Library Sciences 522

Collection Development

Course Introduction

A school library media program consists of

• the teacher-librarian, who provides leadership, planning and management, collaborative instructional development, teaching, and assessment;
• other personnel;
• resources and equipment;
• facilities; and
• services.

In this course, we will concentrate on the resources available in or through the school library media center. We'll talk about

• criteria for selecting and evaluating children's and young adult materials including print, non-print, and electronic resources.
• reviewing sources and materials for collection development;
• collection evaluation;
• collection policies;
• instructional materials policies;
• collection development planning; and
• budget development for the collection.

It is important to remember that the collection itself includes a wide variety of media. As the school teacher-librarian we need to be competent in selecting and evaluating—not only books—but also magazines, videos, prints or pictures, maps and globes, sound recordings, laser disks, CD-ROMs, and resources on the World Wide Web. All these formats share some common evaluation points, and each requires some specific analysis as well.

No item and no school library media collection is ever perfect or complete; we do the best we can to build a collection of materials, faced with the availability (or lack of availability) and appropriateness of materials, and budgetary constraints. In this course, you will examine elements to consider as you

• select individual materials,
• review the collection as a whole, and
• then begin to link the needs of your specific school environment to the processes and strategies of effective collection development.

By the time you complete this course, you will have gained skills that will help you develop, evaluate, and maintain a school library media collection.

Course Objectives

When you have finished this course, you will be able to

• define commonly accepted evaluation criteria for materials (print, non-print, and electronic) to support the needs of teachers and students in a K-12 educational environment;
• apply these criteria in a "real world" setting;
• identify the most important reviewing journals and those that are appropriate for your situation;
• evaluate reviews from these journals;
• identify some of the current reference sources for collection development and choose those most appropriate for your setting;
• evaluate and use some of these reference tools;
• evaluate all or part of a school library media center collection;
• review or write a collection development policy for a school library media center;
• identify the instructional materials policy and procedures in your setting;
• prepare a program budget for collection development; and
• develop a collection maintenance plan according to professional guidelines.

About the Course

This course comprises seven lessons with required readings and weekly activities that include seven Audio Conferences, four Discussion Forums, and seven graded assignments. The course readings, requirements, and grading criteria are discussed below. Refer to the Online Student Handbook to answer frequently asked questions and for basic information about taking an online course.

Course Readings

Along with the information in this course guide, the Bishop text, and The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker by Cynthia DeFelice, you will be required to access supplementary reading materials. These include:

• online resources for writing reviews, examples of collection development/selection policies;
• journal articles accessible via UW Libraries Information Gateway e-journals; and
• guidelines for evaluating Web-based resources.
  

Course Requirements

To enroll in this course you must have already taken a course in children's literature or young adult literature.

To complete this course successfully, you must participate in

• all seven Audio Conferences; and
• all four Discussion Forums.

For you and others in the course to receive the most benefit from the Audio Conferences and Discussion Forums, you will need to keep up with the course schedule. You must also satisfactorily complete the written assignments.

Grading Criteria

This course is graded numerically as described in the School Library Media Specialist Student Handbook, pages 45–47. During the course, strive to grow in understanding, and consider any less than perfect assessments, not as a warning of potential failure, but as an opportunity for revision and growth.

The values by which I will assess your assignments are shown in the following table:

Audio-Conferences	Active participation and attendance (didn't miss more than two).	5% total grade
Discussion Forums	Active participation and attendance (didn't miss any).	15% total grade
Assignments	Graded on the 4.0 standard. See individual assignment Rubrics with each Lesson, carrying the following weight: Assignment 1———5 points Assignment 2——–20 points Assignment 3——15 points Assignment 4———5 points Assignment 5——–10 points Assignment 6———15 points Assignment 7——30 points	80% total grade
Total	100 points	100%

About Lessons and Lesson Activities

Each of the seven lessons includes the following components:

• required readings
• learning objectives
• a list of key terms
• your instructor's comments on the current subject
• link to a Lesson Activities (Audio Conferences, Discussion Forums, and Assignments) page that provides the following:
  • an agenda for any Audio Conference scheduled for the week
  • instructions for any Discussion Forum contribution for the week
  • instructions for any assignment due that week and the criteria by which it will be assessed

Audio Conferences provide us with an opportunity to converse with each other in "real time." They complement the Discussion Forums in which we can ask and answer questions at more length. There are seven Audio Conferences associated with this course. Your instructor will send you an e-mail message before the course begins asking you to choose among the possible weekly meeting times. If possible, she will try to continue times similar to the previous course if they have worked out well for you.

Discussion Forums enable us to simulate one of the features of a classroom setting; we'll be able to share our questions and ideas through threaded discussions. For this course, you will use the Discussion Forums to either post your work or to respond to work posted by a colleague. Topics for the Discussion Forums will center on the findings you derive from evaluations of review sources, interviews with mentor teacher-librarians about collection development issues, and an investigation of vendor services. Each of these discussions will allow you to share findings and interact with other students about these findings.

There are seven written Assignments for this course, including writing a book review, reviewing selection tools, analyzing collection development policies, writing a community analysis and needs statement, evaluating the collection, writing a weeding policy, and writing a collection development plan. Check the course schedule on your syllabus page for due dates. Please arrange with your instructor in advance for any late Assignment. Failure to do so may result in loss of credit.

