Studying ETL 503 Resourcing the Curriculum helped me develop a better understanding of what a school library collection is and how it is developed.

My investigation started from a forum activity in Module 1 where I searched for the definitions of Collection Development, compared the found definitions with those proposed in the module resources, and discussed what Collection Development involved (Kaigorodovs, 2022, Nov 26). As I was learning about the nature of the collection, I started analysing the library collection of my school in terms of the number, types, formats, and quality of resources, which led me to write a reflective blog post where I described my current school library collection and outlined the key challenges our library collection faces (Kaigorodova, 2022, Dec 17). The challenges included the lack of digital resources, censorship and bias, and lack of space. 

In Module 2 of this subject, I learned about the Balanced Collection and wrote a reflective post to share my thought on how important it is to keep the right balance of the school library collection (Kaigorodova, 2022, Dec 26). In that blog post, I discussed the needs of my school in balancing our library collection considering such aspects as budget constraints, issues with digital resources, and ways to engage reluctant readers and accommodate our ESL learners.  That activity helped me look at the collection from various perspectives to cover all learning and recreational needs of our school community. 

My understanding of the role and nature of the school library collection expanded when I was working on Assessment 1 for this subject. I investigated the key priorities of the collection development which helped me understand the elements that drive the collection development process, such as collection evaluation and needs assessment. This task also helped me look at some practical implications of the collection development process when I worked on the Annotated Bibliography. I learned to identify the criteria for selection and choose selection tools. Later, I reflected on my experience with the acquisition process in my school context and shared the challenges we face in our school regarding the acquisition of resources in the discussion forum (Kaigorodova, 2022, Dec 31). 

When I was learning about the evaluation of the library collection in Module 4, I started thinking of the Collection Development Policy as a strategic document that will guide our library’s day-to-day operations. I shared my thought about the school library collection evaluation in a blog post where I outlined why it is important to evaluate the collection and what methods of evaluation can be used (Kaigorodova, 2023, Jan 3). 

Working on this assignment I consolidated my understanding of the nature of CDP and its value as a strategic document. I understand that the CDP helps the library communicate with the wider community and stay transparent.  It helps the librarians deal with difficult situations such as censorship, challenged materials, gifts and donations etc. The CDP provides the vision for future collection development and maintenance. Thinking about the future of the collection development, I posted a short comment in a discussion forum where I outlined that it will be important for school libraries to become ambassadors of technological changes while keeping the right balance of digital and print materials (Kaigorodova, 2023, Jan 20). 

Living in the 21st century our lives are becoming increasingly digitalised year after year. Nowadays we are constantly online thinking that we have unlimited access to any information we want, but is it really so?

In 2009 the president of Kazakhstan signed a law according to which the Internet was considered mass media. Thus, all websites, chats, blogs, online stores and digital libraries were equated to mass media. From that day on, all of them can incur appropriate criminal and civil liability in case of a law violation. 

Later in December 2017, there was signed a law obliging all websites to register any user who wanted to write a comment, which made it impossible to leave anonymous comments. As a result, some Kazakhstani portals simply removed comment sections from their websites as they assumed that was unfair to their users in terms of their freedom of speech. 

From the abovementioned, we can see that the government by some means regulates online content as journalists, bloggers and other people tend to self-censor their online publications in order to avoid any legal issues. 

Censorship and content regulation is common in Kazakhstan, but can you imagine being informationally locked down and having absolutely no access to the internet and mobile services? That’s what the citizens of Kazakhstan experienced one year ago at the beginning of January 2022. It all started as peaceful mass protests followed the raised prices of liquefied petroleum gas and very soon evolved into massive riots and arson attacks. The government announced a state of emergency with a temporary lockdown when all people had to stay at home with neither mobile connection nor access to the internet. The government claimed that riots were planned by external terrorists and that was a way of cutting their communication and preventing the further spread of disorders. That seemed to be an easy way to stop the terrorists, but was it the only one? Could they possibly find more democratic solutions that would let peaceful people live their normal lives? In the era of thriving digital technologies, the internet is not only used for communication or getting information, people became too dependent on online services. For example, most people don’t use cash anymore making payments with cards and via apps, so many people were left with no means of support. 

