Introduction to School Libraries and LearningDay Two 2008

The resource cycle

Information Resources and Access

Before we begin…

Self Assessment Forms

Professional Learning Circle - BLOG

Report back - Task Two,Three and Four

• Workplace

• Orientation Exercise

• Education Gazette Article

Mt Albert Grammar

Library Excellence

• Committed principals

• Graphic novels for boys

• Male authors as guest speakers

• Involve students in buying plan

• Library in central position

• Survey students at beginning of year

• Read more library books

• Senior literature club/ kids lit. quiz

• Librarian – good connection with children

Guiding principle Information Resources

The school library is a provider of information resources

selected to meet the curriculum and information needs of

the school.

Bairds Mainfreight

The Resource Cycle

SelectionAcquisition

Cataloguing

Processing

Circulation

Maintenance

De-selection

Selection Preparation

Assess your users’ needs

The best collection in the world is useless if it is irrelevant to

the users of the school community for which it was ‘built’.”

Dillon, 1998, page 154

Activity: Report back to the group on homework exercise

A description (bullet points) of your library users’ needs.

Collection management statement

• Guiding document to ensure that the library resources

collection supports the school’s education goals

• Documents standards, principles and managements

strategies for effective collection management

• Needs to be reviewed regularly

Weeding and Assessment

Why assess your collection?

It enables you

• To familiarise yourself with the collection (new staff) and to

identify its strengths and weaknesses

• To be responsive to changing needs and user feedback

• To form the basis of library’s buying plan and budget

submission

• To make best use of available funds by planning and

prioritising expenditure.

Weeding the collection

Deciding what to remove from the collection is just as

important as deciding what to add to the collection.

Activity - Discuss in your groups.

1. When was your collection last weeded?

2. What difficulties have you/ would you face with weeding

your collection?

3. Discuss the reasons for weeding the book you brought

Categories

Buying Plans

I think it’s very important to have a buying plan. We’ve got

a three- year buying plan that is aligned with all curriculum

plans. Before, the books were just bought in an ad hoc

way from visiting booksellers. Now we are really targeting

our buying, and it ensures that the collection is relevant to

classroom learning programmes. I’m also getting a

suggestions box going for the children and the staff

Linda Nevill, TLR, Lyall Bay School

Managing your library budget

• Resources

• Consumables

• Library automation costs

• Professional development and subscriptions

• Environment

Budgeting methods

• Lump sum

• Needs – based budget

e.g. Books at all levels on shapes/patterns,

fractions, graphs and maths puzzles

10 books @ $30 = $300

Benefits of needs-based programme budgeting

• targets real / identified needs

• increases effective use of funds

• ensures accountability

• is systematic

• provides flexibility

Primary School Resource Budgets

Documenting your budget to ensure accountability

The Board could ask:

• Did the library really need $3000?

• Was the money spent appropriately?

• What was bought with the money?

• How did this expenditure benefit the learning of our

students?

• How did the library budget assist with curriculum delivery?

Resource Selection

Activity

What are the criteria you use

when selecting a resource?

A Balanced Collection

• Print and electronic resources

• Reference

– providing accurate, up to date information, in concise systematic format

• Non fiction

– for curriculum related and general reading at all levels

• Fiction

– broad ranging selection for all levels, covering a range of genre and formats

A balanced collectionNon- book resources

Non book resources

• Videos, tapes,

• Games, and pictorial resources

• Magazines, newspapers, comics –

• Catalogued websites

(download SCIS pre catalogued websites)

• CD Roms and DVDs

• On-line databases –EPIC

Waimauku

Does your reference section include Māori resources?

• Dictionaries Dictionaries

• Atlases and Place Names

• Proverbs, Idioms & Sayings

• Māori Concepts

• Encyclopaedias

• The Treaty of Waitangi

The library’s information resources and also those it provides

access to through online services:

• Are selected to support the curriculum, foster the student’s

information literacy skills, and encourage them to develop as

readers;

• Are relevant to the library users’ needs in content, level, and

approach;

Information Resources Electronic Format

                                                            

E Resources accessible through National Library

Create Readers Blog

National Library website www.natlib.govt.nz

National Library website www.natlib.govt.nz

eResourcing the school

curriculum: the role of the school library

National Library courses will be held at Mt Albert Grammar on:

17 June - Primary schools

18 June - Secondary schools

EPIC

• Collaboratively purchased and funded for schools by the Ministry of Education

• Collection of 18 databases

• Contains full text articles, images, video, sound, biographies, reference works, reviews…

• Teacher Toolboxes

• Accessed through Te Kete Ipurangi or National Library

www.tki.org.nz/r/epic

www.natlib.govt.nz

EPIC Databases

• Australia / New Zealand

Reference Centre

• MasterFILE Premier

• Encyclopaedia Britannica –

School edition

• Oxford English Dictionary

• Grove Art Online

• Grove Music Online

• History Resource Centre

• InfoTrac OneFile

• Literature Resource Centre

• Opposing Viewpoints

Resource Centre

• Student Resource Centre

• Discovering Collection

• What Do I Read Next?

