Assignment+3-Evaluation

=Assignment 3: Collection Evaluation and Report=

====According to Bishop (2007), "Those who fund media programs need facts on which to base funding decisions, shifts in financial resources, expansion of programs, and cutbacks" (p. 141). She also adds that, "As managers, media specialists need information on which to base decisions about collections and for communicating collection needs to administrators " (p. 141). Throughout this collection evaluation and report, I have attempted to isolate the "facts" that I feel paint the most accurate of picture of Ecole Davis Road library's Grade 4 Social Studies collection. This evaluation is a bit of a trial run for me. While I have already secured the funding I need to make enhancements to my Grade 4 Social Studies resources, I plan to target another non-fiction collection for the 2012/13 school year. With fiscal support for libraries continuing on its downward course, I know I will need to present a very comprehensive and compelling evaluation to my administrator in order to secure much needed library funding for next year. I trust that many of the strategies I have developed in the course of this assignment can be directing applied, and hopefully with somewhat greater ease, to the collection evaluation project I will undertake this spring.====

=My Collection Map:=

====The School Library Media Specialist at [], clarifies that "a collection map provides a quick picture of the collection". The authors also state that "collection mapping is the process of examining the quantity and quality of your collection and identifying its strengths and weaknesses". Even a cursory glance at the collection map below highlights that Ecole Davis Road's resource support for the Grade 4 Social Studies curriculum has significantly more weaknesses than strengths. While my collection map does highlight much of the quantitative and qualitative data collected, it does not include all of my findings. For this reason, my Summary Report will begin by elaborating on various key components of the collection map but will then highlight of number of qualitative aspects of this collection that cannot be clearly incorporated into a table.====


 * = ===Segment=== ||= ===Number of Items=== ||= ===% of Total Non-Fiction or Fiction collection=== ||= ===Number of items===

in French
||= ===Average Age of Items=== ||= ===Circulation from===

Sept. 2010-June 2011
||= ===% of Total Non-Fiction===

Circulation
||= ===Shelf Scan Summary=== ||
 * = ===Atlases and Maps===

(912)
||= ===18=== ||= ===.56%=== ||= ===3=== ||= ===1997=== ||= ===4=== ||= ===.15%=== || * ====small quantity====
 * ====generally good condition====
 * ====dated====
 * ====not inviting====
 * ====few French titles==== ||
 * ||  ||   ||   ||   ||||= ===Circulation over===

lifespan of items
||  ||
 * = ===Aboriginal Societies===

(Non-fiction)
||= ===82=== ||= ===2.5%=== ||= ===4=== ||= ===1991=== ||||= ===104=== || * ====small quantity====
 * ====generally good condition====
 * ====dated====
 * ====few French titles====
 * ====use of bin helps visual appeal==== ||
 * = ===Aboriginal Societies===

(Fiction)
||= ===22=== ||= ===.82%=== ||= ===0=== ||= ===1996=== ||||= ===22=== || ====No shelf scan completed==== ||
 * = ===European Explorers===

(Non-Fiction)
||= ===14=== ||= ===.43%=== ||= ===1=== ||= ===1988=== ||||= ===13=== || * ====small quantity====
 * ====generally good condition====
 * ====extremely dated====
 * ====not inviting====
 * ====virtually no French titles==== ||

Number of Items:
====As Joanne states in her podcast, quantitative data is "often easier to generate and easier to gather". For this reason, I'd like to start by highlighting the quantitative aspects of my collection map, starting with the Number of Items in the collection. In order to generate the Number of Items column, I spent several hours "learning the ropes" of our data generation system with Senior Library Technician, Angela Gurney. I would like to state for the record that our search parameters incorporated the full range of formats that can be found within a library's physical space, including all print resources, serials, video, and audio materials. Our results indicated that books are the only "items" we have to support Grade 4 Social Studies curriculum at Davis Road. I would also like to speak to the issue of electronic resources but will do so later in my summary.====

====We opted to generate Number of Items data using bibliographic subject headings rather than Dewey Decimal call numbers. Our decision was based on the fact that titles pertaining to both Aboriginal and Explorer themes can involve many different Dewey classifications. For example, Dewey category 910 pertains to Geography and Travel. While some 910 numbers may describe European exploration, they do not do so exclusively. The same can be said for other Dewey categories. For example, First Nations references can be found in, but are not exclusive to, Dewey categories such as 398, 704, 746, 910, and 970.====

