knitting librarian

I got to work this morning and had an email that said that our new superintendent would be visiting the school today and would visit classrooms while she’s here. I have been working diligently on my data collection, but I didn’t have anything written on what it really means. I’ve got a lovely graph and chart that I did in Excel on Monday and Tuesday. Today, it needed something to explain it all. Here’s what I’ve written:

When I was hired by the district in 2004, the A. G. Curtin Middle School library was a much-neglected and little-used repository for old books. Because the automated circulation system was not used prior to my hire date, there is no data on material usage prior to that time. A collection analysis using Follett’s Titlewave at that time showed a much larger collection of approximately 14 items per student with an average age of 1965.

A complete weeding of outdated materials was much-needed so that students were able to locate books that met their needs—both for research and leisure reading. In the past two school years, more than 5000 items were examined and discarded due to their condition, age, or suitability. Some titles that were discarded included Brooms, Buttons and Beaux: A World of Information for Teenage Girls (1957), I Speak Basic to my TRS-80 Computer (1982), Mary Ellis: Student Nurse (1958), and several books on space that said “someday man will land on the moon” from the ESEA grants in the 1960s. Discarding these materials increased the collection age to a more respectable average age of 1990 but also cut the items per student to just under 9. Pennsylvania guidelines recommend a minimum of 15 items per student and a standard of 20 items per student at the middle school level (23).

Last year, the collection development focus was on reference, the pure and applied sciences, and materials to support the music department’s composer research. This year’s focus is on history and current fiction. This work form indicates that a likely area for focus during the 2007-2008 school year will be on the arts, literature, and current fiction.

Teachers at Curtin tend to use the library more to support leisure reading needs than for research, although focused collections for the music classes, 8th grade mathematician biographies, and 6th grade country research have been used heavily. As I continue to collect data this year on what research projects are going on in the computer lab without library support, I hope to be able to show teachers resources that will support their curriculum and increase the usage of the library materials by all teachers. This data collection will also help to identify additional areas that need to be supported with additional purchases for the library.

I hope this will convey the essential information I want Dr. Kelley to understand and also help her to interpret the data on the other side of the page.

“No student is harmed physically when a needed book is not available, but intellectual growth may be stunted.”—David Loertscher

I got this quote from an article I read today in The Book Report.

Harbour, Denise. “Collection Mapping.” The Book Report. Mar/Apr 2002: 6-10.

I used Deb Kachel’s Collection Analysis Primer from PSLA this morning to really look at the numbers and the standards and where my collection is in relation to where it should be.

Based on collection age, I need to work on decreasing the age of the following: 300s, 340s, 400s, 640s, 800s, 900s, 910s and fiction. Based on circulation, I need to increase the number of volumes (of more current titles) in the 000s, 700s, 900s, and fiction.

Last year, I worked on the 500s and 600s. My plan was to focus on the 900s this year, and I have done some purchasing to meet that need already, but those titles won’t be reflected until I do a new analysis in the early spring.

Fiction is always a focus just because it is such a high volume of our circulation. Because there is little collaboration here, it’s not shocking that our fiction circulates and is used more than non-fiction, but I still wish that would change. Hopefully, working on getting data from teachers on research units they are conducting without my help will enable me to show them where our collection is already meeting their needs and they’ll be more willing/open to using the library instead of bypassing me for the computer labs.

Kachel, Debra E. Collection Assessment and Managment for School Libraries. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1997.

I borrowed this book through interlibrary loan and found many familiar forms that I used when I first started teaching. I student taught under Deb at Ephrata in 1992. Many of the forms we used while I did my field experience there I took with me to my first (unautomated) school, including forms to document ILL and magazine circulation. It was somewhat strange to read the book as I could hear Deb’s voice as I was reading.

As I skimmed the book last night, I found a great suggestion to examine the collections of the other schools in my district. I am certain that my collection falls far behind the other two middle schools and being able to visually demonstrate that to the principal and other administrators. Today I sent them an email asking them to send me their MARC export so that I can use Follett’s collection analysis tool to get my initial reports. I included directions on how to do an export to make things as easy as possible for them. Wanda has already agreed to send me her export file today, so hopefully Suzanne will as well and I’ll be underway!

I’ve also ordered another book to help me with forms and letters for teachers and gotten some good ideas from Deb’s book on assigning need levels to different courses to prioritize where spending should be focused as you work to improve the collection and meet the needs of your users.