Module 1 provides some useful comments regarding the nature of collection development and highlights that there is some debate as to whether collection development and collection management are the same, different processes or two parts of a larger whole. My view at this very early stage of the subject is that collection development describes the future of the collection and how the teacher librarian intends to work towards that vision. Collection management, I see more as the day to day managing, organizing, processing etc of the collection as it currently stands. Of course these are two parts of a larger whole: resource provision. There are other parts of this whole as well – making the resources accessible and discoverable to those who need them, sharing ideas about how a resource could be used, guiding users to other resources that might confirm or challenge the ideas presented in a chosen resource, teaching students (and sometimes staff) how to locate, analyse and use resources, and more and more and more. I hope that these parts of the whole will be addressed throughout the course, however, I expect this subject will focus mostly on collection development and collection management.
So far, collection development has been defined by authors such as Corrall (2018), Van Zijl (2005), Queensland Department of Education and Training (2012), ALA (1998) and Kimmell (2014) who broadly agree that it is an assessment of needs, selection of materials to meet those needs, budgeting and acquisition of identified resources, evaluation of existing resources and deselection, where appropriate, of resources that are no longer meeting the learning and teaching needs of students, teachers and the school community. I am aware that there are several tools and models for criteria a teacher librarian might use in the selection and deselection processes, though I am yet to learn the specifics of them and which is most appropriate for my school library context. I look forward to learning more about them through this subject.
