Assignment+6

=Final Reflection=

It is Friday, July 27th, and when the sun sets in the Western sky tonight it will signal the end of LIBE 463. The title of the class is ‘Selection of Learning Resources’, but I think it has a much broader scope, and has influenced my practice as a Teacher-Librarian far beyond merely selecting materials for the library. This September I will join the staff at Princess Margaret Secondary School in Surrey as the new (and permanent) Teacher-Librarian. It is an exciting milestone in my career, and I am grateful for this course which has helped lay the groundwork for my mental picture of what my library will be like, and how I will run it. I am already preparing for my new job, and following are five things that I have learned in this class and will execute on the job.

My first plan of action as a Teacher-Librarian is to do a full inventory in August. I know most teachers would rather be far away from school for the summer, and while I enjoy the break, I think this would be of benefit to me and the school for a few reasons. I am not familiar with the collection, and this would be a good chance to see the resources first-hand. Due to a massive weeding carried out by the current TL, there is only 11,000 titles in the library, so it will be a considerably quicker job than the full inventory of 19,000+ titles that I did in June at my past library. I would like to see the condition of the collection, do some on-the-spot weeding if necessary, and see if I can find areas of weakness in the collection. I would also like to make sure that the electronic records are accurate, as inventory has not been done in a few years and I am sure that some books are missing or lost. Bishop says “The importance of establishing and holding to a designated time for inventory cannot be overemphasized.” (Bishop 125) While I would prefer to do this at the end of June in the future, for this year I will do inventory before the school year begins. After I finish with inventory I will get a Titlewise report so I can do some collection mapping and see how my new collection looks on paper.

I am also going to do a community analysis and needs assessment as described by Bishop in Chapter 3. She writes about the need to learn more about my new school, and the community my students live in. I already know that there is a very high number of Indo-Canadian students at this school, and it is classified as an inner-city school. I want to make sure that my collection, and in particular my Fiction section, meets the interests of these students. Without interesting and relevant reading material, I run the risk of losing the interest of the students.

Bishop provided sample Student and Teacher surveys (30, 31). I like the idea of getting feedback from the users of the library, and using this data to help me make choices about library policy and additions to the collection. I am making a teacher survey in August and will give it to staff at the summer Pro D day at the end of August. I am not sure how this will be received by my future colleagues, but I hope they will participate. Once the school year begins, I will look at doing a survey with a few classes throughout the grade levels to get feedback from students as well.

Bishop says “Very few persons become school media specialists because they have a special interest in developing budgets.” (207) Budgeting is something I had not considered when I was a student teacher dreaming about someday being a Teacher-Librarian, or even when I was placed in the library last February to cover a maternity leave. The current Teacher-Librarian had received her budget and spent it accordingly before I arrived. I had no part to play in this, and gave budgeting no thought. This class prompted me to look at the issue. I am going to prepare a budget request for my new library and base it on the needs of the collection. This will be much easier to do after I complete inventory in August. I will need to be familiar with the collection to create a more accurate budget proposal.

I have also been thinking about selection of new materials. Our fifth assignment involved researching, budgeting and shopping for new materials for the library. My friends make jokes about me going to buy books and how easy it will be. I think they are picturing a trip to Chapters with a few thousand dollars in my pocket to buy whatever I want. This assignment showed what is involved in making thoughtful choices for material selection, and that the actual purchasing is only a small part of the process. My plan is to spend the next few years rebuilding the non-fiction collection at my new school to meet the needs of students and teachers (it is currently quite poor, and there are very few books on the shelves). I will doubtlessly make mistakes along the way, and I am not looking forward to weeding a book that I purchased but turned out to be a poor choice; however, these issues are part of the process of collection management.

I have discussed inventory, community analysis and needs assessment, student/teacher surveys, budgeting and selection of new materials. In truth, there are far more topics that I could include as I have learned so much from this class. I will do a much better job in September as Teacher-Librarian as a result of the discussions we have had online and the readings I have done. I am certainly more confident with weeding than I was in February when I began working as a Teacher-Librarian. I remember how timid I was with the collection, and desperately taped up books that were simply beyond repair. After looking at the age and circulation guidelines on page 124 of //The Collection Program in Schools// I found many other books that were good candidates for weeding, and would have done so if it was my permanent library. I now understand the role of the the Teacher-Librarian better, and the importance of my work as an advocate of literacy and learning.

I know enough about librarianship to know I still have a lot to learn. LIBE 463 was a perfect first class for me as it outlined the importance of the library collection. I have always said that the library and the office are the ‘dual hearts’ of a high school, but I now have a better understanding of how and why the library holds this title. I have a better theoretical understanding of the policies and procedures under which I will be working, and the need to have them in place. I know why it is important to be familiar with my school population and community, and why ‘one size does not fit all’ when it comes to a library collection. Although I am nervous about the responsibility of taking on a budget and choosing what materials to buy, I understand the guidelines for what to buy and why it needs to be purchased. As a Teacher-Librarian, I am not only a buyer and maintainer of a //book// collection, but rather a //library// collection, which includes all physical materials within the library as well as all electronic resources we have available. It will be a challenge, but after taking this class I feel much more prepared to begin my new job.

Works Cited:

Bishop, K. (2007). //The collection program in schools: Concepts, practices and information sources (4th ed.).// Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited.