Wen Chen blog

The goal of collection development for a school library must be to provide the library with a collection that reflects students’ needs and supports the mission of the school as well as the particular needs of the members of the school community (Kimmel, 2014). One of the key present and future purposes of the school collection is to serve a 21^st century online Australian Curriculum which “supports all young Australians to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens” (AEM, 2008, p. 13; Mitchell, 2011). Library collections and resources are designed to allow students to use information and digital literacy skills to leverage the power of technologies to ensure their voices are heard and to have opportunities to deal with issues that will affect them and future generations. Another key role of the school library is to help teachers become more inclusive so that they can incorporate resources that are both in print and in multiple online formats to maximise students’ engagement and learning (Tait et al., 2019).

The IFLA Trend Report (“IFLA Trend Report”, 2013) identifies that new technologies are transforming the global information environment. The IFLA Trend Report (“IFLA Trend Report”, 2018) states that the libraries can make the internet more useful for the users. These trends are shaping the school collection and the library services provided to the school community. The provision of a wide range of material across a range of technologies is a priority. Librarians also need to consider the information needs of the school community in the teaching-learning context of the school and to match the collection with the learner characteristics as well as ensuring that the collection is consistent with the current knowledge base (Hughes-Hassell & Mancall, 2005).

Keeping a balanced collection that is catered for the needs of the students who need physical books and virtual resources is the priority in the collection development. Hughes-Hassell and Mancall (2005) suggested a decision-making model for selecting resources that support a learner-centred collection. I discussed a selection model that I thought would fit in the context of my school library in my blog posting for Module 2.1 “Selecting my own selection decision-making model”. I also discussed the evaluation methods that would be feasible and practical to be implemented in my school library in my blog posting for module 5.1 “Models and methods for collection evaluation”. Selection and evaluation are integral parts of collection development. The traditional practice of just-in-case philosophy in anticipation of what might be needed by students need to be changed. Teacher librarians need to envision the current and future needs of the students and implement a working procedure for selecting and evaluating the e-book collection (Grigg, 2012). In my blog posting for Module 2.1, I have also discussed the tightening of budget across many school libraries which is limiting teacher librarians’ ability to select collections. Under such budget constraints, reassessment of the library’s role in the information access process within the school is required. Teacher librarians, as the makers of the collection development policy (CDP) need to become more proactive and be involved in feasible and realistic planning of the budget for sourcing the online resources, the subscriptions to which are often associated with high costs (Wade, 2005).

Collection Development Policy describes the underlying principles and parameters of the school’s collection of information resources and is essential for all school libraries (New South wale Department of School Education Curriculum Directorate, 1996, p. 24 – 25). CDP is a strategic document that assists in future proofing of the library collection. CDP addresses issues associated with censorship and intellectual freedom and the acquisition of controversial materials (Hoffman & Wood, 2007). Library collections are becoming multi-formatted; consequently, copyright and censorship issues in relation to e-collection are more prominent than ever in response to the change of the information landscape. Censorship in relation to restricted access and filtering are widely applied in school libraries to ensure students’ online safety. I exampled some common copyright questions students and teachers may have when using e-resources in my forum discussion for Module 4.1 “Copyright questions and answers for teachers and students”. The CDP provides direction or resources for finding answers for copyright issues and teacher librarians are the experts to respond to these queries.

A well thought out Collection Development Policy promotes collaboration between the school administrators and the teacher librarians in the planning of library collections that serve the current and future needs of the learners. The key factor determining the degree to which school librarians are permitted to be involved in decision making processes regarding intellectual freedom appears to rest more on professional intangibles such as the collegiate relationship with administrators (Hoffman & Wood, 2007). Teacher librarians and school administrators need to work collaboratively in order to develop a learner-centred collection (Hughes-Hassell & Mancall, 2005). The CDP sets out guidelines that stakeholders can all follow when discussing about controversial issues about the selection of materials. In my forum discussion for Module 6.2 “Key takeaway from your readings on censorship”, I discussed about collection selector’s self-censorship which can make selection a subjective exercise (Dawkins, 2018). The CDP helps teacher librarians avoid self-censorship and subjective selection of collections. CDP is “a public document concerned with what the collection will contain and why it exists” (New South Wale Department of School Education Curriculum Directorate, 1996, p. 24 – 25). It formalises all the procedures and practice undertaken by the librarians. When dealing with disagreements about selection decisions, the CDP works as a guideline and promotes constructive discussions between stakeholders who may also be involved in the planning and writing of the CDP (Dawkins, 2018).