• Biography Resource Centre

Strategies to aid selection• Read, read, read, and share, share, share

• Maintain a file of recommendations / lists…

• Subscribe to specialist book review and childrens’ literature magazines

e.g. Magpies, Around the Bookshops

• Read and file reviews in newspapers and magazines

• Specialist websites and listservs which include reviews of children’s &

young adult literature

e.g. Story-go-round, http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~l.orman/

Get on publishers and bookshop mailing lists

e.g. Scholastic, Children’s Bookshop, Wheelers

• Attend network meetings, events

Acquisitions - who do you buy from?

• Pros and cons of sale-shopping

• “Quality” issues in relation to number of books

for your $$

• Which booksellers/book reps?

• Discounts

• How to make book fairs work for you

Access

Guiding Principle

The school library is a hub and interface

with organised systems for accessing

and managing information and

resources

The library has standard systems and procedures that are simple, efficient, effective, and well documented, that meet users’ needs…….

Ponsonby Primary

Critical Success Factor 3

Upper Harbour School

Upper Harbour Primary

Rototuna

Effective School Library ‘Access’

• supports students to become independent,

confident, lifelong learners

• provides the tools and the physical access to

information and resources

• Is an integral role in the school’s ICT

infrastructure

Staff ICT Skill Levels

Core ICT skills

• Gap analysis:– What skills do I have?

– What skills do I need?

• Priorities for self-development:– Decide three skill areas to work on

from the checklist…

– http://www4.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/specTest.cfm?courseID=6000

Botany Downs Secondary College

Cataloguing - Introduction

1. Access - to enable users to find resources

2. Show - information about the collection

3. Provide - a record of the collection

accuracy and consistency are important

Cataloguing Tools SCIS

www.curriculum.edu.au/scis

All schools:

– Library database

– Catalogue records

– subject headings

– Dewey 14th Abridged

Processing

Preparing the item for use in the library

• can eliminate mending & maintenance later

• weigh up cost of processing materials with cost and value of the item

• Some vendors of materials provide training workshops and guides

• If volunteers are used, it is vital to get those with a real commitment to doing the job really well

• Investigate “shelf ready” pre-processed book purchase

Processing Steps

• School ownership stamp/remove price labels

• Spine hinges

• Labelling

• Barcode and date due slips

• Covering & reinforcing

• Suppliers’ guidelines e.g. Raeco

Labelling - fiction

• Albany Junior High– Spine out shelving

• Upper Harbour Primary– Face out shelving

Labelling – picture books

• Upper Harbour Primary – Sophisticated picture books

– Face out shelving

• Kaingaroa School (Kaitaia)– Picture books

– Spine out shelving

Labelling – non-fiction

• Waiheke Primary

Circulation

Includes:

• Issues & returns

• renewals

• reserves

• recalls

• overdues

• reports & statistics

Efficient circulation systems ensure that material is made available.

Borrower records

• different methods of provision of barcodes– system generated

– commercial suppliers

• different methods of storage, depending on

appropriateness for the school & students

Circulation

Maintenance

Procedures within the library to maintain the

collection adequately & monitor its use.

• Mending

• Stock-checking

• Weeding & withdrawal

This is best done on an ongoing basis, to

avoid a backlog of work for someone

else…..

The Resource Cycle

SelectionAcquisition

Cataloguing

Processing

Circulation

Maintenance

De-selection

Tasks for day 3

Task One – Library Visit With your buddy visit a well run library .Complete the checklist while you are there.  Task Two - Outline of Buying planInclude:

a) a curriculum area/s that classes are studying this year that needs strengthening b) An area of recreational reading that could be strengthened e.g. more picture books with Pacific Island themes / characters. c) An area in your reference section that needs strengthening

 Task Three – Promote e- resourceDescribe how you showed/ promoted one e- resources eg -EPIC, Te Ara to a

student or a teacher