New Zealand primary school libraries : flourishing, fallow or forsaken?

Abstract

There has always been diversity in the standards of the New Zealand primary school libraries. Surveys and research conducted over the past 60 years have repeatedly provided similar recommendations to encourage better use of school libraries' potential and to improve school library standards nationally. These recommendations have relied on the Ministry of Education for implementation but have often been ignored. In the process of examining the pertinent surveys and research, this critical essay considers some of the economic, political and social factors which have been instrumental in creating the current, widely varied school library situation.