Tag: Processes and Procedure Development
ETL503- Module 6: Collection development policy
6.1 Policy and procedures
The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) provides a useful handbook for developing a Library Collection Policy: ALIA schools developing policies and procedures manual (2017).
Most useful, I found, is the School Library Collection Rubric. TLs can use this rubric to check up on the ‘health’ of their collection overall. It is encouraged that this rubric be reviewed regularly to ensure ongoing development and improvement of the collection policies and procedures.
I will be using this upon return to school to assess the current collection, policy and procedures. I suspect we will sit in the ‘developing’ category for a lot of the elements.
In Discussion forum 6.1, discuss new areas needing coverage in your collection development policy, in view of the digital content of your collection.
My small school has no written policy or procedure document and so I am starting from scratch using examples from here and there and adjusting as I go. The examples I have found mention, very broadly eBooks and audio visual resources. I have a very limited physical collection of AV resources in the library and eBook programs have been determined by individual class teachers over time, rather than the whole staff. I would like to get the staff together to determine the usefulness of these individual digital programs and settle on a whole-school determined program to save us some money.
This year, I encouraged my Principal to purchase an online non-fiction subscription with brilliant images, up-to-date information, interactive videos, links to lesson plans and programming. She went ahead and did so. Unfortunately, due to COVID and other factors, the staff training did not go ahead and so, aside from myself in the library, staff did not utilise this resource and it fell to the wayside. Unfortunately, we do not have the funding to trial this product again and so, as much as I saw the value in it, without engaging with it, the staff have decided to forgo the subscription this year.
I think if you are going to subscribe to digital collections, it needs to be a priority to provide staff training and feedback opportunities to ensure you are getting value for money.
6.2 Collection management and censorship
Inspired by the idea of a collaborative effort, I have already contacted fellow staff members to determine what digital reading programs they are already using to support literacy skills. By collecting this data and eventually resolving to keep one or two specific programs, rather than multiple different platforms, the ultimate goal is to build a case toward having the school pay for these programs, rather than the individual teachers and increase whole-school consistency in literacy. By documenting use of these programs in the Library Policy, I am hoping to collect data to support the purchase of these programs in the limited school budget.
In a sentence or two share an idea and/or discuss a key takeaway from your reading on censorship in this module. Discuss your key takeaways in Discussion Forum 6.2.
Open communication with all stake holders, and trust in the TL to uphold the values and policies of the school, can support the development of a collection that is sensitive to social and community taboos, while also allowing students access to resources that expand their understanding of sensitive topics. It is important to have a clear understanding of what is and is not acceptable for certain ages, demographics and communities without restricting student access to topics of interest or relatable topics.
While it is important to consider the opinion of all stakeholders, including parents and carers, it is equally important to balance the perceived ‘appropriateness’ of resources with the reality of the world today. Of course, murder and mayhem are not appropriate for kindergarten students, however, depending on the context and writing style, some YA dystopian novels are highly desired by students in Year 5 or 6.
Each resource must be considered in isolation and in context to determine whether or not it is appropriate for the student and school context.
ETL503- Module 5: Evaluating collections
5.1 Collection evaluation
The resources provide a handy How-To article from the National Library of New Zealand Services to Schools (n.d.)- Assessing your school library collection, almost giving step-by-step suggestions when evaluating a collection, which is great for first time librarians and as a refresher. This sequence of events could be added to the Library Policy to ensure consistency and establish procedures when evaluating the collection.
In Forum 5.1, Methods of collection analysis, discuss which of these methods are suitable and practical in school libraries, and which ones you will use.
Working as a Librarian in a small school one and a half days a week, I can’t imagine how collection mapping could be achieved without support from the staff. Even working with pre-organised Scope & Sequence and Curriculum documents, it is a boat load of work for one person alone.
I still believe, however, that evaluating the collection is critical.
At my school, there have been several librarians in the past five years. Our non-fiction section has not had a stocktake for almost that long and our shelves are bursting with physical books on random topics that seem to have no order or theme.
In evaluating the collection, I would rely on both methods of assessment, but focus the initial inquiry on data supplied by:
Quantitative
Use and User-based
- Circulation statistics
- In-house use statistics
- E-resources use statistics
Collection-based
- Collection size and growth statistics
- Content overlap statistics
- Comparisons between different sections in the library
Qualitative
Use and User-based
- User opinions- to find topics of interest
Collection-based
- Collection mapping
A great visual resource when weeding! Original resource located here.
