SR Ranganthan (1931) teaches us that “a library is a growing organism” (p.382). To keep a school library living and growing, school librarians need to keep students engaged, and in a rapidly changing information environment, gaining and holding kids’ attention is becoming even harder.
I want to focus here on two strategies librarians could use to increase student engagement:
- Feedback and consultation, and
- Patron-driven acquisition
After reviewing Oddone’s (2019) collection development process diagram, I came up with own, emphasising consultation as a stage in the process:
One form this consultation could start with is an annual survey of the school community, conducted as the year ends to learn how they used the library, test out awareness and engagement with what is available, gather general feedback, and find out what is missing from students’ experience. The survey could lead to further consultation, then the development of an annual program of changes and improvements.
Once the librarian has ideas for changes to events, activities, spaces, clubs, and, most importantly, resources, students might have the opportunity to vote on these. Finally, the librarian could close the process by conducting a presentation in the new year to announce to the school community the changes and initiatives in the collection resulting from the consultation process.
By empowering students to be actively engaged in the review and development of the library collection, they would gain a sense of ownership of it.
Ongoing patron-driven acquisition is another strategy shown to increase engagement. A secondary school in Canberra (Jorm, 2022) made student-led collection development the primary method of resource acquisition after a trial period saw borrowing rates increase by 342%. Students had a sense of pride and ownership when a book they recommended entered the collection, with a “This book was recommended by [name]” bookplate inside. Students were more likely to borrow books selected by their peers, and students who were not regular users were invited to nominate topics they were interested in to enable librarians search out resources to tempt them.
Teacher librarians supported the program by “scaffolding students to help them figure out what they might want to read”, (Jorm, 2022, para. 12) by showcasing authors, and helping students use tools such as Goodreads, and online bookstores.
A librarian at the school described this new initiative of student-led collection development as “game changing”, making the collection more dynamic, and resulting in “phenomenal” borrowing statistics (Jorm, 2022, para. 13).
Jorm, M. (2022). Student-led library collection development. Teacher. https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/photo-story-student-led-library-collection-development
Oddone, K. (2019). School library collection development: it’s not as simple as you might think. Linking Learning. https://www.linkinglearning.com.au/school-library-collection-development-its-not-as-simple-as-you-might-think/
Ranganathan, S. R. (1931). The Five Laws of Library Science. Madras library association.