The State in the Bookshelf: The Australian Federal Government, Victorian State Government and the Victorian Secondary School Library

Abstract

This study looks at the history of the Victorian secondary school library from the perspective that Australian Federal and Victorian State Government policies that have been enacted in education have affected the school library and those that work in it. The study comprises of two sections: The first of these is an historical analysis of the events of the school library and the government policies that may have had an impact on them since 1973 and the introduction of the Schools in Australia report by Interim Committee for the Schools Commission. This includes the Green Paper on Strategies and Structures for Education in Victoria and the White Paper on Strategies and Structures for Education in Victorian Government Schools, both written in 1980, the Kennett Government‟s Schools of the Future reforms in 1990s Victoria, and the impact of the Federal Government‟s Building the Education Revolution and Digital Education Revolution on school libraries and teacher librarians today. The second section to this study is the undertaking of a case study on three Victorian secondary school libraries; one from each of the type of schools in Victoria – an independent school, a Catholic school, and a state school. It was found in the case studies that the strength of the impact of the government policies on the school library is dependent on the attitudes of the principal executive.