Lesson One: Selecting and Evaluating Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Electronic Sources

We will review the concepts we need to consider when we evaluate a fiction book for literary quality; non-fiction for its appropriateness; and electronic resources for usefulness.

Lesson One Audio Conference

In the Introduction Conference, we will discuss your work in this course; guidelines for submitting Assignments; grades and other practicalities. The instructor will also answer general questions about the course.

During the Lesson One audio conference, we will discuss the seven elements of literary quality in fiction as we find them in The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker; non-fiction information resources, and writing book reviews.

Lesson One Discussion Forum

You will post bibliographic information and an evaluative annotation for two non-fiction titles and two Web sites on a topic related to The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker.

Lesson One Assignment

In your first assignment, you will write your own book review for The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker. Be sure to describe the elements of literary quality used by DeFelice.

Lesson Two: Current Reviewing Sources and Retrospective Bibliographies

We will take an in-depth look at some of the professional selection tools teacher-librarians use. We will investigate current reviewing media: those journals that regularly publish reviews of new materials being published. We will also examine retrospective tools.

Lesson Two Audio Conference

We will discuss reviewing sources and required reading.

Lesson Two Discussion Forum

There is no Discussion Forum associated with this lesson.

Lesson Two Assignment

You will investigate professional resources to examine the types of evaluations available to you as you begin to purchase materials for your collections. For this assignment, you will evaluate eight professional resources from the list provided in the Appendix of the Bishop text and assess five Web sites that provide materials selection information.

Lesson Three: Collection Development and Selection Policies

A clear, well-written collection development policy and selection policy guides you, the teacher-librarian, as you select, acquire, and maintain the collection. These documents represent overall thinking and planning for the collection. This lesson will examine the components of each. We will evaluate your school district’s school library media policy.

Lesson Three Audio Conference

We will discuss the process of writing policies and procedures for collection development.

Lesson Three Discussion Forum

After locating your school or district collection development policy, you will post a comparison and analysis of your findings.

Lesson Three Assignment:

For this Assignment, you will write a rough draft of a new or revised materials selection policy based on your current school library media center processes.

Lesson Four: The Collection Development Cycle—Assessing the Needs of the School Community

Selecting appropriate materials to support the learning and teaching of a school’s community requires a number of skills and strategies. In this lesson, we will explore several strategies for determining the instructional, informational, and interest needs of teachers and students through the analysis of your internal and external communities.

Lesson Four Audio Conference

We will discuss of the politics of a successful collection development program.

Lesson Four Discussion Forum

There is no Discussion Forum associated with this lesson.

Lesson Four Assignment

You will write a community analysis and needs statement.

Lesson Five: Evaluating the Collection

This lesson will provide you with some basic research skills as you evaluate the collection. You will gather factual data about the collection that you can use to communicate with administrators, teachers, and the public.

Lesson Five Audio Conference

We will discuss the various ways to evaluate the collection, including collection mapping and other techniques used by your mentors.

Lesson Five Discussion Forum

After interviewing your mentor about his or her collection development strategies, using questions provided in this course guide (as well as any others you may want to ask), you will post your findings to the Discussion Forum.

Lesson Five Assignment

You will conduct a random sample of a collection and report on your findings.

Lesson Six: Collection Maintenance

A school library media collection is not a static entity; it grows and changes with time. And just because an item was once a useful part of the collection does not mean it will always belong in the collection. In this lesson we will concentrate on weeding—the considered, careful removal of materials. We will explore the principles of weeding, reasons to retain materials, and general guidelines for weeding.

Lesson Six Audio Conference

We will discuss the process and strategies of collection development plans. You will have the opportunity to ask and answer questions about your Lesson Seven Assignment.

Lesson Six Discussion Forum:

You will post to the Discussion Forum seven Internet sites relevant to collection development, instructional materials, selection, weeding, or other guidelines for school library media collections. These may include actual collection development policies that you found outstanding for school libraries; sites that show us how to create collection development policies; and sites that inform us of collection development topics.

Lesson Six Assignment:

You will draft a weeding policy.

Lesson Seven: The Collection Development Cycle— Selection for a Unit, and Collection Development Plan

The final lesson will provide us with an opportunity to experience the full selection and acquisition cycle—a collection development plan. You will identify an area of your collection that is a priority collection need. You will identify goals and measurable outcomes for the specific area. Using the skills you have learned in previous lessons, you will review, select, and prioritize items for “hypothetical” purchase.

Lesson Seven Audio Conference

During our final Audio Conference, you will have an opportunity to discuss the challenges and major issues for an effective collection development program.

Lesson Seven Discussion Forum

There is no Discussion Forum associated with this lesson.

Lesson Seven Assignment

You will use the information you have assembled from all the previous lessons and Assignments to create a Collection Development Plan.

About You

Please send the following information via e-mail to your instructor.

• Name: Indicate what you would like to be called when we talk during Audio Conferences. This is especially important if the name you wish to be called differs from the name on your course registration. One student let me call him "Joseph" for a whole year, until just before he graduated when he told me he preferred "Joe." I won't know if you don't tell me.
• Experience in Education: How many years? Doing what? What age students?
• Current Job, If Any: Be sure to let me know if you are not working in a school. It doesn't make the course impossible, just a little more difficult.

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