SMSD LIBRARY COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY

Collection development involves four major activities that are interdependent and continuously interacting:

  • Identification of your library’s customers and their needs and interest.
  • Understanding of your library’s mission and the curriculum of the school.
  • Identification of what doesn’t belong in the collection and weeding it out.
  • Selection of the best materials to meet the needs and gaps in your collection.

This interactive process is represented by the following graphic:

Customers

You need to:

  • understand your customers who use the library
  • know the grade level
  • know what languages are spoken
  • know the reading levels
  • become familiar with their interests
  • know the needs of the staff

Curriculum

Tofind out what is taught now:

  • Survey – Send a brief form to every teacher each month asking what topics or units they will be teaching next month in their class.
  • District curriculum – SMSD utilizes CSCOPE for Language Arts, Math, Social Studies and Science. Use online portal to become familiar with the topics and units of study for each grade level and subject.
  • Textbook series – Look at the textbooks that are used at your school to see what kinds of topics, projects and recommended readings are included.

To find out what should be taught:

The CSCOPE online portal may also be used as a guide to the teaching strategies, themes and specific content to be taught for each subject and grade level. They also include the state standards as well as TEKS and TAAS objectives.

Selection

Collection Review – Once you have identified a list of topics that you should have in your library you will need to determine where the gaps are in your collection.

After you have weeded out the materials that are damaged, outdated or no longer relevant to your library, you need to develop a list of the library purchase needs.

If your library catalog is automated you may print out a list with the numbers of titles in your library by call number. This list can help you get an overview of your total collection to see what you have in the various Dewey categories as well as in fiction and easy readers or special collections.

SELECTION POLICY

Objectives

The primary objectives in the selection of educational media are these:

  • To implement, enrich and support the instructional program of the school.
  • To consider the needs and interests of individual students.
  • To choose media which are carefully balanced to include various points of view on any controversial subject.
  • To uphold the Library Bill of Rights as adopted by the American Library Association.
  • To provide access to information in various formats to enhance research techniques.

Responsibility for Selection

The Stafford Municipal School District Board is legally responsible for the operation of the school. Library media should be selected cooperatively by the librarian in consultation with the administration, faculty, parents and students of the individual school.The librarian adheres to the principles stated in the Library Bill of Rights in avoiding censorship in selection. Final recommendations for purchases rest with the librarian and the school principal.

Criteria for Selection

Based on knowledge of the curriculum and of the existing collection and on requests by administrators and teachers, materials will be evaluated according to:

  • Needs of individual students and school
  • To support curriculum needs
  • To provide for a wide range of abilities and interests
  • To provide for information and recreational needs

Other important considerations:

  1. Accuracy
  2. Attractive and appropriate format
  3. Authoritativeness
  4. Currentness
  5. Durability
  6. Freedom from stereotyping, e.g., sexism, racism, etc.
  7. Interest and appeal
  8. Validity
  9. Presentation of different points of view
  10. Price, including licensing fees
  11. Quality of writing/production
  12. Readability/visual effectiveness
  13. Relevance
  14. Suitable style
  15. Technical and physical qualities
  16. Organization
  17. Technical hardware requirements, including technical support and maintenance
  18. Ease of operation of interactive multimedia, electronic media, etc.
  19. Search modes for electronic media appropriate for user ability/interest level
  20. Emphasis is placed on the appropriateness of format, cost effectiveness and production quality for book cassettes, music CD’s CD-ROM’s language-learning formats, videos, and videotapes.

Procedure for Selection

The Librarian, with faculty input representative of the various departments or grades and students, is responsible for selection of library media. The Librarian is responsible to the principal and the faculty for:

1)Providing definite instructions regarding the selection procedure;

2)Introducing reputable selection aids such as professional reviewing periodicals and standard vendor catalogs; and

3)Acquainting the faculty and students with the availability of special book and audiovisual exhibits and collections.

  1. Individual librarians, teachers and students regularly preview and evaluate new books provided by publishers. These evaluations are compiled into a bibliography that is made available to all librarians as a selection tool.
  2. The Library Services Departmentwill conduct in-services during the school year at which time; vendors will be invited to exhibit library media that is appropriate for all grade levels.
  3. The each school library also has periodicals and periodical databases for both recreational and educational use, textbooks, current professional literature in the field of education and Internet access to many other resources.
  4. Periodicals are maintained by individual school; however, the district also provides databases such as EBSCO and Proquestdatabasesas another source for accessing periodicals.

Recommended Selection Sources

There is a vast amount of information now available from sources and in a variety of formats. It is therefore neither possible nor practical for the library media specialist to examine all materials before placing it into the hands of students and/or faculty. Librarians must depend on the opinions and judgments of professional specialists and their reviews of information. They must rely on selection aids such a bibliographies, catalogs, indexes, periodicals, and “basic” or “best” lists.

