Teacher Librarian as Collection Manager
At the beginning of ETL503, I knew very little about the decisions and responsibilities regarding collection development, having had no experience with this area of a teacher-librarian’s job. Throughout the course of the subject and my later completion of ETL501 and ETL505, my knowledge and understanding grew substantially. At this stage it was all theoretical, however, and it wasn’t until I began my placement that I began making connections between my coursework and the real world of teacher-librarianship. This page will detail the development of my understanding of collection management.
Managing a school library collection is a multi-faceted task, and the number one priority is to ensure the collection meets the needs of the users (Kennedy, 2006). During ETL503 I learnt about collection development and the processes teacher-librarians should go through in order to create a collection that meets curricular, reading needs and student interests. I was surprised to learn that the selection process for new resources was very complex, but after completing Assignment 1, I had an appreciation for why this process was necessary. While simply choosing resources on particular curricular areas can be a tempting way to save time, an ad hoc approach can fill the collection with resources that are not necessarily useful to its users. The teacher-librarian needs to consider the reading level of the students using the resources (Vardell, Hadoway & Young, 2006), as well as the quality and presentation of the material. For this reason, reviews should be consulted, or better still, resources should be reviewed in person to ascertain their suitability (St Joseph’s Primary School, 2007, p.4), using strict selection criteria. During my placement I noticed that many of the non-fiction texts were old and/or unappealing. This resulted in students not borrowing these resources, and being disinterested in using them in class.
The second assignment for ETL503 further strengthened my understanding of the necessity of properly selecting (and weeding) resources. In this assignment I created my own Collection Development Policy, based on a fictional library. I had to consider the criteria I would use for selecting, acquiring and weeding resources, as well as the processes for dealing with challenged materials. I learnt that having these documents in your library is extremely important, as it keeps you accountable to yourself and your school and provides evidence of the work you put into the collection. Although at this stage it was purely theoretical, I know I will be able to use this assignment as a template for my own library one day.
Click here to view my Collection Development Policy
In the 21st century collection management involves more than just managing the physical collection. It also involves managing e-resources. The collection must meet the needs of all kinds of learners (Hughes-Hassell and Mancall, 2005), and interactive and visual websites are an excellent way to meet the learning needs of visual and kinaesthetic learners. During ETL501 I had the opportunity to put what I had learnt about selection criteria into practice when creating my own pathfinder for Stage 3 students. During this process I had to carefully select resources that my students would understand, and cater to students with both high and low reading levels. Creating pathfinders is another way librarians can make their collection accessible to their students. These pathfinders point students in the direction of resources that are going to be useful for particular topics they are studying (Kuntz, 2003), and highlights resources that are at their reading level, which helps prevent student disillusionment and disinterest. This assignment not only taught me to use Weebly, but also got me thinking about the suitability of most websites for primary school research. Although I think I knew it deep down, the assignment really impressed upon me how difficult it must be for young children to do research when they only have Google as a guide.
My understanding of how to best enable users to find resources was further strengthened during ETL505, which taught me about professional cataloguing standards. If the quality resources selected for the collection cannot be found by users, there is little point in having them at all. Thus the catalogue must be designed with the users in mind.
Managing a school library collection is a multi-faceted task, and the number one priority is to ensure the collection meets the needs of the users (Kennedy, 2006). During ETL503 I learnt about collection development and the processes teacher-librarians should go through in order to create a collection that meets curricular, reading needs and student interests. I was surprised to learn that the selection process for new resources was very complex, but after completing Assignment 1, I had an appreciation for why this process was necessary. While simply choosing resources on particular curricular areas can be a tempting way to save time, an ad hoc approach can fill the collection with resources that are not necessarily useful to its users. The teacher-librarian needs to consider the reading level of the students using the resources (Vardell, Hadoway & Young, 2006), as well as the quality and presentation of the material. For this reason, reviews should be consulted, or better still, resources should be reviewed in person to ascertain their suitability (St Joseph’s Primary School, 2007, p.4), using strict selection criteria. During my placement I noticed that many of the non-fiction texts were old and/or unappealing. This resulted in students not borrowing these resources, and being disinterested in using them in class.
The second assignment for ETL503 further strengthened my understanding of the necessity of properly selecting (and weeding) resources. In this assignment I created my own Collection Development Policy, based on a fictional library. I had to consider the criteria I would use for selecting, acquiring and weeding resources, as well as the processes for dealing with challenged materials. I learnt that having these documents in your library is extremely important, as it keeps you accountable to yourself and your school and provides evidence of the work you put into the collection. Although at this stage it was purely theoretical, I know I will be able to use this assignment as a template for my own library one day.
Click here to view my Collection Development Policy
In the 21st century collection management involves more than just managing the physical collection. It also involves managing e-resources. The collection must meet the needs of all kinds of learners (Hughes-Hassell and Mancall, 2005), and interactive and visual websites are an excellent way to meet the learning needs of visual and kinaesthetic learners. During ETL501 I had the opportunity to put what I had learnt about selection criteria into practice when creating my own pathfinder for Stage 3 students. During this process I had to carefully select resources that my students would understand, and cater to students with both high and low reading levels. Creating pathfinders is another way librarians can make their collection accessible to their students. These pathfinders point students in the direction of resources that are going to be useful for particular topics they are studying (Kuntz, 2003), and highlights resources that are at their reading level, which helps prevent student disillusionment and disinterest. This assignment not only taught me to use Weebly, but also got me thinking about the suitability of most websites for primary school research. Although I think I knew it deep down, the assignment really impressed upon me how difficult it must be for young children to do research when they only have Google as a guide.
My understanding of how to best enable users to find resources was further strengthened during ETL505, which taught me about professional cataloguing standards. If the quality resources selected for the collection cannot be found by users, there is little point in having them at all. Thus the catalogue must be designed with the users in mind.
The four user tasks according to FRBR are:
Find Identify Select Obtain and Navigate, added by Svenonius, (2000). |
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RDA, the metadata standards used by SCIS, keeps these tasks in mind when creating metadata used by schools to help students find resources. I feel that by having an understanding of RDA, SCIS subject headings and the Dewey Decimal system, I am much better equipped to meet my students’ needs.
These understandings were further strengthened during my placement, when I got to be involved in redesigning the library after a wheelchair ramp was installed. I saw a collection 'in action' and assisted the librarian with weeding and purchase decisions. I also used my knowledge of subject headings to help the teacher-librarian manually add records to OASIS. This resulted in the items being easily found by students in the catalogue.
These understandings were further strengthened during my placement, when I got to be involved in redesigning the library after a wheelchair ramp was installed. I saw a collection 'in action' and assisted the librarian with weeding and purchase decisions. I also used my knowledge of subject headings to help the teacher-librarian manually add records to OASIS. This resulted in the items being easily found by students in the catalogue.