District library media directors face dual demands including competition for limited educational dollars and the need to meet increasingly sophisticated student research requests. To solve these dilemmas, many districts are automating their schools' library media centers. Quality Education Data (QED) is an education research firm providing information about America's schools. In 1995, QED, together with Nichols Advanced Technologies, the provider of two library automation systems, surveyed 17,880 public school districts in the United States. Surveys were completed by 3,722 library services coordinators, achieving a response rate of 21%. Almost half of school library media centers are fully automated, including both circulation and cataloguing. Major impediments to automation are cost, lack of equipment, and lack of time. Survey results also cover the following topics: (1) level of automation in libraries and media centers; (2) library media center software purchasing intentions; (3) importance of library media center automation; (4) reasons for automation; (5) impediments to automation; (6) predominant computer brands in library media centers; (7) additional applications for library media center automation software; (8) market share by brand of automation software; (9) amount of software training and support; (10) key decision makers; and (11) sources of information for the automation decision-making process. An appendix contains the survey instrument. (Author/SWC)