Assignment 5: LIBE 463 Resource Selection Project

My Selection Report linked below is based on my exploration of the Frost Road Elementary School Library in the Surrey School District. The area of the curriculum that these resources relate to is the topic of the environment. I have tried to include resources which conveyed a lot of information through their pictures because of the high ESL population in the school. I also tried to include some materials in a variety of formats such as the eBook and DVD format but found very few. In reality there are some good free video clips on the internet through Discovery Channel and the Smart Board online resources so I would probably access video materials more through that avenue. This library already has three videos as well on the topic in its collection. The materials I have chosen are current and I have tried to include materials to reflect different cultures. I referred to the guidelines in the Ministry of Education Document, Evaluating, Selecting and Managing Learning Resources: A Guide when examining materials. I browsed different review tools such as Booklist, Kirkus, Quill and Quire, School Library Journal, Horn Book, and Voya but was unable to get into many due to subscription barriers. I was also unable to enter into ERAC or TitleWave. I ended up mainly ordering resources through Kids Books and reviewing through Kirkus. However, I was pleased with using both and would use them again. I found Kirkus to be a reviewing tool which was easy to access. The total of my spending from Kidsbooks came to a total of $651.52. I thought I would also allocate $2000 for a Smart Board system. Purchasing this system would give the students access to a wide variety of hands on, visual resources which are free on the web. I thought this would be an extremely useful format for the high population of ESL learners in the school. I found a great free interactive unit based on the environment for the Smart Board system. This excellent Smart board lesson on the environment can be viewed at the following link: http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html?q=environment&region=en_CA&region=en_US. I also thought I would allocate $500 for a Document Camera. This would allow all of the books in the library to become big books as well and other endless possibilities. I would also allocate $600 for four eReaders such as the Kobo or Kindle. Kobo readers have access to the collection in the public library which is a way of increasing the collection that students can access. I am spending the bulk of my budget on technology related items because I feel that these materials will enhance my library collection greatly. I feel the books that I am purchasing within this budget are high in quality, broad in spectrum, and cover all the topics that are missing from this library’s collection. Adding more books might lead to some redundancy in concept coverage. Instead, spending the money on these technology related items will continue to expand the collection in years to come and reach students in an interactive way (which is a component lacking in this library’s collection). This would put my total spending at $3751.52. I would use the remaining money for ordering eBooks as they become available.

I found this assignment particularly useful and I was surprised to find how long it took to develop a list of good resources to order. I also can see, however, that once a list is made up, it would be very quick to actually order the materials. With all the budget cutbacks that are taking place, TLs are being forced to defend their jobs. Burkman states that, “School librarians must respond quickly with efforts to prove library programs are vital to the success of the students.” (Burkman, 2004, p.42).  I think having a list such as this on hand would be incredibly valuable. I feel like I know all of the merits of the books on my list and could express at a moment’s notice how these resources would positively impact student learning to my admin (or anyone else) to advocate for my program. Having a list like this would be very handy to have to show the administration when advocating for more funding. All the time I invested into developing the list will be really valuable later. Also, if I do suddenly come upon additional funding and need to spend it quickly, referring to this list would allow me to order resources very quickly.

Citations:

Ministry of Education, Province of British Columbia. (2002): Evaluating, Selecting and Managing Learning Resources: A Guide. British Columbia, Learning Resources Branch.

Burkman, Amy. (2004): A Practical Approach to Marketing the School Library. Library Media Connection, 23(3), pp.42-43.

Click on link below for my Selection Project Spreadsheet outlining the resources I have purchased:

Resource Project Spreadsheet