Various models of CDP are available for the teacher librarians as references to write up their own CDP in the “voice” of the organisation and within the school context. In my two blog postings for Module 6 “Compare different models of collection policies” and “CDP content investigation” , and my forum discussion for Module 6.1 “Editing a CDP”, I analysed the different approaches adopted by the various models of CDP and identified the areas of concern for my school library’s CDP. Regardless of which model is chosen, the CDP must cover the issues in relation to electronic accessing of information and resources. The library needs to become a more vibrant entity and is capable of utilising and exploiting new electronic sources of information (Wade, 2005). The CDP needs to reflect this change in order to remain relevant as a guidance for the procedures and practice of the library.

References

Australian Education Minister (AEM). (2008) (n.d.). Melbourne declaration on educational goals for young Australian. http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf

Corrall, S. (2018). The concept of collection development in the digital world. In M. Fieldhouse & A. Marshal (Eds.). Collection development in the digital Age. (pp.45-48). Facet. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.29085/9781856048972

Dawkins, A.M. (2018). The decision by school librarians to self-censor: The impact of perceived administrative discomfort. Teacher Librarian, 45(3), 8-12.

Education Services Australia (ESA). (2020). Find digital resources aligned to the Australian Curriculum. https://www.esa.edu.au/solutions/our-solutions/scootle

GLAM Peak. (2016). Digital access to collections: framework.  http://www.digitalcollections.org.au/framework

Grigg, K. (2012). Assessment and evaluation of e-book collections. In R. Kaplan (Ed.), Building and Managing E-Book Collections (pp. 127-137). Neal-Schuman.

Hoffman, F. W., & Wood, R. J. (2007). Library collection development policies: School libraries and learning resource centers. Scarecrow Press.

Hughes-Hassell, S. & Mancall, J. (2005). Collection management for youth: responding to the needs of learners. ALA Editions.

IFLA (2013). IFLA trend report: Discover the trends. https://trends.ifla.org/

IFLA (2018). IFLA trend report: IFLA trend report 2018 update. https://trends.ifla.org/update-2018

Johnson, P. (2009). Fundamentals of collection development and management. ALA Editions.

Kimmel, S.C. (2014). Developing collections to empower learners. American Library Association.

Mitchell, P. (2011). Resourcing 21st century online Australian curriculum: The role of school libraries.  FYI: the Journal for the School Information Professional, 15(2), 10-15.

New South Wale Department of School Education Curriculum Directorate (1996). Handbook for school libraries. N.S.W. Dept. of School Education, Curriculum Directorate.

Tait, E., Vo-Tran, H., Mercieca, P., & Reynolds, S. (2019). Don’t worry, a school library with fewer books and more technology is good for today’s students. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/dont-worry-a-school-library-with-fewer-books-and-more-technology-is-good-for-todays-students-114356

Wade, C. (2005). The school library: Phoenix or dodo bird? Educational Horizons, 8(5), 12-14.

Module 6 – self reflection – what issues should be addressed for digital collection in the Collection Development Policy? 

Due to the rapid changes of information technology, more and more digital collections will become an integral part of the library collections. They are housed in the virtual library. Therefore, a prominent section in the collection development policy should specify the policy in relation to the digital collection. This section needs to address the following issues:

1. The best formats for the digital collection kept by the library that are most likely to be used
2. The ways the digital content address curriculum and student learning needs
3. The ways the digital resources align with the available technology infrastructure of the school.
4. Professional learning organised by the library and provided to the teachers
5. The frequency of evaluating and updating the digital collections. This is because the digital collection is to provide the most up-to-date information meeting the changing needs of the curriculum and the learners.
6. Funding resource to ensure the digital collection is sustainable over time due to the often-significant cost of digital resource subscriptions
7. Selection criteria for digital collection
8. Planning for collaborative work between teachers and TL to develop learning programmes to help students become competent users of the digital collections
9. Evaluation measurements that are in place to ensure a good balance between printed books and digital collections
10. Availability/access ‘terms and conditions’ of the digital collections, e.g. offsite and onsite access, students/teacher only access, access time and duration. This is particularly important considering the availability of device and Internet connect students can access during school time and after school time.
11. Promotion of digital collections. Digital collections rely on significant promotion effort to increase the usage otherwise they are invisible to the users

References:

Mitchell, P. (2016). Digital collections. https://www.slideshare.net/pru_mitchell/digital-collections

Braxton, B (2014). Sample ollection policy. http://500hats.edublogs.org/policies/sample-collection-policy

Module 6 – Activity

Examine and compare a number of models of collection policies to gather ideas for writing your own. It is a useful exercise to examine and question areas of consistency and variation between models. A key area to watch for is the level of acknowledgement and inclusion of digital resources.