====An evaluation of the Number of Items data, with 18 items for Atlases and Maps, 82 for Aboriginal non-fiction, 22 for Aboriginal fiction and 14 items for Explorers, highlights a glaring weakness in the Davis Road collection. We simply don't have enough resources to meet the needs of our various user groups. Three different classes, totaling 80 students and 3 teachers, are directly serviced by this collection. Even if one generously tallies up all items, which would not truly reflect the reality of their usage, the ratio is still only 1.7 books per student. According to the Canadian Library Association's (2006) Achieving Information Literacy document, a key factor in rating a library "Below Standard" (p. 26) is the fact that "resources available in the school library provide limited opportunities for reading and learning (p. 26). I would assert that this is clearly the case here.====

====In this column, the virtually negligible ratios speak for themselves. They also provide additional evidence of the level of neglect this portion of the Davis Road collection has received over the years. At this time, I would like to clarify one aspect of the collection map that may be somewhat misleading. I have listed Aboriginal Non-Fiction and Easy Fiction titles separately to give as realistic a picture of the collection as possible. The "misleading" aspect comes from the fact that Aboriginal folklore is included in Dewey's non-fiction classification system. Of the 82 non-fiction items that are listed above, 34 fall within the folklore category. Our Aboriginal folklore adds huge value to the collection by providing excellent instructional opportunities and serving as a springboard for the discussion of First Nation topics. This said, I feel a distinction must be made between folklore and purely informational materials. It is instructive to note that when you take the 34 folklore titles out of the non-fiction equation, informational materials represent only 1.48 % of the total non-fiction resources. This is obviously an entirely inadequate percentage of the overall collection. Conversely, if you add those 34 titles to the fiction section, the resulting number of 2.1 % casts a somewhat more favorable light on our aboriginal fiction section.====

Number of items in French:
====Of the 136 titles associated with the Grade 4 Social Studies collection, only 8 are in French. This is not only an embarrassment but also a reflection of how glaringly we fall short of Ministry recommendations in this area. In their Evaluating, Selecting, and Managing Learning Resources Guide, the BC Ministry of Education (2002) states the following: "French-language learning resources which are of the appropriate linguistic level and make the required links to the curriculum should be provided to students registered in a French Immersion program" (p. 17). Our shortcomings here are made even more apparent by the fact that of the 80 students who are directly serviced by this collection, 50 of them, or 62.5% participate in our French Immersion program.====

Circulation Statistics:
====Our library system can only generate chronological circulation statistics based on Dewey Decimal numbers. For this reason, I used two different mechanisms for generating Grade 4 Social Studies resources circulation data. For the Atlases and Maps portion of the collection, I was able to generate usage numbers from September 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011 because all relevant materials fall within the Dewey category of 912. Interestingly, during one entire school year, our 18 Atlases and Maps only circulated 4 times, representing .15% of our total non-fiction circulation. As previously mentioned, Aboriginal and Explorer numbers are based on bibliographical data. The shortfall of such data is that our system is only able to generate circulation numbers over the lifespan of an item or, in the case of older materials, since library automation. Despite these limitations, the information generated is very illuminating. There have been a total of 139 circulations of the 118 Aboriginal and Explorer books in our collection. This represents a ratio of only 1.17 circulations per item. When one considers the age of many of the resources and the fact that our library has been automated for 10 years, these are very poor numbers indeed.====

====I would now like to address the last two elements of my collection map as I believe they, in many ways, shed some light on the above-mentioned realities. Let's start with my last bit of quantitative data, the average age statistics.====

**Average Age Statistics:**
====According to the statics listed above, Atlases and Maps, at a 14 year average age, is the "youngest" of the four collections. In Achieving Information Literacy (2006), the CASL categorizes a "Below Standard (p. 26)" library as one who's "Resources are generally not current..(p. 26)". In our rapidly changing geopolitical world, one has to wonder about the currency of information that is found in a 14 year old resource. In fact, Jo Anne Moore, in her Guidelines for Collection Evaluation and Weeding document, suggests that Atlases be revised every five years (p. 10).====

