Library Material Selection Policy  

Mission Statement

Our Library Learning Resource Centers will provide access to information and ideas for students as they develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.  Library Media Specialists, through resources and cooperative instructional activities, equip students to find, review, evaluate, and use a broad range of ideas effectively.  It is our aim to stimulate the connections between people and to promote access to information, to encourage literacy, and to enhance opportunities for self-education and recreation.  Also, it is our goal to provide high quality learning-centers for children who do not have the opportunity to use the public library system.

Introduction

It is the policy of the ________ School Board to establish and maintain a Library Learning Resource Center in each school, appropriate to the age groups served by that school. (Short wording about unique demographics to be added for each district).

The library exists to provide educational resources for the community stakeholders which include students, teachers, administrators, parents and other care givers. It provides material directly related to subject content, or information that offers enrichment within subject areas of the curriculum. Materials must serve both the breadth of the curriculum and the varying curricular interests, needs and abilities of students. The library supports the curriculum of the ____ School by providing primary resource material and other resources that support individual student needs through access from multiple sources (Internet, Public Libraries, etc.).  The depth and breadth of materials aspire to enable students to develop knowledge and formulate judgements.  The district is obligated to provide for a wide range of abilities and to respect the diversity of many differing points of view. To this end, principles must be placed above personal opinion and reason above prejudice in the selection of materials of the highest quality and appropriateness. 

The ________ libraries adopt and uphold intellectual freedom as our ethical principle as provided in the First Amendment of our U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights that protects freedom of expression of ideas. Members of the school community involved in the collection development process employ educational criteria to select resources unfettered by their personal, political, social, or religious views. Additionally, our libraries reaffirm the freedom to read as guaranteed by the United States Constitution.  This right will be guaranteed for all students with parent permission when necessary.

Each school library will serve as a student centered information resource center and will support the District's philosophy for instilling in students a lifelong love of learning. Our school libraries endorse the Information Literacy Standards for student learning affirmed by AASL (American Association of School Librarians) in Information Power. We believe that "the student who is information literate, accesses information efficiently and effectively,....evaluates information critically and competently, ] ...uses information effectively and creatively..."(Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning, Chicago: ALA, 1998, pp.8-9. See Also: http://www.ala.org/ala/aaslproftools/informationpower/informationliteracy.htm)

Definitions:

The term "library media materials" refers to all books, multimedia equipment, periodicals,and information obtained via electronic means, that provide resource materials for any area of the curriculum and to materials in any medium which are used for independent study, enrichment, or recreational interests.  Library media materials are either located in the library, or their maintenance and use by students and staff and is the responsibility of the librarian.

Responsibility 

 The school board of directors will give the responsibility of day-to-day operations of the library media center and the selection of all library and media materials to the Library Media Specialist.  Material selection is guided by use of standard selection tools.  These selection tools include but are not limited to current professional literature, library reviews, reviewing journals, bibliographies for reference books, special subject materials and general lists.  No publication will be relied on exclusively.  Each critical review will be check against other reviews.  In selecting library media materials, library media specialist, principal, staff, students, parents and community members are guided by the principles incorporated in the School Library Bill of Rights, the Freedom to Read Statement, standards adopted by the American Association of School Librarians, and Washington State Department of Education School Library Standards.  

The responsibility of the library media specialists is to effectively stay within the district allocated budget.  At the beginning of each year, the Teacher Librarian must identify the characteristics of the  school's learners.  After gaining knowledge of the learning characteristics, this information will assist the library media specialist and staff of materials needed to support current curriculum.  There are several questions to be answered. Are there resources needed to support the school's curriculum? Do the reading programs have books that are being used to support the programs?  Are the Washington State Standards supported by current materials? Is ethnic diversity of the learning community reflected in current resources? 

Another responsibility of the library media specialist is to seek additional funds to maintain and improve a learner-centered library.  The library media specialist knows the strengths and weakness of current collection.  Creating a one-year budget plan enables the library media specialist to show how a different level of funding can effect and improve student learning.  Negotiating for additional funds to increase the budget is part of the library media specialist's responsibilities. It can help create an outstanding student-centered collection. The key to the bargaining process is to set goals based on school curriculum needs, school academic goals, and Washington State learning standards.  

Equally important, are grant writing, identifying funding sources in the community, and seeking donations to improve the learner-centered library collection.  

Criteria For Selection

Our collection development policy focus is in creating and maintaining these three areas: popular material, a reference center, and an independent learning center.  The following criteria will be used to develop our collections:

• District Goals-Curriculum should be the guiding force for the development of a library collection.  Federal, State, District and the individual schools have curriculum guiding instruction. Our libraries will use these mandates as their guide as well.

•  Community Profile-Having an understanding of the community that will be using the library will help guide the needs for that individual library.  The us population age, size, population, and economic base should be evaluated prior to determining the selection at that given library.  All schools will not be exactly alike.

• Information Literacy Standards-This library will follow the standards set forth by the guidelines stated in Information Power.

• Cooperative development-Library media specialist should have a large say in the material developed for the library, however, having others help with the selection will give the collection a greater magnitude. If possible form a local library advisory board.

• Current accurate information-collection will be evaluated on a routine basis and outdated material will be discarded or may be kept for historical purposes.

• Lifelong learning-Our selection will be developed with the goal of a developing a lifelong learner.  We will keep our circulation system aligned with the common established library standards.   Our learners will be able to visit any other library and feel confident that he/she can locate information and all library items with minimal assistance.

• Varied format- Materials will be purchased in a variety of formats, and an effort will be made to incorporate emerging technology when the need arises.  We will include books, periodicals, newspapers, videotapes, DVD’s, CD’s, listening libraries, software, etc.

• Review based selection- the selection committee wiill only acquire items reviewed by a reputable source.

• Diversity-The library media specialist in making selections should do so in a manner based upon principle rather than personal opinion, reason rather than prejudice, and judgment rather than censorship.  Collections will include balanced and opposing viewpoints.

Procedures For Selection