Professional work and learning with smartphones: a comparative study of school librarians from Australia, Hong Kong and United Kingdom

Abstract

The study explores the role of mobile technologies in school librarians‟ daily work and professional learning and development. The aim of the study is to examine how school librarians search, access, use and share information via their smartphones, what smartphone functionalities they use for these purposes, and what apps and social media are most frequently used. The study is based on empirical research conducted on a sample of school librarians/teacher librarians in Australia, Hong Kong and United Kingdom. Data were collected with online survey. The major finding of this study is that school librarians in Australia and Hong Kong widely use smartphone technologies for their daily needs and for professional work and learning. Various smartphone functionalities tools are used to satisfy these varied needs. Also school librarians from Hong Kong use various smartphone functionalities more frequently than study participants from Australia and UK. Barriers to smartphone use are also discussed but it seems that they do not detract school librarians from using smartphone technologies for their daily professional activities.