The “Manual for developing policies and procedures” (ALIA & VCTL, 2017) noted the changes made in the 2017 version from the 2007 version in the sections of “collection development” and “access and circulation”. These changes reflect the integration of e-resource as a core collection in the library in recent years. The section headings in the templates attached to the manual do not specifically mention about e-collection. Therefore, it relies on the teacher librarians who use the templates to create sections and contents in the Manual for developing policies needed for the development and management of the e-collection.

The “Queensland Public library standards and guidelines” (SLQ, 2013) is a very useful document for the librarians to use to determine the necessary policies and procedures in order to achieve the standards and benchmarks recommended in the Guidelines. Although the guidelines are written for the public libraries, school libraries can device their own standards by following the standards recommended in the Guidelines. Policies should be designed aiming at achieving the set standards and outcomes. The evaluation of the efficiency of the policies can also be based on the standards. The standards for “collection size” and “acquisition” apply to printed books and ebooks. In the school library, it would be more practical to work out separate standards for the two categories because the use of ebooks is largely dependent on the devices and Internet connection needed for using the ebooks. This factor can affect the collection size and the volume for acquisition. I also agree with the point raised in the Guidelines that the proportion of the e-collection varies according to user demands and acceptance. In the context of the school library, it refers to the students’ demands and acceptance.

The “American Library Association’s workbook for selection policy writing” (ALA, 2020) provides guidelines in addressing the collection selection issues. I think the guidelines are rather general and there is no special mention about the selection issues in relation to e-collection.

The “collection development policy” and the “collection processing procedures” in the school library I am currently working were written by the previous teacher librarian. It is a priority for me to review and update both of them. I will use the “Manual for developing policies and procedures” (ALIA & VCTL, 2017) and the “Queensland Public library standards and guidelines” (SLQ, 2013) and Barbara Braxton’s (2014) “Sample collection policy” as the references to revise the policy and the manual.

References:

American Library Association (ALA) (2020). American Library Association’s workbook for selection policy writing. http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=dealing&Template-/ContenManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=11173

Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) & Victorian Catholic Teacher Librarians (VCTL) (2017). A manual for developing policies and procedures in Australian school library resource centres. https://asla.org.au/policy-development-manual

Braxton, B. (2014). Sample collection policy. https://500hats.edublogs.org/policies/sample-collection-policy/

State Library of Queensland (SLQ) (2013). Queensland Public Library standards and guideline: Library collections standards. https://plconnect.slq.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/146261/Library_Collections_Standard_2013.pdf

Module 6 – What should a collection policy contain?

Investigate – locate a school library collection and consider its purpose, users and usefulness.

The St. Andrew’s Cathedral School Collection Management Policy is a simple policy. Compared with the example written by Barara Braxton (2014), some sections are briefly written and a lot of important sections are not included in the policy. The following sections can be added to the policy in order to make it more comprehensive:

• Rationale
• Mission statement
• The nature of the users
• The purpose and role of the collection
• Priorities and goals
• Development of the digital collection
• Funding
• Acquisition
• Promotion
• Collection evaluation
• Policy review

St. Andrew’s Cathedral School is a K-12 school catering for students of all years. In my opinion, it needs a more extensive policy. On the other hand, collection management policy works as a foundation for developing the library collection procedure. The policy provides the goals and principles which the procedure should comply with. While the policy states the outcomes, the procedures describes how to achieve the outcomes. A comprehensive policy provides an important reference for library staff, administrators and teachers. It can be referred to as a defence when library decisions are challenged by the stakeholders including the students, parents and teachers.

