I’ve just turned a recent discussion forum post into a blog post (see below). I want to make sure these thoughts are captured and stay on my blog, because it may be interesting to see in the coming year how my thinking develops. At least, (I hope), I’ll be more knowledgeable and confident in the library management side of the TL combination! Collection development, management, budgeting appear pretty daunting to me – I’m just so outside of my comfort zone. I really appreciated the simplicity of the templates provided in ALIA’s A manual for developing policies and procedures in Australian school library resource centres, they de-mystified things somewhat. I’m also going to ask our high school TL what model of budgeting (as explained in ALIA, 2007, pp. 12-13) she does and what challenges and opportunities she faces in this area. For sure, I totally see myself in Debowski’s (2001) comment: “many users only see the small aspect that directly supports their needs, and often fail to see the overall scope of the library collection” (p. 126) – and indeed what goes into the management of a library.
I’m really aware though that I may become somewhat annoying with pestering our TLs with my newbie questions. We are a tight expat community who lives and works closely together and I just need to tread with care.
In regards to budgeting…we were asked in Module 3 the question “Is it preferable that the funding for the school library collection be distributed to teachers and departments so they have the power to determine what will be added to the library collection?”
Let’s be honest, as classroom teachers, any amount of small control we can have over our everyday school life is usually welcomed 🙂 So when I first read this question, I thought, for sure teachers and departments should have the power to determine what resources they need to stock the collection. Then I reflected on my experience of being Head of Department for Individuals and Societies (Grades 9-12) and it was hard enough getting a consensus around the table about small things, let alone agreeing on resources 🙂 And then I remember the times when I tripped merrily down to the library to ask for a resource to be ordered and I was, on occasion, shown very SIMILAR resources that were already in stock that could also fit the bill quite nicely. Based on these examples, I’m going to err on the side of……give the TL access to curriculum and let them know of pertinent resource needs…..but let the TL (in conference with the principal) decide! It will be interesting to see if my thoughts change on this or not.
Response to Discussion Forum 3.1: Using output measures as tools for purchasing
It made me really think about my usage (as a classroom teacher) of the library collection. From my (limited) understanding, we have a pretty healthy budget for the high school library. But I do wonder about wastage. Whenever we get an email in regards to new possible subscriptions, I’m always in – especially as so much stuff/content can fit somewhere under the banner of MYP Individuals & Societies. But I can think of some subscriptions that in the past I have indicated to the TL that I will use for sure use….and then really haven’t. I too wonder how this usage is tracked. Jason spoke of reports generated by Clickview, I’m presuming this would be available on other platforms too – but I think they may only sometimes be available under the more expensive ‘premium’ or upgrade of a licence. The threads in this discussion prompt have made me more aware of my own usage (and lack of).
I also wonder about resourcing our current MYP units in our international school. Some subjects do follow standards, so are less prone to changing units (for example, MYP Science uses Next Generation Science Standards – US based, Math uses Common Core, the British section of the school uses the English National Curriculum (gosh we really are a hodge-podge) but I&S doesn’t follow set standards. It’s fantastic in some ways – it gives flexibility, teacher and student directed units etc. But if a teacher leaves and another comes in with a very different set of ideas (which still meet the MYP criteria and makes sense regarding vertical alignment) but requires alternate resources, then there are funding issues here. I wonder how our TL handles these requests.
References
Australian School Library Association & Victorian Catholic Teacher Librarians. (2007). A manual for developing policies and procedures in Australian school library resource centres. http://www.asla.org.au/policy/policy-development-manual.aspx
Debowski, S. (2001). Collection program funding management. In K. Dillon, J. Henri & J.McGregor (Eds.). Providing more with less: collection management for school libraries (2nd ed., pp. 126-136).