Oliver Library Software
LearnPathAbout the Softlink School Library Survey
The Softlink Europe, Middle East, and Africa School Library Survey is open until 16 December 2019. We hope you take this opportunity to have your say on the trends and issues facing school libraries.
About the survey
The original Softlink School Library Survey was initiated in 2010 to form a response to an Australian Government’s Inquiry into school libraries and teacher librarians in Australian schools.
Since then, to highlight the issues and opportunities school libraries experience, Softlink has continued to survey school libraries annually. The Survey has now grown to include the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
In 2019, we decided to change the format of the EMEA survey, and removed questions about budgets and staffing which have already been addressed by the survey conducted by the Great School Libraries campaign. Instead we have focused on trends, policies, practices and other issues that could impact school libraries.
Survey responses will be used to develop resources to promote and support school libraries, and to create feature documents that share the voice of school library staff globally through anonymous comments and feedback received in the survey.
Go to Survey
How we use the results
1. The Softlink UK School Library Survey Report
The full report is published to our website early the following year and gives a complete breakdown of findings. You can access the 2018 Softlink UK & Europe School Library Survey Report here.
2. Feature documents
Open-ended questions at the end of the survey provide participants with the opportunity to more personally voice their views and ideas. As themes emerge we collate these comments and share the voice of school library staff in feature articles.
To access feature documents from previous years, click here.
3. Articles
Comments provided in the school library survey are used to inform articles written for external publications. Click on the link below to access one of these.
Synergy, May 2018, Clear collaboration goals for school libraries
4. Blog posts
Sharing the voice of school library staff and their innovative ideas and thoughts is important to us. We also include comments in blog posts that we think will be of interest or useful to you. You can access a sample below.
5. Infographics
Statistics and comments help us to provide snapshots around themes in infographics such as the two below.