References:

Braxton, B (2014). Sample ollection policy. http://500hats.edublogs.org/policies/sample-collection-policy

St. Andrew’s Cathedral School collection management policy. https://library.sacs.nsw.edu.au/files/The_Collection_Management_Policy_2016.pdf

5.1. Consider models and methods for collection evaluation which may effectively relate to the learning and teaching context, the needs of users and the school library collection within your school, or in a school which you are familiar with.

What are the practicalities of undertaking a collection evaluation within a school in terms of time, staffing, and priorities, as well as appropriateness of methodology?

Choosing the appropriate evaluation method is most important to make the routine collection evaluation feasible and practical in the school library. School libraries are always short of staff and time because the teacher librarians have a busy schedule of supervising students, managing classes attending the library and performing many administrative tasks.

I consider the following methods suggested by Grigg (2012) are most practical to be implemented in my school library:

1. Usage data – this method can be undertaken as regularly as needed by using the statistics reports of the library management system. But it may not show the usefulness of the collection in details.

2. Focus groups – this method can be used in conjunction with the “usage data” method when I want to find out the feedback about a particular collection from the regular user group but the “focus group” method can be time consuming because it can only be conducted within a small group. TL may find it hard to get the targeted group together for the interview due to time constraint. However, TL can try to interview students as they come to the library to borrow books from that collection during lunch time.

3. Benchmarking – this method can provide a holistic view about a collection when compared with a similar collection in other school libraries. This method needs TL to proactively connect with other school libraries. Benchmarking provides an excellent networking opportunity. However, school libraries don’t usually exercise the purposeful planning that is required to generate reliable usage data needed for benchmarking.

4. Survey instruments – this method will work well with teachers. Most teachers are willing to give feedback to the TL when the survey questions are clear, brief and relevant to the teachers’ needs. Therefore, well designed questions are most important in order to get more teachers to respond to the survey. Teachers are busy and would ignore the survey if they cannot see the relevance of the questions asked in the survey.

How does the need for, and possible benefits of an evaluation of the collection outweigh the difficulties of undertaking such an evaluation?

For many years, librarians employed the just-in-case philosophy in anticipation of what might be needed by students, teachers and the schools (Grigg, 2012). But today, library is not intended to be a permanent storehouse of society’s knowledge but rather a resource for students and teachers to explore topics beyond those found in classroom textbooks or teachers’ notes. The benefit of continuously evaluating the collection is that the Teacher Librarian can ensure the library management policy reflects the needs of the curriculum, the teachers and the students. The money is properly spent on the most required areas and topics.

All evaluation methods require staff efforts and their time. School libraries are always short of staffing resources. This makes it more important to evaluate the current collection to ensure staff time is spent on the most needed areas. For example, starting an e-book collection enables the staff to move away from many tasks associated with printed book processing, such as covering the books, cataloguing and shelving the books. A lot of time can be saved which could be used to help students find the appropriate ebooks for their assignments and research. The benefit of using non-fiction ebooks and databases is that all topics can be searched and retrieved instantly. Compared to searching information from the printed/physical books, it is a much faster process. Appropriate evaluation methods should be employed to find out the usage of didferent types of e-resources so that the library can start an appropriate e-collection to better cater for students’ research and reading needs.

What are the current priority areas for evaluation in your school library collection?

The priority areas are the most important services which the school library is providing to its users i.e. research and reading. Teaching is another essential school library service which is becoming more important because of the increased need for information literacy and computer literacy in the 21^st century education paradigm. Both information literacy and computer literacy are directly related to the use of library printed books and ebooks. The secondary school library has two main roles: support for research and reading (Cobett, 2012).

The priority areas for evaluation in the school library I am working at are the fiction collection and the graded reader collection. Those are the two most popular collections students are borrowing. These collections also help students to improve their literacy skills. 30% of the students in the school are from non-English speaking or refugee background. The graded reader collection is heavily used by the E/ALD classes which attend the library regularly to have literacy lessons and to borrow books.

The other priority area for evaluation is the non-fiction printed book collection. The collection isn’t up-to-date due to budget constraint. I need to identify the gaps of the collection and provide databases and ebook collections to fill the gaps. The provision of up-to-date non-fiction materials in the forms of print books or e-resources is critical for students’ research and subject study needs.

References:

Grigg, K. (2012). Assessment and evaluation of e-book collections. In R. Kaplan (Ed.), Building and Managing E-Book Collections (pp. 127-137). Neal-Schuman.

