An Evaluation of Students’ and Teachers’ Opinions About Enriched Libraries (Z-Libraries)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate Enriched libraries, established in schools in Turkey in the recent years. In particular, the study intended to investigate how relevant, effective, useful and functional Enriched libraries have been in real life, regarding students’ and teachers’ opinions. The research was conducted in line with the mixed model approach. In other words, both the quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in the research. Quantitative data was gathered from 469 students from one primary school, two secondary schools and two high schools with an enriched library in Giresun/Turkey in 2017-2018 academic year and the qualitative data was obtained from 18 teachers. Two types of data collection tools were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data in the study. Quantitative data of the research was collected from the students through the Z-Library Student Assessment Questionnaire developed by the researcher. The qualitative data of the study were collected from the teachers by the semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher. Quantitative data of the study were analyzed using the SPSS statistical package program. In the analysis of the qualitative data descriptive analysis techniques were used to interpret the data. The results obtained from the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data were evaluated and interpreted together. According to the results of the survey, students and teachers think that they are appropriate, effective, functional and useful in compliance with the purpose of establishing Z-Library; they meet the expectations.