Abstract:

We wanted to know how effective primary schools cooperate with public libraries on reading promotion. For this purpose, a small but complete survey of all the two educational institutions, the 33 primary schools and seven libraries, in a poorly educated district with about 350,000 inhabitants in a major German city was conducted with a semi-standardized questionnaire. The study was embedded in the final qualification thesis of a library studies course, here focusing on reading and library pedagogy. The three authors of this article present the difficulties that arise from doing research itself and, finally – after the evaluation of the data – for the concrete cooperation between schools and libraries.

The administrative and institutional hurdles experienced are contrasted with the research needs on this topic. Various international empirical studies, for example, on the self-assessed teaching skills in the field of digital literacy of German teachers (ICILS) and the reading competence results of German pupils (IGLU/PISA), show that there is still no satisfactory training situation and also no satisfactory educational situation in Germany in the area of the various literacy dimensions. Further needs arise from numerous public funding lines for libraries and cultural institutions, which deal with digital and analog reading promotion aspects. Efficiency-oriented quality assurance beyond the number of participants and satisfaction would also be helpful here for profiling, transmitting, and recommending suitable formats. Based on different perspectives from library and information science, librarian work, and teacher training, the article attempts to identify desiderata and uncertainties that stand in the way of constructive and sustainable cooperation between the two institutions – school and library. At the end of the analysis, there are considerations for the further qualification of the mediation institutions and their actors, as well as a shared and fear-free understanding of mutual self-images and external images, needs, expectations, and fundamental theoretical understandings.

Keywords:

Educational cooperations, reading literacy, educational research.