encourages changes in attitudes and behaviour. It is perceived to foster pupils and teacher’s motivation. Moreover, it is considered to encourage the families involvement in pupils’ learning process. Pupils learn values and behavioural rules and strengthen their sense of belonging towards their school. Also, it is perceived to give visibility to educational work. As for the impact on the library’s institution or community, it is perceived to contribute to the achievement of educational goals and objectives: 1) it gives support to learning and teaching objectives, including curricular enhancement, learning and teaching methodologies and working with new technological resources; 2) it fosters cohesion among all learning community members and helps equity; 3) it helps create cooperative alliances and networks. Concerning the impact on the society, it is perceived that the school library collaborates with other learning and cultural entities for cooperation projects. Further research on the impact of school libraries in different geographical and sociocultural contexts should be done for comparative purposes. For example, comparing the impact of school libraries in different Spanish regions. It also should be studied their impact on other competencies, comparing educational levels. Finally, it is recommended to use the ISO 16439 as a conceptual framework and methodological guide in further research on school libraries impact. Moreover, it is recommended to combine both quantitative and qualitative approaches for a better understanding of libraries’ impact.