Abstract:

The Organic Law 2/2006, of May 3, of Education (LOE) in its article 2.2 emphasizes the promotion of reading and the use of the library among the factors that favor the quality of education to which public authorities must pay priority attention. In its article 113 it deepens in these aspects indicating that all the educational centers will have a scholastic library that will contribute to promote the reading so that the students can access information and other resources for the learning of the different areas and matters.

The school library is a privileged environment for the development of skills related to reading and processing information. Students' reading training, the acquisition of procedures that allow the use of multiple sources of information and documentation, the promotion of values in relation to the abundant information available to us today and the development of strategies for autonomous learning throughout life are some of the aims to which the school library contributes.

This paper explores the uses made by students in educational centers of non-university education of the Comunidad Autónoma of Galicia in the library of their school. For this purpose, a multistage proportional stratified sampling was selected, a total of 358 centers supported by public funds of the Comunidad Autónoma of Galicia in which 6,043 students were enrolled in primary, secondary and post-compulsory education. prepared ad hoc.

The variables covered by the study are: school and out-of-school hours of the library, frequency, times and modalities of student visits, general and information services, dissemination among the educational community, uses, participation with other libraries and documentation centers.

The main results show that, in general, students know the services offered by the library of their school; they usually go to the library accompanied by classmates and, less frequently, with teachers or alone, during recess periods, occasionally during class hours and, infrequently, after school hours. The frequency of use varies depending on the type of activity that is treated; Most of them tend to frequent the library to take books on loan, study, read, do work and consult information, and less often to use the computer, access the internet, take part in activities to promote reading, receive training and do research.

Keywords:

School library, Reading, students, Primary School, Secondary School.