====Of the remaining three collections, our Aboriginal Fiction section seems to fair the best for a couple of reasons. Firstly, at 15 years old, it is by far the most current of the three. Secondly, because it is fiction rather than non-fiction, the content is not generally as time sensitive. While one must continue to be aware of Moore's " fairness of interpretation" (p. 9) guidelines, there is no need to assume that fiction titles must be weeded purely on the basis of age.====

====Our Aboriginal and Explorer Non-Fiction collections, at an average age of 20 and 23 years old respectively, are very obviously in dire straights. According to Moore, some critical concerns must be addressed when dealing with any resource that falls within Dewey's 900 category. These are "demand, accuracy of facts, and fairness of interpretation (p.9). It is with respect to "fairness of interpretation" that I would be particularly concerned about our older books and the manner in which they address First Contact and Aboriginal issues. To give a blatant and disturbing example, one doesn't have to dig too deeply in order to see references made to "Indians" in some of our resources.====

====I'd like now to address some of the qualitative data collected. I will begin with the Shelf Scan Report as this is the last element included within my collection map. While the chart provides a bit of a summary, you may want to consider the longer version which can be found on the Notes and Raw Data page of this document. For simplicity's sake, I include it again here:====

====Franklin and Stephens ( 2009) assert that a "physical perusal" (p. 45) of resources is an essential second step when evaluating any collection. While it was fairly easy to do a shelf scan of the Atlases and Maps collection and, to a lesser degree, the Explorers resources, it was virtually impossible to do a meaningful shelf scan of First Nations titles, as they are not centralized within one area of the library. The only titles I was able to include were those categorized in the 970's. Here are a couple of pictures so you can see what I was looking at:====

Explorers and First Nations (970 and 971 only)


====As you may notice, the materials don't actually look too bad. They are neat and, for the most part, in pretty good condition. After considering the previous collection map data, this is not actually surprising. The evidence above would indicate that the materials are so dated and uninteresting that they rarely leave the library shelves. Books do tend to stay in pretty decent condition when they are never used! In the spirit of fulfilling my role as a teacher librarian rather than an archivist, I have a number of recommendations regarding these collections that will be presented shortly.====

====For the purposes of this assignment, I have the impression that the above shelf scanning strategies would have been sufficient in order to generate meaningful qualitative data. This said, in the context of my real-world needs as a teacher librarian who is hoping to spend some money on resources, I felt it worthwhile to dig a little deeper into my collection. For this reason, I chose to undertake what Agee (2005) describes as a "physical assessment" (p. 93). While I will not be elaborating much on my results during the current assignment, I trust the information will come in handy for Assignment 4's Weeding Project. The one comment I will make here is that I was surprised and generally pleased with the variety of high quality First Nations themed stories (both 398's and Fiction) that I found in the library. While some weeding and acquisition will be required to further enhance the collection, our Aboriginal fiction collection seems to be a bit of a "shining star", particularly when compared with the dismal realities of the other Grade 4 Social Studies resources. If you would like to take a peak at my physical assessment notes, they can be found on my Notes and Raw Data page.====

====In addition to the physical assessment of our library's Grade 4 Social Studies collection, I opted to complete two other qualitative evaluations. The first involves an evaluation of my collection by comparing it to the list of titles recommended by the B.C. Ministry of Education in its Social Studies-Grade 4-Grade Collection Guide, which can be found on my Notes and Raw Data page and which I include here:====



====According to Agee (2005), this type of "assessment of specific subject support" (p. 94) "may provide some indication of a collection's effectiveness in support of special interest subjects" (p. 94). He goes on to state that "core curriculum guides, also referred to as checklists, are often bibliographic monographs that include the best and most current resources in any given subject. By comparing the core curriculum citations with current holdings, librarians determine how many of the resources in the subject guides are held in their collections" (p. 94). Of the 29 items listed by the Ministry, including comprehensive resources, print materials, series, videos and multimedia resources, Ecole Davis Road library has only 4 items in its collection. Unfortunately, this represents a percentage of a mere 13%.====

