Written on May 12th 2023

Reading L.J. Morrisey’s article ‘Ethics in Collection Development’ (2008) gave me cause to pause and reflect on my own experience and practice and how it mirrors choices made by selectors in resourcing their space.

I visit schools and work with students from across the education sector – state schools, Catholic schools, other independent schools, alternative settings (Montessori and Steiner environments) and home/distance schooling. Some schools have very large, very diverse library collections; some schools operate under an ethos that requires certain titles to be omitted. As a result, when developing programs and recommending resources to my staff for use with such a wide demographic, I have a responsibility to tread a fine line between putting forward titles that will engage, support, and provide academic rigour for gifted little literati, but will also demonstrate respect towards the ethics and beliefs of a raft of other stakeholders (parents, teachers, administrators, and other members of our staff team).

These are not unlike the considerations that must be undertaken with respect to the wider school community who are likely to scrutinise the collection development choices of teacher librarians.

I feel as though both parties are required to shelve personal biases in favour of one core tenet: is inclusion of this resource in our collection in the best interests (social, emotional, and academic) of our students?

This ‘best interests’ umbrella encompasses whether it will equip them to face the world armed with current, accurate knowledge. It encompasses clarifying their knowledge of what constitutes legal behaviour under Australian law. It encompasses preparing them to be aware that there will likely be multiple competing perspectives on controversial topics.

In my current work situation, we do not have an official company policy or set of procedures to fall back on when uncertain, which is a concern.  Upon reflection, that is a logical next project in my current role – and given the diversity of our learning community, this will provide an excellent baseline for any future policy development that I am included in within a school library setting.