The Value and Issues of Opening University Libraries to High School Students: Based on a Survey Investigating the Processes by which Japanese High School Students Use University Libraries

Abstract

Some university libraries offer outreach services in the form of making their facilities and resources available to high school students, and there are many reports on practices by librarians in this regard. However, research has not sufficiently examined the advantages of university library use from the high school students' perspective, as well as the issues of their use. This study's objective is to clarify the awareness of high school students who have been granted access to university libraries and the process leading to their usage thereof. Using semi-structured interviews as the survey method, the study targeted 11 graduates of high schools that had offered students access to university libraries. Analysis of utterance records using a modified grounded theory approach deduced a model for thought and behavior. The results showed that in terms of resources, high school students often use university libraries in order to obtain information unavailable elsewhere, and this usage may contribute to improvement in their capacities and support for exploratory study. In terms of space, however, university libraries are often used only as a study space, which is an application that is interchangeable with other libraries, indicating that in some cases students are failing to make use of spatial functions unique to university libraries.