====My final foray into the world of qualitative evaluation takes the form of a teacher survey. The survey was completed by the three teachers, which I previously targeted in Assignment 2 as my "core clientele". These are the two Grade 4/5 teachers, Mme Sigal and Leanne Harris, and our Grade 3/4 Social Studies teacher, Monsieur Kevin. The teacher surveys can be found on my Notes and Raw Data page and I also include them here:====



====It is a fairly straight-forward task to evaluate the results of my teacher surveys. As you can see, all three teachers answered "no" to the five questions pertaining to the adequacy of resources, this with the exception of Mme Sigal, who stated that our Aboriginal fiction collection is "somewhat" adequate. For questions 6-9, the collection also received uniformly low scores, with Mme Sigal marking N/A to all questions. When I asked about her rationale for this response, she indicated that materials need to be available in adequate numbers before their efficacy and quality can be meaningfully assessed. Monsieur Kevin was the only teacher who stated that, "thanks to the fiction section", the ability of our resources to "enhance Grade 4 Social Studies learning activities" could be given a 4. He also gave the library top marks (10) for the accessibility of resources, stating that the "library layout is good". I believe this survey reinforces the message that teachers feel the library falls far from the mark in the context of its Grade 4 Social Studies collection. For this reason, they do not rely on the library to support their class's instructional or learning needs. This reality becomes glaringly evident when one examines the collection's dismal circulation statistics. Instead, teachers have indicated to me that they find their supports elsewhere, usually by cobbling together personal resources and supplementing these with whatever they can find independently on-line.====

====This is another area where the library really lets its teachers down. Because neither the school nor the library has its own website, our "media centre" does nothing to link teachers and students to the many electronic resources and district sponsored data bases that would provide tremendous support for research and learning activities.====

====This may be an opportune moment to reiterate my adage from Assignment 1: "One advantage to having such a "needy little library" is that the only way to go is //up//!" Perhaps I should also add that one advantage to having such a "needy little collection", is that the only way to go is //up!// I plan to get started with this upward movement as soon as possible. To do so, I plan to make the following improvements to the overall quality of my Grade 4 Social Studies resources:====


 * 1) ====Undertake extensive weeding in all areas of the collection, with a particular focus on the most dated resources in the Aboriginal and Explorer areas.====
 * 2) ====Target key English language resources to be purchased, both by using recommendations from the B.C. Ministry of Education Grade Collection checklist found above and also by comparing our resources with those found at the District Resources Centre (DRC) and the Aboriginal Resource Centre at John Barsby Secondary School. I have already visited both these sites and have taken pictures of their many high quality titles.====
 * 3) ====Target key French language resources to be purchased. Luckily, I have some great support in this area. We have two well-organized, well-financed libraries in our district and I have a great relationship with both the media specialists there. I will compare our bibliographies to theirs and this will give me a solid indication of where I should be focusing my purchasing efforts. There is also a new opportunity to purchase aboriginal resources in both French and in English from a local company called Core Learning Resources. The owner is a woman named Terri Mack, who was Aboriginal Resource Coordinator for our district for a number of years and who now works with the Stz'uminus First Nation as their Community Literacy Coordinator. I include a link to her site here: []====
 * 4) ====Examine the feasibility of "revising" (p. 10) our Atlas collection according to Jo Anne Moore's guidelines. I'm wondering whether it might be more efficient to consider providing electronic alternatives to the purchase of print materials in this instance. I tend to think that Atlases may be going the way of the dinosaur in a fashion similar to Encyclopedias. With budgets being so tight, it's hard to justify the purchase of print materials that become obsolete so quickly.====
 * 5) ====Consider financially responsible ways I might be able to add a greater variety of formats to my collection. Again this is a tricky issue, as it becomes difficult to justify the cost of purchasing video, audio and DVD resources when they will most likely be superseded by digital options in the very near future.====
 * 6) ====My long-term goal is to develop a library website that would link teachers and students to the many online data bases made available gratis through our school district, as well as facilitate teacher/student access to the plethora of digital Grade 4 Social Studies curriculum resources. In the short term, I hope, at the very least, to generate a list of Grade 4 Social Studies websites and make this list readily available to all my clientele. I am currently in the process of liaising with Shelly Beleznay, our District Coordinator of Learning, Literacy, and Instruction, to coordinate the development of such a document.====

While this is by no means an exhaustive list, it is certainly an obvious and, I hope, realistic place to start.
= = =My Reflection:=

