The Texas Library Connection network: Usage by school library media specialists related to the stages of concern

The Texas Library Connection (TLC) is a statewide network serving school library media centers with a bibliographic database of member library holdings and access to selected commercial indexing and full-text databases. To ascertain the impact of selected factors on the use of TLC and on the concerns of library media specialists about using TLC, a survey was constructed which contains the Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ), a part of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM). Research questions include: (1) relationship between size of district, frequency of usage and type of usage of TLC; (2) relationship between TLC training and SoC scores; (3) relationship between the type of usage of TLC and SoC scores; (4) relationship between the presence of district library leadership and SoC scores; (5) relationship between the type of Internet connection and frequency of TLC usage; and (6) relationship between district presence of centralized processing and type of TLC usage. The population is composed of library media specialists whose campuses became members of TLC during years one and two of the project. Campuses were stratified into four groups based on size of school district student population, and surveys were sent to 25% of each subgroup. Important findings include: a strong relationship between size of district and most-used TLC function, and size of district and least-used TLC function; a positive relationship between TLC training and means of SoC scores; and lower SoC means for those respondents who, didn't have a librarian as administrator than for those respondents who did. TLC is used for a variety of purposes and appears to meet the needs of librarians in different situations and sizes of districts. Research recommendations included replication of the study at a point when interlibrary loan is more strongly established, investigation of why some librarians don't use TLC, and a study validating use of SoCQ with school librarians. Policy recommendations included differentiation of TLC training to meet user concerns, strengthening campus access to funds for technology infrastructure, and continuing investigation of ways to add useful components to TLC.