September 18

A Balanced Collection

Browse your school or local library. Does the library have a balanced collection? Does it include the full range of resource formats and delivery modes identified above?

My school library collection is heavy in some areas and light on in others. At least for the needs of my primary school community, I think the collection is quite strong, although there are some gaps that I’d like to fill over the next couple of years.

Browsing the collection has certainly helped me to find some of those gaps!

Multiple formats and delivery modes Our school has a reasonable range of print resources, although we don’t store any large posters, infographs, ephemera or maps within the library itself. Big books are stored in the junior primary building. We have access to a wide variety of eBooks through the Scholastic Literacy Pro program, but we don’t have any subscriptions to popular eBook titles as students generally don’t access them and we’re trying to save money on that front. We don’t have DVDs or CDs as these sorts of resources can be found online. I’m not sure about Realia. This might also be stored elsewhere within the school. I’ll have to investigate!
Reading and comprehension levels and social development The Lexile system is used effectively from Year 2 to Year 7. Foundations and Year Ones use readers from Level 1 to Level 30 before accessing the Lexile program. We have an excellent range of books varying from very low to very high reading levels. We also have magazines but no newspapers. So far I haven’t come across any material that is socially inappropriate.
Support for the curriculum Recently I cleared out the NF section because many of the resources were old and tattered. I am now beginning to see gaps that I need to fill, especially when students come in asking for a book on a particular topic. We do have lots of resources for STEM topics, as well as Sustainability, Civics and Citizenship, and Australia.
Leisure resources to challenge and maintain literacy development Again, our leisure-based resources are many. We have six years worth of Guinness Book of Records, magazines, joke books, games, construction and fact books. We don’t have a whole lot of books that are dual language. Our school teaches Japanese, so it would be good to have more resources related to that as well.
Catering for different learning styles I don’t know exactly what we have in terms of Teacher Resources. I am thinking that I should start here when I do stocktaking for the first time at the end of the year. I know that the STEM teacher has lots of kinaesthetic learning resources stored in the library. We don’t have any audiobooks, as far as I know.

 

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Posted September 18, 2020 by murphda75 in category ETL501 The Dynamic Information Environment

2 thoughts on “A Balanced Collection

  1. Debbie Nicklin

    Hi Daniel,what a comprehensive list. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an unlimited budget (and storage space) to fullfill all of these issues. How do you find the lexile level system? I attended a promotion session and it sounds worthwhile but I’m a little on the fence about it. Are students enthusiastic and does it really engage those reluctant readers including year 3/4 boys who won’t move past Captain Underpants? Does it take a lot of time away from other information literacy elements of our role? Just curious to know from someone who uses it. 🙂

    Reply
    1. murphda75 (Post author)

      Hi Deb. I think the Lexile program is great, especially for classroom teachers! I don’t think it would take away from other elements of your role. Once it is set up it basically runs itself. I have a lot of enthusiastic readers at my school so the system is well used. Sometimes it is relied on too much … some kids or their teacher will ask for a book at their level, and sometimes I need to tell them that it is more important to choose something that you really want to read, especially with more advanced readers. Engaging those year 3/4 Captain Underpants fans will still be tricky! I still have pockets of students in each class that I never see in the library. I hope this helps 🙂

      Reply

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