====In Chapter 12 of our text, Bishop (2007) states that "the evaluation of any library collection, including a school library collection, should be based upon how well the collection serves the needs of its users" (p. 141). Her point is reinforced by Agee (2005), who states the following:====

====...the librarian at the public library or small school needs to know as specifically as possible-on an individual or class level-the particular kinds of material needed in order to justify selecting or deselecting individual titles. Librarians, as professionals, try to build and maintain collections that will meet their collection development goals and be appropriate for their information seekers (p. 92).====

====Franklin and Stephens (2009) add the impact of declining library funding to the collection evaluation equation. "As budgets shrink, it is important to be smarter about library budgets that still provide quality resources for curriculum support. Library media centers need small collections that fill the needs of specific learning communities using a specific curriculum" (p. 44).====

====After completing the various course readings, I have come to realize that, while Bishop may seem to be stating the obvious in her above quote, she's actually opening up a whole can of worms! The pivotal question becomes how //do// we make ourselves "smarter" about our library collections and how do we ensure that we "are building useful collections that will provide a good return" (Agree, p. 92) on our financial investments. Joanne gives important advice in her [|podcast] by stating that "the teacher librarian really needs to take him or herself out of the process and be able to look objectively at the collection".====

====It is this methodology of "evaluating critically" that I have attempted to undertake during the last several weeks. I must admit that choosing from the wide array of collection evaluation options has been very overwhelming. In my personal experience, Joanne's assertion that "the process of conducting a collection evaluation is not necessarily a linear one" has been quite an understatement. In fact, my biggest challenge with this assignment was not to "turn it into a monster". Unfortunately, if you take a look at my Notes and Raw Data page, I think you`ll agree that I failed quite dramatically in this regard. Because misery loves company, it was somewhat reassuring to note that many of my colleagues were struggling with the same angst. What evaluation methodologies should I use? Quantitative? Qualitative? Both? On what should I focus my measurement? My collection? My users? Both? Because it was so difficult to chose, I attempted to do it all! This left me with a daunting amount of information, both quantitative and qualitative, both "collection-centered" (p. 144) as Bishop ( 2007) describes, and "use-centered" (p. 150). Ultimately, it felt as though I had a whole mess of puzzle pieces in front of me. My challenge was then to determine how best to put all the discordant pieces together in order to provide an accurate and objective "picture" of our library's Grade 4 Social Studies collection. I hope my readers find that I was relatively successful in this regard.====

====While I have no doubt in the absolute necessity of undertaking collection evaluation, after living through the experience, I can certainly understand why Bishop (2007) feels she must highlight the fact that many teacher librarians "fall into the trap of finding reasons for putting off or avoiding evaluation" (p. 143). Bishop (2007) describes "five barriers to evaluation" (p. 143). These are:====
 * 1) ====a belief that library services are intangible and that library goals are impossible to measure objectively====
 * 2) ====concern about a lack of staff time to undertake evaluation====
 * 3) ====lack of experience with or knowledge about collecting and analyzing empirical data====
 * 4) ====fear of the results of evaluation====
 * 5) ====uncertainty about what to do with the results====

Library goals impossible to measure objectively:
====As with any situation dealing with human interaction in an uncontrolled environment, it is impossible to be entirely "scientific" in measuring goals. This said, there are certainly many opportunities to gain meaningful, relevant data that can guide our practice. If I have learned nothing else from this assignment, I have certainly determined that a plethora of evaluation strategies are available. It just becomes a question of determining which ones are most helpful in a particular situation. As Bishop (2007) says, "Assessment occurs in the context of each collection's philosophy, mission statement, constraints, users, and environment" (p. 143).====

