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As the sharpened blade of Gonski 2.0 starts cutting at the budgets of independent schools, libraries in this sector need to be more mindful than ever of the value of their contribution towards the school community (Koziol, 2018).  We are looking at even tighter budgets, possibly restricting not only our collection, but the staff that is expected to manage it.  So why should we invest our time and effort into assessment and evaluation of our collections when many of us are running on a skeleton crew?  The answer is evidence-based practice (EBP).  It is only through providing the statistics, figures, public responses to surveys that the people who hold the tightening purse strings of the rapidly shrinking school budget will see our value.  Like it or not we are in the service industry and if our ‘product’ is not of use we need to find out and make the changes necessary to ensure that we have repeat customers.

Assessment of our collection and evaluation of its usefulness using both quantitative and qualitative methods is necessary to ensure that we are fulfilling our purpose in the education process (Hernon, Dugan, & Matthews, 2014, p. 9).  No one method is flawless and at the heart of all assessment methods stands the staff of school libraries.

Usage data, although valuable, can be skewed.  It is useful when ‘culling’ the collection to know when it was last borrowed, but this can only be considered with the knowledge of how your patrons use the collection.  For example, our non-fiction section may rarely be ‘borrowed’ but the useful section is often scanned by our patrons for ease of use at home without restriction.  Similarly, many of our patrons sit and read our physical magazines while in the library, yet rarely ‘borrow’ thus preventing them from being included in the usage data.

Seeing where there is overlap in your collection is important in a fiscally tight budget.  In areas where the knowledge base moves quickly we need to ask – Are there free websites or do you subscribe to databases that cover the topic more cheaply that purchasing a physical book that will quickly be outdated? Mapping the curriculum through the use of Assignment Help pages in our Libguides gives our library staff a ‘user’s view’ of our collection to constantly ensure that we are providing material of use and relevant to the users’ needs.

Talking to the students throughout the research process and surveying their needs when selecting reading for pleasure material is a simple yet effective method of keeping in touch with our users’ needs.  Allowing a recommendation process often points to areas where our collection may be lacking.

We engage in ‘benchmarking’ our collection when we attend network meetings and compare our collection to those schools who have a similar demographic.  This collaborative nature of teacher librarians is essential when dealing in a rapidly changing educational environment, to help guide resource decisions.

‘Focus Groups’ for us include consulting the various departments for feedback on the value of our collection.  When suppliers bring books for approval, we ensure that what we think is relevant is previewed by the department heads.  The only problem here is ensuring that the book makes it to the library floor and is not seconded to the bookshelf of the teacher in charge.

Our library needs to be a necessary expense.  We want our customers to feel their opinions are valued.  We want them to feel that we provide a learning environment that meets their needs.  To do this we need to ensure that our ‘product’ not only looks good, but is useful, needed, and available at the right time.

References

Hernon, P., Dugan, R. E., & Matthews, J. R. (2014). Getting started with evaluation. Chicago: American Library Association. Retrieved from Proquest Ebook Central

Koziol, M. (2018, February 1). States cut funding for private schools as public system reaps Gonski rewards. The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, New South Wales. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/state-funding-for-private-schools-declines-as-public-schools-reap-gonski-rewards-20180131-p4yz4g.html