I think the above infographic and various resources suggested in the readings is a great place to start when developing a weeding policy. Everything put in place must be added to the ongoing library policy to ensure consistency in future years.
ETL503- Module 4: Legal & ethical issues of collections
4.1 Copyright
Not something I have spent a whole lot of time exploring, Copyright is a surprisingly large issue for school libraries, particularly in small schools. In larger schools, I would imagine executives or teams highlight and educate staff on copyright guidelines, but in small schools, there is the potential for copyright to fall through the cracks when there is so much else happening. As such, I would suggest delegating copyright signposting and staff education to the TL as part of their role if possible.
Smartcopying is a great, simple to use resource to support understanding of copyright regulations within Australia. It has been developed for and by schools to simplify and clarify copyright in an educational context.
Interestingly, I know a number of schools who have teachers sign in to streaming services to play lunch time to rainy day videos. As long as the films are ‘G’ rated, in compliance with Department of Education guidelines, the general idea is that anything is ok. My interpretation of the above snippet from the Smartcopying website would suggest an additional license is required to do this. I may be unaware, but I don’t believe the majority of schools would have this license on-hand and many staff would not be aware of this as a requirement.
While the information goes on the explain that there is a blanket license to cover playing films etc for non-educational purposes, it also says that not every school is necessarily covered and that staff should check their local copyright advisor (National Copyright Unit). This is useful information to pass on to staff.
Search
Use the Smartcopying website search to search for copyright issues related to ‘music‘.
Select two references of interest and review them for relevance to your situation.
Search: ‘playing music in class’
Results: 22
Most relevant articles:
- Music Copyright Guide for Schools– Outlines the basics for schools to understand how they can and cannot use music as created by other people.
- Music- Guidelines– Outlines the basic concepts of ‘what is music’ and what classifies as music in order to apply the above copyright guide.
- The Copyright Access Reforms 2021– Discussion regarding the need for changes to copyright access in schools to keep up with the development of technology and the digital environment.
Does the school library you are familiar with accommodate children with disabilities?
Not that I am aware of. As a small school, we are limited in the number of students we have and possess a low percentage of students with disabilities. Additionally, I am in the process of developing a library policy for the school and, as of yet, have seen no evidence of past policies with or without accommodation for children with disabilities.
Exploring the article ‘Australian web accessibility laws and policies’ was a fascinating read in that, I would have assumed large companies already included accommodations for people with varying disabilities. However, it is clear that this has not happened in the past. I am pleased to see legislation is beginning to be developed and rolled out to support all citizens in accessing information and opportunities regardless of abilities or differences.
Discussion Forum 4.1: Activity, reflective practice and discussionFrom your reading of the Smartcopying website, choose some facts you think teachers or students in your school may not be clear about. Develop two questions for each fact – one for teachers and one for students.For example as teacher question might be: The Mathematics textbook you want to use for Year 10 next semester is not in stock locally. Is it okay to make a copy for each Year 10 student?
Teacher Question: During Learning from Home, you need to share a new set of sheet music with your choral group. Is it okay to email students a PDF copy of this sheet music?
Answer: Yes, so long as it is via the password protected/restricted DET website or sent via a platform like Google Classroom. Additionally, it is a good idea to mark the PDF with copyright information.
Student Question: We would like to raise some money for the Year 6 formal, can we show a film for a gold coin donation?
Answer: Generally, no unless the teacher has contacted the copyright owner directly.
References
National Copyright Unit. (n.d.) Playing films, television and radio in schools. https://smartcopying.edu.au/playing-films-television-and-radio-in-schools/
4.2 Creative Commons
A great overview of what Creative Commons is can be found on the Smartcopying website. Also, some really useful slides summarising the different CC Licenses Jessicacoates.
Discussion Forum 4.2 – Creative Commons licensed resourcesLocate at least two Creative Commons licensed resources. Write a short description of each and explain the CC license chosen.
All materials located and available on Flickr.
1) Material type: Photograph: Image of a teddy bear on a rainy day https://flic.kr/p/2iVyRgV
Marked with the Creative Commons:
- Attribution
- Noncommercial
2) Material type: Map of Australia
https://flic.kr/p/9XFQfN
Marked with the Creative Commons:
- Attribution
- Noncommercial
- ShareAlike
While Copyright and Creative Commons are not areas I have thought much about in the past, I am curious about how well my current school adheres to these guidelines. I intend to investigate Copyright and CC uses closely over the coming term and discuss my findings with my Principal to ensure regulations are adhered to.
