Collection evaluation in a school setting is never easy, however, it is a must to maintain the relevancy of the collection to users. It is essential to semi-regularly evaluate both the print and electronic collection to identify strengths and weaknesses in the collection and to also assess how well the collection meets the curriculum requirements as well as the goals and priorities of the school. It can be a slow and cumbersome process though and when to schedule a collection evaluation can be tricky. Collection management requires staff to shift focus and potentially redirect their attention away from their daily tasks and towards evaluation. It also places restrictions on the functioning of the library whilst this process is being carried out. Library loans may have to be halted and access to library services may be temporarily unavailable whilst library staff are evaluating a collection.

As K. Grigg’s chapter “Assessment and evaluation of e-book collections” points out, no one methodology for collection evaluation is perfect. Usage statistics have a role in evaluation but, in a school setting, it is impossible to know whether library titles that are borrowed or accessed are even being used or whether this type of statistical measurement offers insight into the usefulness of a resource. Using qualitative measures such as surveying and focus groups may provide a better evaluation of existing resources and their use, however, school students can often be apathetic and disengaged and therefore these methods may either appeal only to certain types of students or provide skewed results that can’t be relied upon for collection evaluation. Perhaps a better methodology in the school context is to use the benchmark method of evaluation. This may be preferable as schools can compare their collection and its usage to similar types and size schools within their local area (provided comparison data is freely available or TLs have developed strong networks with other school TLs).

Current priority areas for evaluation in my school would be the non-fiction reference materials. My school does not hold a lot of these resources in a physical format due to space restrictions. The school holds an abundance of fiction resources and picture books to meet the needs of the junior library users. My school does subscribe to a number of online databases and electronic resources to be used for reference and research purposes but the glaring absence of these types of resources in a physical format is a weakness of the school library where I work.