Effectiveness of Students’ Use of Library: A Case of Public Secondary Schools in Ilala District, Tanzania

Abstract

The study pursued to establish the extent of school library use in improving students’ reading habits among the public secondary schools of Ilala District. Descriptive-correlation design was employed to describe the effectiveness of students’ use of school libraries in their schools, to describe the ratings of the students’ reading habits in their schools as well as to explain the relationship between the use of libraries and the reading habits of students. Out of 3954-targeted students, 363 students were randomly sampled to participate in this study. Self-administered questionnaire forms were distributed to 363 students and 357 forms were filled and returned for analysis. The collected data was analyzed with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Science software. The study found that library usage among the secondary students of Ilala District is lower since the majority of the students were less effective in utilizing the libraries in their schools. Secondly, it was established that the student's reading habit is yet unsatisfactory since the majority of the students read occasionally. The primary purpose of reading among the majority of the students is for entertainment because if they happened to visit the libraries, they were fond of reading news about sports and games. The study therefore recommends that school administration, teachers and education policymakers see to it that library and library facilities become a mandatory requirement.