ETL503- Module 2: Developing collections Part 3
Module 2.5: Selection criteria: Activity
Select a resource and evaluate it according to the criteria listed in the modules.
Resource: The boy who tried to shrink his name by Author: Sandhya Illustrator: Parappukkaran & Michelle Pereira (2021)
Summary: When Zimdalamishkermishkada starts a new school, he knows he’s got to do something about his long name. When no amount of shrinking, folding or crumpling works, he simply settles for Zim – but deep down, it doesn’t feel right. It’s not until a new friend sees him for who he truly is that Zimdalamishkermishkada finds the confidence to step boldly into his long name.
Working from the position of Hughs-Hasselll and Macall (2005), in that selection criteria is most useful when based on the teaching-learning context and learner characteristics, I have selected this text to support PDH units on courage, friendship, understanding self and acceptance.
School context: Under 70 students in a predominantly white-Anglo community. Socio-economics range from high to extremely low. Increasing number of tranistory families moving into the area from backgrounds other than white-Anglo.
Primary Considerations
Appropriateness/Scope/Accuracy/Treatment/Arrangement and organisation/Comparison with other works
Being a picture book, this can be adapted to multiple literacy levels and target multiple cross-curricular skills. Set in Australia, and representing the melting pot of cross-culturalism that can be found within our borders, the characters represent a wide range of backgrounds and cultures and the storyline is relatable to a range of students as, everyone has started a new school at some stage. The language is pitched at a middle years level and so early years may require some support in reading along, but this text provides a number of talking points in addressing culture, change, fitting in, confidence and self acceptance. Published in 2021, this text is current to students’ environments and social norms and, I believe, the characters and storyline will age well. The text is laid out in easy to read paragraphs, allowing students to locate in-text information and the illustrations are eye catching without being too busy. Students will be able to examine the images for facial cue to support inferential questioning and suggest how the characters are feeling.
Secondary Criteria
Physical quality/Aesthetic quality/Literary merit/Reputation of author, illustrator or publisher
By: Sandhya Parappukkaran, Michelle Pereira (Illustrator)
Images and text are clear and easy to follow in hard copy, utilising speech marks and other common punctuation whilst introducing new words and names to students. The colours are similar throughout the text and a complimentary combination that will appeal o my learners, as will the age and activities of the main character and his friends and family. There are clear themes throughout and the illustrators style ties in well with the writing style and font of the author. Both author and illustrator will be new additions to my library but worthy of researching further to discover others texts they may have developed, either independently or collaboratively.
Selection Tools Utilised
A lengthy review from Kids Book Reviews discussing the positives of the text and its benefits for students/children. This is a blog dedicated specifically to the review of childrens’ literature and provides some detail on the main points of the text and, potential teaching points. This provides a brief, vague comparison to other books on similar themes in a positive light.
A single written review from Goodreads gives the book a middling score with some ambiguity of the message seemingly apparent within the text. This is more of a personal opinion than a professional examination of the text done by an adult with no context. A number of other reviewers provided high star scores without commentary.
Module 2.5: Selection criteria: Search and curate
The majority of selection criteria I discovered outlined that resources must, at the very least:
- Support and enrich the curriculum/teaching programs
- Align with current and changing student interests
- Provide accurate, authentic and up-to-date information
- Represent a variety of perspectives without bias of one over another
- Be easily and equally accessible to all students
- Be of reasonable cost
- Be produced by reputable/qualified/recognised author/publisher/producer or source of information
Western Australian School Library Association (WASLA). (n.d.). WASLA School Library Collection Policy. Retrieved from ETL503: Resourcing the Curriculum 202190. Module 2: Developing Collections https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContentEditable.jsp?content_id=_4719185_1&course_id=_58478_1
Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS). (2020). Lesson 2: Managing your collection-what does your library collect? https://scis.edublogs.org/2020/02/24/lesson-2-managing-your-collection-what-does-your-library-collect/
National Library of New Zealand. (2016). Annual report. Services to Schools. Retrieved from http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/school-libraries/library-management/annual-report
American Library Associations (ALA). (2017). Selection criteria. Retrieved from https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport/selectionpolicytoolkit/criteria
lynnevey. (2018, January 2). Common elements for criteria used to select e-resources. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/lynne/2018/01/02/common-elements-for-criteria-used-to-select-e-resources/