"For some time now, there has been rising concern about the steady decline in the performance of Australian students in international testing such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the stagnation or decline in various aspects of our National Assessment Program. At the same time, staffing levels of qualified teacher librarians (TLs) are dropping around the nation.This article examines the skills Australian students will need for the future and how school library staff and services support these skills. The results of an ongoing study into library staffing levels in Australian Capital Territory (ACT) schools are shared and discussed. Future implications for the library profession are identified here."

Written by Teacher Librarians, Holly Godfree and Olivia Neilson, the School Libraries Matter! article explores the links between declining student achievement levels and declining library staffing arrangement.

PDF Download with editor's note

This article was first published in ACCESS, Volume 32, Issue 1, March 2018 and is shared here with the authors' permission.