Canadian School Libraries in the Neoliberal Era
A New Vision for Teacher-Librarians in the 1980s Ontario library class, 1980s The growth of elementary and secondary schools for two decades after 1960 led to the rapid development of school library facilities, improved collections, and qualified staffing on an unprecedented scale. Statistics Canada reported in 1979 that 72 percent of Canadian schools operated a centralized library (8,201) serving 85 percent of the total school population (3,698,512). However, only 47 percent of these schools had a full-time professional librarian/media professional due to the large number of rural and smaller schools. Total staffing reported as 5,171: there were 451 professional librarians, 3,390 other professionals, and 1,330 support staff. The average material expenditure per secondary school library was about three times larger than that per elementary school library. Throughout this thriving period, school librarianship had entailed the promotion of a general model program based on the role of ...