As I am getting ready to start Assignment 2, I have been taking a good look at our present library situation when trying to decide which area of our school library needs the most work. Over the past three years we have had 5 different Teacher Librarians working in our library, none of which have actually done any of the Teacher Librarianship course work. When talking with our present Teacher Librarian, we came to the conclusion that the whole library needs to be evaluated. We also decided that the primary fiction section of the library was in the most need of weeding and new resources being purchased. Riedling’s book provides a great list of resources to use when searching for books to purchase for the library.
Riedling states that “A good reference source is one that serves to answer questions and a bad reference source is one that fails to answer questions.” (Riedling, page 19) I whole heartedly agree with this statement and believe that it is an important consideration when purchasing resources for the library. I found Riedling’s Evaluation Process to be very informative. I like the fact that it is broken down into six different sections to be used for consideration when purchasing new resources. These sections are extremely helpful to me since I have never had to opportunity to have worked in a library and have gone through the process.
Content Scope provides a good outline of what to look for when looking at potential resources. It suggests some very important things to consider such as reflection on the purpose of the source and its audience, currency of the materials and has the author accomplished what he/she has intended to?
The section on Accuracy, Authority, and Bias also provides a great list of questions to consider when looking at resources.
I believe that the arrangement and presentation plays a very important part when considering which resources to purchase for a collection. Presentation or the layout of the resource is especially important. I feel that a book needs to be laid out in a way that will be physically attractive and easy to use by the students. If it is difficult to navigate through and physically unattractive I believe that the book will sit unused on the shelf. I believe that the same thing applies to on-line resources. If they are easy to use and navigate through they will likely be used a great deal more by students than ones that are difficult to use.
Timeliness and permanence are also important factors to be considered when weeding out resources and purchasing new ones. With the ever changing advances in technology and information on the web, I feel that it is important to try and stay as up to date as possible with on-line resources. This however is very time consuming and with Teacher Librarian’s time being continually decreased this makes for a near impossible task.
The Teacher Librarian is presented with a yearly budget which almost always falls well below what is needed. He/she is left to try and keep the library current with his/her limited budget. Resources need to be carefully considered. Is this the best resource? Is there something out there that is cheaper and will do the same job? What do the other staff members want to see purchased for use in the library? Is software a better option than a print resource?
When considering purchasing resources for the school library media center, there are many factors that need to be considered. It is not an easy job and the school staff should participate, in some way, in this process and not leave it all up to the TL.
You've made some valid points, but it is essential that the TL does not let the staff hijack the library budget. The thing about collection development is that to do it right, it's a longitudinal and ongoing process. It doesn't help when there is no continuity in the staffing in the library, especially when budgets are so miniscule.
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