Abstract
The study investigated the status of school library management manuals, analyzed the contents, and elucidated general trends as well as differences among manuals depending on their target readership. We distributed questionnaires to prefectural boards of education, boards of education belonging to local governments in Tokyo, and prefectural school library associations; 70 responses were collected (response rate: 45.4%). The analysis revealed that many school library management manuals intended to present ideas for activating school library management. It also revealed differences in what different manuals emphasized depending on their target readership. Manuals for teacher librarians and teachers in charge of libraries had a tendency to serve as guides for educating people on effective use of school libraries, while manuals with a broader readership provided devices that facilitated utilization of the manuals by various readers regardless of background and experience.
