Shauna SandersReference: Evaluation

FRIT 7737, Dr. RepmanFall 2010

Evaluating an Elementary School’s Reference Collection

For this assignment I chose to evaluate our elementary school’s reference collection for its currency and coverage. I

chose my elementary school for this evaluation because in my two years in the media center, I have seen maybe one or two

teachers use the reference materials and no one else. Most of our non-fiction selections remain on the shelves with their

Dewey classification. The best time of the year to determine what areas we may be lacking coverage is when the students are

creating their informational writing pieces within their rooms. During this time, many students and teachers will come to the

media center requesting books on specific topics. My assistant and I quickly realize some topics or areas that we are lacking

during this time.

The first part of this evaluation consisted of learning how to run specific circulation or analysis reports using our

Surpass checkout system. I ran an age analysis report just on the books that are cataloged in the Reference section. We have

over 25 books that are from the 1980’s and before. Several of the books on presidents stopped with Bill Clinton or were

copyrighted 1989. The two sets of encyclopedias had a copyright date of 1992. Many things have happened and changed since

then. For example, Pluto is no longer considered a planet, yet according to the set of encyclopedias we have on our shelves, it

is.

One problem with the age analysis report is that it showed we have over 100 books that were published within the

2000’s. However, after further digging, those books were in fact only 3 titles and we just had a bunch of them. They were

books like Almanacs, dictionaries, class atlases, and thesaurus. After taking these titles out, we basically had around 10

books written in the 2000’s. Not counting these titles, I ran a dewey divisions report with an average age of each division. The

reference division’s average age was 19 years old. We seriously need to think about weeding some of these older books and

replacing them with newer more up to date reference materials. Instead of buying new sets of encyclopedias, I have included

several online resources in my reference 2.0 tool required for this assignment.

The next part of this assignment involved me examining the collection of books on specific topics that are used quite a

bit. One of the most popular topics for informational writing is animals. Unfortunately, the conditions of many of our 590’s

books are poor. There are quite a few reference books on animals, but many of them are very high reading levels, which

prevents many of our elementary students being able to gain any information. Also, many of the “animal” books in the

reference section are about birds. I’m not quite sure why we have so many nice, expensive and oversized books on birds, but

we do. These books are pretty, but not really applicable to what our students are required to learn about.

The final part of my evaluation consisted of finding any gaps in our media center related to our state standards. After

carefully comparing the science, social studies and math standards to what we have in the media center, there were some very

obvious areas where we are definitely not providing adequate information for the students. For example, students in third

grade are required to conduct some comparisons between ancient Athens and the USA and our governments. Third graders

are also responsible for being familiar with the Georgia habitats, animals and plants. Each of these sections do not have many

books providing students with the support they need in order to learn these topics. Also, students in second-fifth grades

spend some time focusing on biographies and many times the teachers want to cover more recent famous people, like Barack

Obama, Miley Cyrus, etc. , people that the students would actually enjoy learning about. I was able to find several good

websites for the students to use when working on biographies and added it to my web 2.0 tool.

After my evaluation was complete, I created a list of titles and other possible resources that I would recommend for our

media center to purchase in order to update and complete our reference collection. Below is my list.

Titlewave.com or Follett Online Order

Follett Online Order

Number

Title Author(s) Publisher Year Published

Review Value to the Collection

Cost

0034PA6(372.89)

Brother can you spare a dime? The Great Depression & the New Deal

Marsh, Carole

Gallopade International

2005 School Library Journal

Our fifth graders learn about the Great Depression and the New Deal. Many of them are quite interested in the Great Depression and focus their informational writing pieces on this topic. However, we generally do not have enough interesting and up to date books on this subject.

$29.99

07348P7(577)

Food chains and webs: from producers to decomposers

Spilsbury, Luise

Heinemann Library

2004 No Reviews Our fourth graders learn all about food chains and need help with decomposers. We only have a few books about food chains and they are easy readers for the primary grades. We need books for our fourth graders.

$21.75

1400F6(599.93)

Amazing Schemes within your Genes

Balkwill, Frances R.

Carolrhoda Books

1993 Hornbook; Kirkus Review

One of the newer standards for fifth grade is learning about inheriting traits and genes. We don’t have any materials to cover this topic. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any appropriate resource for our fifth graders beside this book.

$14.95

26537X2(973.917)

Climbing out of the Great Depression: the New Deal

Price, Sean Raintree 2009 Hornbook Our fifth graders learn about the Great Depression and the New

$21.75

Amazon.com Order

Title Author(s) Publisher Year Published

Review Value to the Collection

Cost

Faces of World War One: The Tragedy of the Great War in Words and Pictures

Arthur, Max First Impression

2007 Customer Reivews

The students in just about all grades love learning about and reading about wars. We don’t have many new books on any of the wars. This book would add a newer title to our collection with lots of great pictures.

$25.51

Scholastic Encyclopedia of the Civil War

Clinton, Catherine

Scholastic 1999 Booklist and School Library

Our fourth and fifth graders cover the Civil War and we currently do not have many books at all specifically on this war. These two books contain many pictures of tools and actual photos used or taken in the war. Students will find both of these books quite interesting.

$17.94

Eyewitness: Civil War Stanchack, John

DK Children 2000 Booklist and School Library Journal

Our fourth and fifth graders cover the Civil War and we currently do not have many books at all specifically on this war. These two books contain many pictures of tools and actual photos used or taken in the war. Students will find both of these books quite interesting.

$11.55

Tools of the Ancient Greeks: A Kid’s Guide to the History & Science of Ancient Greece

Bordessa, Kris

Nomad Press

2006 Customer Reviews and Metrokids Pennsylvania

Third grade social studies’ standards require students to compare ancient Greece with our society today. These books provide these comparisons in a third grade reading

$11.53

Follett Order $487.45

Amazon Order $164.63

Total for Both Orders $652.08