Selection of Resources

·      “A school library collection exists to meet the specific needs of the school.” (Interact Module 2)

Consider how you as a teacher librarian could best obtain the data needed to provide a clear and specific understanding of these aspects of your school and current collection? Is it a task that you, as teacher librarian, could be expected to undertake alone?

There are many ways to obtain the data required, however the TL needs to work out the most time effective in their setting. Was to obtain the data include, discussion with teaching staff, surverys of teachers and students, referring to the current curriculum documents, being involved in the planning process at the beginning of the year (or term), visiting the classrooms to see what is currently available and used. This is a huge task for a TL to undertake along, and he/she will need assistance from other staff to ensure the resources meet the curriculum needs. I guess it goes back to priorities.

Should librarians have the right to select what is included in the collection based on their specialist knowledge and skills in collection management, or should this responsibility be shared with others such as users or people with subject expertise that the library staff may not possess. To what degree should this responsibility be shared and who should have the final say in what is selected?

The TL I guess should have the final say but if the teaching staff are not involved in the process then the resources may not be used and therefore it is waste of money/time. I think a collaborative approach would be most effective to ensure that appropriate resources are selected. Although TLs have specialist knowledge in collection management, teachers have specialist knowledge of what they teach. Maybe the TL should be suggesting resources that may help and ask teachers to chose what would be most effective? Once again collaboration!

Having 2 people approve expensive items is good idea.

·      Hughes-Hassell and Mancall (2005, p.48) support the collaborative approach:

Building a collaborative access environment demands that [teacher librarians], teachers and other members of the learning community enter into a collaborative relationship and share authority for collection and access decisions … [teacher librarians] need to acknowledge and welcome the expertise that other members of the learning community, including students, bring to the table concerning electronic resources, delivery mechanisms and even print resources.

·      They suggest a number of ways in which this collaboration might occur:

Strategies for involving teachers and students in the selection process include conducting interest inventories with students; routing reviewing journals to teachers; attending faculty, departmental, or grade-level meetings to elicit input and discuss future purchases; routing bibliographies to teachers; and forming an advisory committee. Weblogs too provide a natural avenue for communicating with the wider learning community about collection development and for soliciting others’ input. (CSU Interact Module 2)

·      Kennedy, p. 37 Important to make good selection decisions especially in regards to print serials due to high costs now and in the future.

·      Kennedy, p. 40 – 41.The difficulties in selecting digital resources are immense!

·      Bishop and Van Orden (2007) list the formats found in school libraries as audio cassettes, books, CDs, CDROMS, comics, computer software, DVDs, E-books, E-journals, E-zines, games, graphic materials (e.g. posters, charts and study prints), kits, maps and globes, newspapers, online databases, pamphlets, periodicals, realia, slides, textbooks and related materials, toys, video cassettes and websites. (CSU Interacy Module 2). The list of resources that the TL is responsible is very large, I am amazed at the breadth and scope the TL needs to keep  track of!

Consider if the print format is of diminishing significance and value in school libraries? Do we need to focus more on adding digital resources to the collection and on digital collections, to meet the needs of users?

Print format is certainly being superseded by electronic, however (I hope) there will always a need for print format. In saying this, to remain current with student interests and teacher requirements then digital resources need to be added in greater numbers to meet the needs of users.

Latham and Poe

p. 260+. I am amazed at all the questions to be considered before purchasing ebooks. So much food for thought

List the issues raised in this comprehensive chapter concerning the selection and acquisition and discuss using the sub-forum for this section.

• ·      Cost: up front and ongoing
• ·      Availabilty: time available for and how many people can access the eresource at the same time.
• ·      Interface: is the resource easy for the user to access, use and search
• ·      Packages or individual titles
• ·      When buying print books, you can have 3 or 4 on the shelf….how does this work with eBooks…Can you order 3 or 4 or is it 1 or multi user? (p. 109)
• ·      Archival
• ·      Licensing: the library is responsible for negotiating a licensing agreement that meets its requirements (p.112)
• 
  

Gray Article

·      Am amazed at what can be done with ebooks. Cant believe that I haven’t thought of some of these strategies in my own study!

I just did  a few quick searches and my thoughts on the following:

 http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/resourcereviews/ It appeared simple to use, full of useful information. On a negative there was so picture of the resource.

http://education.qld.gov.au/library/resource/eval/index.html was password protected so not helpful at all.

http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/ seemed easy to nagivate though only seems to review children fiction

http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ This site was well set out with easy to use search engines. Had what appeared to be useful reviews.

What criteria do you feel a particular selection aid should meet before it is used, trusted and valued? How would these criteria vary, if at all, between the different types of selection aids?

• ·      Easy to navigate pages (or webpages)
• ·      Useful search engines
• ·      Unbiased reviews
• ·      Picture of resource
• ·      Cost and where available from

I have found it interesting that even items that have been donated to the library should fit the selection criteria. This has made me change and reevaluate the way I think about donations. My initial thoughts on donations were they were free so why say no, however this module has made me realize that if these donations don’t match the selection criteria for new resources then they shouldn’t be used! I guess the difficulty now for TLs is how to delicately, without offending the giver, not add certain donations to the collection 

Consider which is the more appropriate approach for determining the general selection criteria to be used in a school, the commonly used approach employed by Port Lincoln Primary School or the alternative proposed by Hughes-Hassell and Mancall? Can you suggest an alternative approach which would incorporate the teaching and learning environment within the key general selection criteria?

Within a school library collection, then I think that the model proposed by Hughes-Hassell and Mancall is more appropriate because we need to resource the curriculum and ensure that the resources we are acquiring are supporting the curriculum not just a great looking book. I wonder if the model used by Port Lincoln Primary School would be more applicable in a community library where the resources provided are of a more general nature.