Abstract:

In contemporary education, the school library surpasses the role of book lending and is shaped as a multidimensional learning environment that supports students’ cognitive, social and emotional development. Based on the premise that emotional well-being and motivation are key prerequisites for successful learning and that affective dimensions are often insufficiently and systematically addressed in schools, this paper examines music therapy as an information-communication model of support that naturally fits the library setting. The theoretical framework connects neuroscientific explanations of music’s effects on emotion regulation and attention with pedagogical approaches to experiential and collaborative learning, alongside the concept of the library as a safe “third space” for creativity, reflection and inclusion.

The central research question is: how can the school library function as an emotional and motivational hub through the application of music therapy? Accordingly, the aims are:
(1) to examine the effects of guided music workshops on students’ emotion regulation, empathy, motivation, and overall well-being and
(2) to explore how such interventions reshape the professional role of the school librarian toward facilitating students’ socio-emotional development.

The empirical component is designed as applied school research using a mixed-methods approach and a pre–post design in one primary school. Participants are students aged 10–14 engaged in a seven-week cycle of library-based workshops (45–60 minutes). The quantitative component employs short Likert scales across four domains (emotion regulation; empathy and social skills; perception of the library and motivation; subjective well-being) with reliability checks. The qualitative component comprises semi-structured interviews with students, teachers, and librarians, observation notes, and students’ reflective entries, analysed using thematic analysis. Ethical principles of informed consent, voluntariness and anonymity were observed.

The paper’s contribution is an operationalised model for integrating music therapy into library practice with clear organisational and didactic elements (workshop structure, participant roles, principles of a safe environment), together with implications for positioning the school library as a dynamic centre of well-being, culture and knowledge. Limitations include a single-school sample and the absence of a control group; future work should pursue longitudinal and comparative studies of different arts-based interventions and their influence on school culture and community relations. The paper thus offers a feasible framework for designing and evaluating library programmes that systematically cultivate students’ emotional literacy, empathy and motivation, while also contributing to the global dialogue on socio-emotional learning by positioning the school library as a holistic environment that integrates arts, information and emotional literacy.

Keywords:

Music therapy, school library, emotion regulation, empathy, student motivation.