Lack of staff time:
====This is definitely the "elephant in the room" for many teacher librarians during these times of fiscal restraint and questionable government policy. As previously mentioned, I currently work .4 FTE in the Ecole Davis Road Library. While most of this FTE is technically "administrative", in reality the majority of my time is consumed with providing book exchange opportunities for each of our 11 divisions. This leaves me with exactly 2 hours and 16 minutes each week to fulfill my many administrative responsibilities. While I will not elaborate upon these responsibilities here, you can imagine that my administrative "cup runneth over" so to speak.==== ====I did take a ridiculous amount of time to collect data for this assignment using my chosen methodologies. In the course of my day-to-day work week, it would indeed be hard to justify such time-intensive endeavors. There were two data collection activities that took the most amount of labour and I would like to address them here.==== ====I spent approximately 2 1/2 hours with Senior Library Technician, Angela Gurney, who works at our District Resource Centre in Nanaimo. Because Ecole Davis Road Elementary is located in Ladysmith about half an hour away, the DRC specialists are not immediately available to us. I'm so very grateful that this assignment required that I spend "quality time" with Angela! She is an indispensable resource person for all librarians and the 2 1/2 hours I spent with her was time extremely well spent. It was a fascinating process to determine which types of reports would be most useful for the purposes of evaluating different aspects of my collection. In the course of our discussions together, I learned so much about our data collection and generation system that I now have a much better idea what it can do for me. While I would probably still need Angela's help to generate specific reports based upon defined criteria, I now have a global picture of what is possible and how these reports might assist my practice. In addition, Angela was able to set up several customized templates that now can be used on an ongoing basis. These templates will actually save me considerable energy when I undertake my next collection evaluation project. While this particular interaction did take more time than would regularly be available to me, I probably won't ever have to do it again. I can now connect with Angela on-line or by phone and, because of my enhanced understanding of the system, I will be able to generate my own reports using Angela's templates and on-going coaching.====

====A second data collection activity that was extremely time-intensive was the "physical assessment" suggested by Jim Agee (2005) in his technical paper. Before voicing any complaint however, I must admit that Mr. Agee did warn me that this technique would require "human labor" (p. 93)...and labour I did! As Agee (2005) states, "physical assessment involves having a subject specialist manually pull monographs from the shelves to determine if the item should remain in the collection" (p 93). While I was fairly sure such an undertaking was not required for the purposes of this collection evaluation assignment, I knew from our readings that such a collection-centered evaluation could be exceedingly helpful. In their paper, Use Standards to Draw Curriculum Maps, Franklin and Stephens (2009) include physical assessment as their "Step 2" (p. 45). While they advocate physical "perusal" (p. 45), I didn't see how I could answer some of the questions they were asking without actually pulling out each book. How would I know, for example, whether the "pop-up book about the pyramid no longer" (p. 45) pops up unless I physically remove it from the shelf? While I found that my initial shelf scan did provide some helpful information, I did not feel important selection decisions could be made strictly based on this type of general assessment. As Agee states, "Physical assessment requires human labor, but allows judgment of both physical characteristics, such as binding and overall condition, and content. Content evaluation is a valuable part of physical assessment because a human judgment can be made" (p. 93). While I did not spend as much time on content as I would have liked, I did make some initial evaluations that can be further evaluated in the context of my weeding assignment. To summarize, I would agree with Agee when he states that "physical assessment provides a good indicator of the condition of the overall collection, but also allows examination of each individual book"(p. 93). This was particularly true for me in the assessment of my First Nations themed books. It was virtually impossible to do a physical evaluation using shelf scanning strategies, as the materials are scattered about the entire library. In the course of my physical assessment activity, I discovered aspects of the collection that were previously unknown to me. For example, I was able to determine that we actually do have some high-quality, age appropriate aboriginal stories and folktales that provide strong support for our Grade 4 curriculum. While I did see the names of these books on my bibliography, it was only through physical assessment that I was able to determine their value. Would I undertake such an activity on a frequent basis? Absolutely not. I would, however, never consider a major purchase for any of my collections without first evaluating using this type of physical assessment. As previously mentioned, I plan to "attack" one major curricular area each year in terms of evaluation, weeding, and selection of resources. Physical assessment will definitely be one of the tools in my tool box during such activities.====

Lack of knowledge about collecting and evaluating empirical data:
====I can see that a lack of technical knowledge would be a huge obstacle for many teacher librarians and that it could very well affect their motivation to take on the collection evaluation process. For me, it was somewhat a question of "not knowing what I didn't know". If a teacher librarian has no opportunity to assess the myriad of ways a library system can collect and generate data, he or she will be unaware of ways in which this data can support practice. I would suggest that it is our professional responsibility to become informed in this area. One reality that has become clear to me as I have fumbled my way through this course, is that we don't have to "go it alone". Most of us have technical support people in our district offices who are mandated to help us. For those who don't, there are media specialist colleagues of greater experience, there are discussion groups and also TL Listservs. While I understand that lack of technical expertise can be a very daunting barrier, it is one that can indeed be scaled "with a little help from our friends".====

