Well-designed and well-planned library school programmes and services are
essential to improve the development of reading and information literacy skills,
particularly of the learners, which are crucial for the acquisition of life-long learning
and independent study and accessing skills. However, because of inadequate
and inefficient school library services in most South African schools, teachers
and learners are deprived of opportunities to benefit and practically learn library
programmes essential for the acquisition of knowledge, skills, competencies,
values and orientations. They are also denied fundamental library services
due to them. Based on one part of the research project which investigated the
resource provision in public high schools in Limpopo province, South Africa, the
purpose of this article is to investigate the programmes and services offered
by the different library facilities in public high schools in Limpopo province. Although the study took a largely quantitative research design, it was mixed
with qualitative data collection methods. Self-administered questionnaires were
used to collect quantitative data from the principals or teacher-librarians, while
an interview schedule was used to collect qualitative data from the education
officials through face-to-face interviews. The findings established that owing to
lack of functional libraries in most schools, there are very few schools offering
library services and programmes. The study recommends that the national
Department of Basic Education (DBE) should ensure that a school library policy
with clearly defined library programmes and services is formulated, approved
and implemented as a matter of urgency.