Cobett, T. (2012). E-books in a high school library – crushing academy. In R. Kaplan (Ed.), Building and Managing E-Book Collections (pp. 141-145). Neal-Schuman.

I will adapt the flowchart devised by Hughes-Hassell and Mancall (2005) to draft my own selection model within the context of the high school where I work as a Teacher Librarian. These features will be prioritised in the following order:

1. The Library budget allocated by the school and specific resources that will be paid for with this budget
2. Curriculum needs, learners’ characteristics
3. Reading trends, student interests and characteristics

I will explain the above three priorities in the following section.

Priority 1

The Library receives a set budget each year. The amount is about the same each year and the library fund is quite tight and restricted. I need to be very selective of how I spend the budget. I need to use a combination of management methods of “the lump-sum budget” and “the line-item Budget” to manage the budget. The principal does not specify the allocation of budget to each category of collection, except for the requirement for a few online resources that must come out of the library budget. After considering priority 1, I need to consider priorities 2 and 3 as well to ensure the collection meets the need of the learning community and the school and the budget is used to achieve the best outcome.

Priority 2

Adapting the collection based on curriculum changes and development is most important to ensure the collection is up-to-date and will be used by the teachers. Quite a few subject areas including Maths, Science and English have undergone significant syllabus changes in 2018. The Library discarded 30 – 40% of the study guide collection. Therefore, the budget allocation for each type of collection was changed in an effort to give more budget for the replacement of the discarded study guides. On the other hand, the shift from the traditionally teacher-centred learning to student-centred inquiry-based learning required the library to provide collection and resources to support such initiative.

Tool 7, Matrix for Gathering Data about the curriculum recommended by Hughes-Hassell and Mancall (2005, p. 38) can be used as a collaboration working tool with the teachers. This tool will enable the TL to gain a more thorough understanding about the curriculum and identify the needs of teaching and learning.

Priority 3

Understanding the characteristics of students are important when making collection selection decisions. My school has 30% of EAL/D students and students of refugee background. The fiction and reader collection need to include a core collection of beginner level books to cater for these students and when they come in the library for their literacy and reading lessons. Table 4.2, Multiple Intelligences and Selection of Literacy Resources proposed by Hughes-Hassell and Mancall (2005, p. 39) provides guidance on the different learning styles and the direction for me as a TL to include different formats of resources when selecting collections. It is particularly important to stimulate EAL/D students’ reading interests by engaging them with collections suited to their learning styles.

The collection must reflect the current interests of the students and the reading trend. Course module 2.2 (FitzGerald, 2020) discussed the consideration for a balanced collection. The two considerations that are most relevant to my school library are “physical versus digital” and “quality versus popular choice”. Due to budget constraint, my school library has never had the budget to update the physical non-fiction collection. Nowadays students tend to use a lot of online resources for their study and assignments because these resources are up-to-date and can be accessed at any time. To meet the needs of study and student assignments, I have reached out to the public libraries and the State Library of NSW to help students and teachers to sign up for membership and use their databases. The library was never budgeted to subscribe to the databases. On the other hand, I have always managed to allocate a substantial part of the budget to the fiction collection, considering that it is our core physical collection which the students like to read.

Ensuring the collection is relevant and interesting to the students is the only way to attract students to use the library. Some school libraries have distinguished themselves in the digital space with ICT and no books because those school executives don’t believe in the necessity of having a library collection (CBC News, 2011). Therefore, providing students with what they want and in the format they like will ensure that the library remain relevant to the school and the learning community. However, this does not mean the quality of collection has to be compromised. In fact, a quality collection provides holistic support for its users.

To achieve a balanced collection, the strengths and weaknesses of the current collection need to be analysed. I can use qualitative techniques and quantitative methods noted by Hughes-Hassell and Mancall (2005) to analyse my collection. The yearly stocktake is a form of those methods that I have used in my school library in the past. Breaking down the collection further by using circulation-generated reports will be useful for analysing the collection.

References:

CBC News. (2011, November 15). Libraries to return to Windsor Catholic schools. CBC/Radio Canada. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/libraries-to-return-to-windsor-catholic-schools-1.1021028

FitzGerald, L. (2020). ETL503, Module 2: Selection in the school context [Course materials]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au

Hughes-Hassell, S. & Mancall, J. (2005). Collection management for youth: responding to the needs of learners. ALA Editions.