The main purpose of this study was to identify the major obstacles to cooperation as perceived by school library media specialists in the state of Mississippi and to determine if members of the Coastal Mississippi Library Cooperative (CMLC) believe that there are fewer obstacles to cooperation than do non-members. The secondary purpose was to evaluate the CMLC to some extent to determine if success was achieved through organization when defined by the variables, planning, governance, funding, communication, administration, and evaluation. The population of the study was all of the librarians (academic, public, school, and special) in the six-county area which comprises the CMLC, and a random sample of public school librarians throughout the remainder of the state. All of the school librarians were sent a questionnaire that requested their responses to statements of barriers to cooperation. All of the librarians in the CMLC region were sent a questionnaire to obtain their perceptions of participation in the CMLC. Pour librarians, members of the CMLC, were Interviewed to obtain information on the organizational factors of the CMLC. Data received from school library media specialists were submitted to various statistical tests. The Chi-Square statistic was used on the demographic portion of the questionnaire, which revealed that four of the variables and the dependent variable, membership in the CMLC, were significantly different. A t-test performed on the barriers to cooperation section produced no significant differences between the member and non-member responses. The perceptions of participation in the CMLC data revealed that there were differences among the four library systems (academic, public, school, and special) involved, but most of the respondents considered the CMLC to be successful. Data from the interview also revealed that the CMLC was successful in its organization. Due to the overall low response to the survey, the stated hypotheses could not be accepted; however, many of the findings and implications should be useful in helping to eliminate several obstacles to cooperation in Mississippi.

For school libraries to sufficiently contribute to better information skills’ development and creation of a culture of lifelong learning among students, they require backing through well articulated policies both at national and individual school level. This study investigated the prevailing status of school libraries in public secondary schools in Nairobi County, Kenya. Using a survey research design, with a response rate of 68% for school principals and 66% for school librarians, this study established that although the majority of the schools had school libraries, these were individual schools’ efforts. There were no government policies on school libraries and most of the schools lacked explicit library policies. Additionally, they had not embraced contemporary trends in technology and the major impediment was lack of financial support. The study concluded that school libraries in Nairobi County were inadequately resourced and supported and recommended that the government of Kenya should come up with national policies that will entrench school libraries in the education system. / Information Science / MA (Information Science)

For school libraries to sufficiently contribute to better information skills’ development and creation of a culture of lifelong learning among students, they require backing through well articulated policies both at national and individual school level. This study investigated the prevailing status of school libraries in public secondary schools in Nairobi County, Kenya. Using a survey research design, with a response rate of 68% for school principals and 66% for school librarians, this study established that although the majority of the schools had school libraries, these were individual schools’ efforts. There were no government policies on school libraries and most of the schools lacked explicit library policies. Additionally, they had not embraced contemporary trends in technology and the major impediment was lack of financial support. The study concluded that school libraries in Nairobi County were inadequately resourced and supported and recommended that the government of Kenya should come up with national policies that will entrench school libraries in the education system. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)