Schools lack adequate libraries: NGO
Umut Erdem – ANKARA
Only 1,470 of the 65,000 public schools across Turkey have libraries, the head of a librarians association has said.
Turkish universities, including 129 state-run and 73 foundation-owned, house 564 libraries in total, the Turkish Librarians Association President Ali Fuat Kartal told daily Hürriyet on July 29.
“If the students want to receive a decent education, they should first check the library of a university. Some universities allocate money for advertisements, but they don’t allocate money for research,” he said.
There is only one library per 9,000 university students, he said, quoting the 2017 data of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).
Turkish universities have 710 databases in total, whereas the Technical University of Berlin has 2,600 databases, said Kartal.
Bookshelves do not count as libraries
“Some 26,000 school libraries have been mentioned in the 2017 library data announced by the TÜİK. However, when you have a look at the School Libraries Guideline of the Ministry of Education, you will see that there are 1,470 school libraries, which could actually be defined as libraries,” he said, adding that bookshelves do not count as libraries.
There is not a single information and document management graduate employed at those libraries, he also said.