The librarian may use but is not limited to the following review items:

Books:

A To Zoo: Subject Access to Children’s Picture Books, 5th edition, Carolyn and John Lima, editors, R.R. Bowker, 1993.

Best Books for Children: Preschool through Grade 6, John T. Gillespie, R.R. Bowker, 1998.

Best Books for Young Adult Readers: Grades 7-12, Stephen Calvert, R.R. Bowker, 1997.

Children’s Books in Print, New Providence, NJ R.R. Bowker, annual.

Children’s Catalog, 17th edition, Anne Price and Juliette Yaakov, editors, H.W. Wilson Co. 1996 + annual supplements.

The Elementary School Library Collection: A Guide to Books and Other Media-Phases 1,2,3 – 21st edition, Brodart Co., 1998 + annual supplements.

Middle and Junior High School Catalog, seventh edition, Anne Price and Juliette Yaakov, editors, H.W. Wilson Co. 1995 + annual supplements.

Multicultural Picture Books: Art for Understanding Others, Sylvia & Kenneth Marantz, Linworth Publishing Co., 1994.

Journals:

Appraisal

Booklist

Book Links

The Horn Book

Language Arts

School Library Journal

School Library Media Activities Monthly

The Bulletin for the Center for Children’s Books

Reading Teacher

Voice of Youth Advocates(VOYA)

Young Children

Online/CD-ROMS Formats:

Books in Print (Online and print format)

Follett Library Resources (Online resource)

Collection Development Policy for Materials in Spanish*

Criteria for Selection

  1. Books should reflect life experiences, watch for biases or stereotyping of Hispanics
  2. Buy books originally written in Spanish
  3. Different Hispanic cultures, purchase accordingly
  4. Traditional literature (acquaint yourself with)
  5. Colloquial Spanish varies from country to country.
  6. Buy different formats ( books on tape, etc.)
  7. Include all subject areas and levels

Strategies for Selecting Books

  • Recruit Spanish speaking parents and community members
  • Ask teachers for suggestions
  • Published reviews such as Criticas
  • Look at catalogs of libraries with large Spanish language collections (public libraries)
  • Look at web sites such as Reforma.net, FeriaInternacional del Libro-FIL (Guadalajara, Mexico- and ALA Free Pass – David Unger-

*Prepared byReforma. National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, American Library Association Affiliate, ALA, July, 2001.

Gifts

Acceptance of gifts (books and other library materials) will be determined by the librarian on the basis of their suitability to the library’s purposes and needs, in accordance with the library’s selection policy. The librarians will make the selection or provide a list from which the donor may choose (Consideration File). Disposal of gifts will be determined by the librarian. The librarian is free to decide whether all or part of the gift should be integrated into the collection, what is to be discarded, and what is to be exchanged. Every effort will be made to pass unneeded materials on to a library or other institution in need of such items. No estimation as to the monetary value of any gift can be evaluated by the library staff for income tax purposes. Gifts of money will be used for the purchase of educational items. Every effort shall be made to place labels of recognition in the materials contributed. It is understood that gift collections will be integrated into the general collection and not warrant special housing. Library professional may dispose of gift materials that become dated or worn. Acknowledgement is made of gifts and credit given in library records.

The following criteria may be used in the acceptance of gift materials:

Fiction / Nonfiction

  1. Appropriateness to grade level
  2. Readability
  3. Accuracy or authentic portrayal of human experience, including non-derogatory depiction of minority groups
  4. Accessibility to reviews in standard selection tools (for librarian use)
  5. Physical format (size, pictures, binding paper, size of print, packaging)
  6. Reputation and significance of the author, Editor, or publisher
  7. Predicted amount of circulation or known circulation
  8. Importance of subject matter in supporting curriculum
  9. Timeliness (reflecting current situations, trends, and customs)
  10. Imaginative and creative treatment of a situation or idea
  11. Organization (indexes, bibliographies, tables of contents, headings)

12. Scarcity of materials on the subject

Consideration File

A consideration (desiderata file) should be maintained by all librarians. This file should contain titles of books and other materials to be considered for future purchase. This file may contain brochures and other advertisements from publishers and producers with the desired titles marked. Files may be kept in a spreadsheet or database on the computer. Remember to indicate the source of the title, that is, book review journal, catalog, book store, recommendation from another librarian, teacher or student request.

Duplicate copies

The Librarian should not ordinarily purchase multiple copies of any one title for the primary purpose of supplying textbook materials for classroom use. Where particular titles are heavily used for assignments, special projects, remedial work or have enduring popularity with students, the usual limit of duplicate copies is three, though the exact number is left to the librarian’s discretion. In special cases, such as purchasing for the Texas Library Association’s Reading programs, different standards may apply. Classroom sets of one title should be purchased with instructional or departmental funds.