References:

Kazakhstani law about the media, ch. 1, art. 1, pt. 4 (2022) https://online.zakon.kz/Document/?doc_id=1013966&pos=59;-51#pos=59;-51

The law of the Republic of Kazakhstan about changes and additions to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the activities of internal affairs bodies, art. 41, pt. 1 (2015) https://online.zakon.kz/Document/?doc_id=31539059&pos=1;-16#pos=1;-16

Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan On amendments and additions to certain legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on information and communications, art. 36, pt. 5-1.https://adilet.zan.kz/rus/docs/Z1700000128

School libraries aspire to maintain up-to-date collections providing a variety of resources of various formats and contents. Being restricted by budget constraints, libraries have an ongoing dilemma of whether to focus on curriculum needs in the first place or provide more opportunities to read for pleasure. Thus, keeping the right balance when developing a school library collection is not an easy task (Stephens, 2014).

Technological progress brings a variety of formats available for libraries. School libraries started using digital databases that provide recent titles and publications. Besides, digital resources are easier to update for publishers, and for users, they are easy to access regardless of time and place. However, taking into account the amount of information available in digital databases, users should have certain searching skills to find titles that fit their needs. Ian McEwen argues that when students search for information online, they tend to get distracted by social media and apps, especially when they use their mobile phones for that (2018). 

Another question that collection developers keep in mind when thinking of a balanced collection is how to engage reluctant readers and increase literacy overall. Joel Crowley (2015) suggests that Graphic Novels attract struggling readers as they tell stories mostly by pictures and don’t contain that much text to read. Many Graphic Novels are based on stories that were made in movies, such as Marvel, so characters are appealing to kids and they easily follow the story. Graphic Novels can be a good start for those not fond of reading to get them interested so over time they could be guided to start reading chapter books. Some titles are available in the format of a Graphic Novel as well as a chapter book, so starting with a Graphic Novel, kids are more likely to switch to reading a chapter book with the same title they liked. 

Thinking of some other ways to engage reluctant readers, I would suggest having DIY books in the collection. There are a variety of books that teach how to draw or craft, so students who love drawing or crafting might get interested in following the instructions in the book to make something. The instructions are usually split into short steps so children read them in small chunks which makes reading not that overwhelming, and colourful illustrations or photos also help to keep children engaged. Building on the point of using children’s passions as a matter of engagement in reading, books about video games are top-rated among students. In our school library, you will probably not find any Minecraft books on the shelf as they are always in circulation and checked out by elementary students. 

Speaking about our school, there are a lot of ESL students, who need extra support with learning English. Apparently, we don’t have enough contemporary graded readers that would be of high intellectual content adapted for students with language needs. It usually happens that books which 5th graders are interested in are very complicated for them to read in English, while books that are appropriate in terms of language are not age-appropriate and seem too childish. 

All in all, to make sure that the collection is engaging, school libraries need to know the preferences of their students. It can be managed by conducting surveys among students asking about books they enjoy reading, or by running book clubs. In our school, we run the Scholastic book club every year, where Scholastic provides us with a discount and generates a link for our school community to buy their books. It is a good deal for families to purchase books through a book club, as the books are delivered to school and they don’t need to pay for shipment as opposed to buying books from overseas via other internet stores. When families make their orders we can see what they buy, which helps us understand what students are interested in. Another advantage is that our school gets some bonuses from each order parents make, and we can spend these bonuses on books for our own collection. 

There are many things to think about if we want to have a really balanced collection. It is very important that the school library collection reflects the diversity of the school community and the world beyond it. A diverse book collection will help children become aware of global issues and become more open-minded. 

As Joy Fleishhacker said, “When you enable a child to discover a book to love, you empower that person to become a self-motivated reader and lifelong learner” (2017, p. 31) and that is what we all want to achieve. 

References: 

Fleishhacker, J. (2017). Collection development. Knowledge Quest, 45(4), 24–31.https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=9a278ca4-a436-4fd0-a92a-c5543b463797%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=121512458&db=lih

McEwen, I. (2018). Trending now. Teacher Librarian, 45(3), 50–52.https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=62fd0cc7-947b-4b82-8d53-50bc55ffcf60%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=128027180&db=lih

Stephens, W. (2014). Checking out tomorrow’s school library collections. Young Adult Library Services, 12(3), 18–20. https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=0de7a157-ec42-4890-a5a9-fe3d101475b6%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=95797289&db=lih