The South Australian school library survey conducted in Term 4 of 2008 assessed 360 schools, revealing a teacher librarian allocation in only 23% of responding schools. The average student-to-teacher librarian ratio was 609:1, with significant variations across different school types and regions. Moreover, 28% of primary schools and 15% of area/K-12 schools reported having no teacher librarian allocation at all.

1. SA School Library Survey Term 4 2008

2. Methodology Survey mailed to all SA schools Online survey tool (Moodle) Fax and mail responses entered into online form

3. Respondents = 360 SA Total Schools DECS=575 (76%) Catholic=80 (11%) Independent=98 (13%)

4. School levels Prim = 227 Sec = 74 Other = 59

5. Library experience of staff

6. Teaching experience of staff

7. Succession planning

8. Teaching staff library quals

9. Qualifications assistant staff

10. Dual qualified staff 206 schools reported having a staff member in the library with dual library and teaching qualifications 82 schools with TL allocation but no staff member reporting dual qualifications

11. Teacher librarian allocations 84 out of 360 (23%) schools reported NO teacher librarian allocation Student : Teacher Librarian ratio range lowest: 134 : 1 (Area School) highest: 4500 : 1 (Country H.S. ie part-time TL) average ratio across all types of school 609 : 1

12. TL allocation primary DECS formula recommends average of 473 students per full time TL SA primary schools average 514 students to 1 full time TL Lowest = 53:1 Highest = 2650:1 55 (28%) of SA primary schools have no Teacher Librarian

13. TL allocation secondary DECS formula recommends average of 467 students to 1 full time TL SA Secondary schools average 742 students to 1 full time TL Lowest = 187:1 Highest = 4500:1 3 SA secondary schools have no Teacher Librarian

14. TL allocation other schools SA Area/K-12 schools average 519 students to 1 full time TL Lowest = 90:1 Highest = 4133:1 9 (15%) of South Australian Area schools and K-12 schools have no Teacher Librarian

15. Total library staff time Average ratio of students per hour of total library staff in SA schools = 8.19 Lowest ratio = 0.36 Highest ratio = 45.00

16. Library coordinator positions 30 schools reported Library Coordinator positions ranging from 0.1 to 1.8 EFT per school 5 PS 15 Sec 10 Area/K-12 15 Gov 10 Catholic 5 Independent

17. SLASA membership

18. Further analysis SLASA newsletters SLASA website: Advocacy menu Comparison with ASLA-ECU national survey data Attempt to get quantitative responses from non-respondent schools