Abstract

Recently, the emphasis on self-directed learning and lifelong education is increasing the importance of school libraries in the curriculum. Accordingly, various studies have been conducted mainly from a structural, institutional and operational point of view. However, more research is necessary on the micro topics such as school library users’ autonomous intrinsic motivations in the sense that school libraries play key roles in autonomy-based self-directed education. This study aims at finding out what types of school library use motivations are more important and the degree to which the use motivations affect the school library service quality based on the self-determination theory. In addition, this study examines how the use motivations and the perceived service quality vary depending on the school grade of the library users. Based on a focus-group-interview pilot study, a questionnaire survey was administered on the effects of school library motivations on perceived library service quality to 588 students from 5 high schools and 2 middle schools in Seoul. When the service quality and its components, service affect, information control, and library as place were set as dependent variables, in all these four cases, intrinsic motivations were more significant than extrinsic motivations. In addition, when middle school students and high school students were selected as separate analysis target groups, the results of both analyses show that the higher the intrinsic motivations were, the higher the perceived service quality was. The contribution of this study is that it applies the self-determination theory to school library service, measures the influence of motivation type based on the theoretical basis, and focuses on micro aspects to improve school library services.