Month: August 2021

Considerable considerations for resource selection

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When choosing resources for a school library, the main focus must be on the users. Who are they? Where are they coming from? What do they have access to? What can they confidently use?

In my setting, we cater to the needs of staff and students. The students are in years 7-12, have varied reading habits, study a range of subjects, have different reading abilities, cognitive abilities, interests and, supports (physical, intellectual, emotional) at home. The teachers run the gamut from technophobe to technophile and rely on the school library for curriculum resources, teaching and learning resources, and personal reading recommendations.

If the goal is to keep a level playing field where all can access the resources provided by the library, the above needs to be taken into account.

Our budget, like many school libraries, is limited. Ebook subscriptions and databases have to be chosen with the biggest possible bang for our buck. This is something that is difficult to manage with so many different platforms that all provide different content. As highlighted in Gray (2017), choosing one of many options can leave libraries without desired titles and the shift from one subscriber to another means the loss of what you currently have- and possibly a shift to a different operating system.

My personal attitude is that it is currently better to help staff and students to access quality information through a well-designed and maintained online library presence, including support to access digital resources through local library portals.

References

Gray, M. (2017). Ebooks: To subscribe or not to subscribe? SCIS Connections (101), https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-101/ebooks-to-subscribe-or-not-to-subscribe

Are reference sections going extinct?

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School library reference sections seem to be getting smaller and smaller (at least in my experience). What I remember as a small room filled with books not to leave the library when I was in high school turned into a large shelf of books when I became a teacher and is now less than one shelf housing what look like texts that are being kept for nostalgia rather than usefulness.

Most resources can be found in a digital format and most students will go straight to Google when looking for information. We have noticed in our school library that the only time students show an interest in the print reference collection is when they need to bring a dictionary into an exam. Farmer (2014) brings up some interesting points around whether or not digital reference materials are better than print.

COST

Budgets are always tight in school libraries. This means that the choice to move to digital reference materials needs to be carefully considered. Online reference materials tend to come with a yearly subscription cost and may also require a setup fee. Although the resource itself may be amazing with hyperlinks, internal search engines, multimedia features, and constant updates to the information if it leaves little to no room for other spending, it will not be worth it.

 

VALUE-ADDING

It is also really important to consider which digital resources will work for your school. A resource that simply replicates the print text is not a useful tool to invest in.

It may be better to invest teaching time into supporting digital literacy in teachers and students so that they are better able to use what is freely available to them through public library systems or for all.

 

MAKE BEST USE OF WHAT YOU HAVE

Every library has different needs and different capacities to bring in digital content. Work out what your students want. Look at what you have. Fill knowledge gaps through education and continue to reflect, not be too precious about the ideas that have not worked out and keep updating to support the needs of your specific community of users.

Reference

Farmer, L.S.J. (2012). Introduction to reference and information services in today’s school library. Rowman & Littlefield.