Collection development policy is a complex and daunting task. After reading Module 1, I realised the beginning of collection development starts with the knowledge of stakeholders—students, teachers, parents, and the school’s mission and goals( Johnson, 2018).
When I get a position in the school library, I will start the collection based on the school’s needs, reading level, and vision. For that purpose, the part about development policy is significant. It determines the long- and short-term goals of a school library (Fieldhouse et al., 2012) to make the learners competent for the 21st-century workforce and have a love for reading. Unfortunately, most of the schools where I worked as a relief teacher don’t have a collection development policy or a teacher librarian (TL). So, my attempt to read a policy from a school library was desperate. The module readings gave me deeper knowledge of collection development and collection management, and I will add one more thing in Oddone’s cycle, the evaluation, because it includes a lot of evaluation criteria( Johnson, 2018) for print and e-resources, which helps the librarian compare and contrast the resources’ benefits and drawbacks and hence make the right decision for the school community.
As Oddone mentioned, the role of TL is to successfully create and maintain a school library collection, which is a very difficult task. It’s an ongoing process, and a qualified TL’s professional experience, knowledge about the school environment, community, library policy, and selection criteria are all crucial and have a great impact on the collection of library resources that satisfy user needs and institutional priorities.
References
Fieldhouse, M., & Marshall, A. (Eds.). (2012). Collection development in the digital age. Facet.
Johnson, P. (2018). Fundamentals of collection development and management (Fourth edition.). ALA Editions.