International studies have shown that school libraries are a suitable instrument to promote literacy. However, in Germany school libraries have not been in the educational and scientific focus so far. A survey of school principals was performed in the context of the National Report on Education in 2012, thus contributing current data on school libraries. This article reports on the results of this survey and introduces the school library as a new field in educational research.

Keywords
school libraries, quality of school libraries, promoting literacy, survey of school principals, National Report on Education