====There is no doubt that one must look at resources with a very critical eye when undertaking the collection evaluation process. Joanne reinforced this point in her podcast when she stated, "You need to be able to look at your collection in a critical and honest way so that you can say a hundred percent for sure that your collection is doing the best possible job for the students and the teachers in your school". Admittedly, the greater one's sense of "ownership" of the problem, the greater the feeling of vulnerability with respect to results. While this type of "fear" was not an issue for me, I'm wondering if this is because I am a relative newcomer to my position. I realize that the deficiencies in the Ecole Davis Road library are the result of years of neglect and fiscal abandonment. These are not problems I am going to be able to overcome in just one year or even five. I also believe that you don't know where you're going until you know where you're at. Collection evaluation, while perhaps a bit painful, is an essential first step in any amelioration process. As Bishop (2007) optimistically asserts, "An informed manager can use documented weaknesses to gain additional support for funds (p. 143). At least one can always hope that this would be the case!====

Uncertainty about what to do with the results:
====In her discussion of teacher librarian uncertainty, Bishop (2007) makes what I feel is an essential statement. "Those responsible for the collection, including those who provide the funds for collections, must be ready to use the results to make necessary changes" (p. 143). Her comment brings me to yet a second "elephant in the room" for many public school library media specialists. What's the point of undertaking such an extensive and time consuming evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of a library collection unless money is actually going to be made available to support necessary improvements? I believe this critical question results in many teacher librarians losing their steam and, I would say, understandably so. It is indeed very disheartening to know what your library's deficiencies are without having the means to improve upon them. Wouldn't it be less painful simply not to know? While I can completely empathize with those who choose this type of avoidance strategy, I would argue that they are neglecting their professional obligations and doing their library users a huge disservice in the process. By way of evidence I'd like to be able to refer to an article I read last term in the context of my LIBE 461 course. Unfortunately all my delicious bookmarks were lost during the recent upgrade and I have thus far been unable to retrieve them. The gist of the article was this: we must ask for what we know our libraries need and we must keep on asking even if we know that no funding will be forthcoming. While this can be a very discouraging idea, I believe it to be true. To give an example, last year I was very vocal in advocating for my library. I spoke to teachers, to parents, to my administrator and to anyone else who would listen about the value of school library media programs and about the desperate state of affairs in the Ecole Davis Road library. My administrator made it very clear that there would be no money from the 2010/2011 school budget for library collection improvements. At the risk of making myself an irritant, I continued to speak out and advocate for the needs of my library and its users. Luckily, my "call to action" was heard by our PAC and they contributed $1500.00 toward the purchase of new resources. With this money, I was able to make acquisitions that spruced up the appeal of the library a little bit and gave everyone a taste of what could be possible with additional funding. I truly believe this spark of enthusiasm has spread within our school community. This year, for the first time in recent memory, the library will actually receive funding from the school budget. It will not be a huge amount but it will certainly contribute to my plans for improving the Grade 4 Social Studies curriculum.==== ====As I stated in my introduction, my plan this spring is to undertake a resource evaluation of my target collection for 2012/2013. What my target becomes will be determined by the teachers themselves, as I will start this process with a needs assessment survey. While I experienced some success last year, I believe that next fall I will be "armed" with an even greater quantity of accurate and objective data. I can't image that any administrator or PAC could ignore the compelling evidence of neglect that was generated through the evaluation of our Grade 4 Social Studies collection. By the same token, I expect they will also "see the light" when presented with equally compelling data regarding another area of the Ecole Davis Road library collection. As Joanne exclaims in her podcast, "Be honest but also dream big"...I plan to do just that!====

British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2002). //Evaluating, selecting, and managing learning resources: A guide.// Victoria: Ministry of Education, Province of British Columbia.
====Canadian Association for School Libraries. (2006). //Achieving information literacy: Standards for school library programs in Canada//. Ottawa: Canadian School Library Association and the Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada.====