What is the impact of the school library on pupils' personal development? A case study of a secondary school in Northern Ireland.

What is the perceived impact of the school library on pupils’ personal development? This paper reports on a case study of a secondary school (all girls, 11-18 years) in a disadvantaged area in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The study explores the impact of the school library in terms of personal development, and seeks to answer the question of how best to evaluate impact in this regard. Interviews and postal questionnaires are used to collect data from both school staff and parents. Data collected from the interviews with school staff show that staff regarded the school library as having a positive impact on pupils’ motivation to learn, and on their self-esteem and personal confidence during both formal learning activities in the library and periods of free access. The results of thesurvey of parents show that parents perceived that the activities of the school library contributed positively to pupils’ attitudes towards reading and the development of literacy skills. This paper makes a valuable contribution to how we demonstrate the impact of the school library and data is collected from a geographic area that is significantly under-represented in the research.