Assignment+6-Reflection

=Assignment 6: Final Reflection=

General Reflections:
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===="Collection development can be an exciting challenge that demands special knowledge, skills, and a positive attitude" (Bishop, 2007, p. x). I begin my introduction with the first phrase written by Bishop in her very instructive book //The Collection Program in Schools.// I do so because this statement provides an appropriate reflection of where I was as a teacher-librarian at the beginning of LIBE 463. While I feel I was very well equipped in the positive attitude department, I lacked the special knowledge and skills so crucial for effective collection development.====

====When I first became the teacher-librarian at Ecole Davis Road Elementary in September 2010 my job assignment was .260 FTE. Due to a number of unique circumstances, a $2000.00 library budget was available for collection development. My solicitation of the PAC added another $1500.00 to our coffers. The resulting $3500.00 budget was an unprecedented and generous sum by our school's standards and I was virtually paralyzed by the responsibility of determining how to spend it. My teaching colleagues were extremely supportive and several expressed the opinion that, due to the chronically neglected state of our resources, "I could not make a bad decision". While I appreciated their words of encouragement, I knew even then that there were, in fact, immeasurable ways to make a bad choice. In addition, my .260 FTE left me very little time for thoughtful, informed decision making.====

====Despite my lack of collection development knowledge and skills, I forged ahead, relying heavily upon intuition and upon the advice of several of my key suppliers. I made the choice to focus on giving our library a literary "shot in the arm" by purchasing current and engaging fiction titles for all reading levels in both French and English. My goal was to reestablish the Davis Road media centre as an exciting and relevant space within our learning community. Bishop underscores the critical importance of the media collection as follows: "the collection is a key element of the media program, providing the means for meeting the informational and instructional needs of the school population" (p. x). Before these needs can be met, however, the student and teacher communities must believe that the library media centre is a "go to" place. This had not been the situation at Ecole Davis Road for many years. Looking back, I am generally quite pleased with the results of my purchasing decisions. I believe we have now established momentum in a very positive direction. Students are excited to be in the library and seem to feel I am open and responsive to their needs. While I will continue to add new, high quality titles to our fiction collection, my resource selection focus this year is very different. My goal is to begin to establish a non-fiction collection which is current, factual, appropriate, and which directly supports the staff in their teaching of curriculum. I believe I have made great inroads in getting the students "on the library train" and I will continue my efforts in this regard. At this point, however, I feel it is essential to help our teachers consider Davis Road library as a vital support for their practice. With this new goal in mind, LIBE 463 could not have come at a better time. While I muddled through with relative success last year, the purchase of curriculum-specific resources is an entirely different animal than the updating of a popular fiction collection. I am so grateful for the confidence and the focus I have gained in working through the various themes of this course. While I previously relied on intuition and the advice of suppliers and colleagues, I now have a much stronger theoretical and experiential foundation upon which to establish, and move forward with, my collection development goals.====

====Because LIBE 463 is divided into six themes, I will address my key learning and reflections within this same framework. I also appreciate that it is critical to use new knowledge and skills as a springboard to meaningful action. For this reason, each theme will include the various ways I plan to change my current library practice in response to the new ideas generated throughout this course.====

Theme 1: Community Analysis
====According to Bishop (2007), "A basic consideration of all collection development activities is the interaction of the media program with the school, other educational or informational institutions and agencies, and the external environment. The community (its geographical, political, economic, cultural, and social characteristics) influences the collection" (p. 10). Joanne, in her podcast on the topic, stresses that a community evaluation should occur "at least very few years, because it's important to have a sense of where your school library fits into the context of both the school itself, the school district, and even more broadly the community in which your school is located". As I stated in my general reflections, the critical importance of assessing the greater community was an aspect of collection development I had not previously considered. Upon reflection, however, it makes sense that in order to ensure that a media program is "meeting the informational and instructional needs" (Bishop, p. x) of its users, we need to have a clear picture of who those users are and which social, geographic,economic, and cultural factors influence their resource needs.====

====I found it fascinating to evaluate the detailed and comprehensive community data for Ladysmith that was available through the town's website. As a result of this evaluation, I feel I now have a more thorough grasp of the realities of my student and parent clientele and believe I will better serve them as a result. I also thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the local Stz'uminus First Nation by accessing the great wealth of information they present online. Even more inspiring, however, are the opportunities I have had to tap into the rich "human resources" of our area. In her Theme 1 podcast, Joanne asserts that it is really important to think beyond quantitative data when assessing community. She explains that it is also "really important to think more broadly about where your library fits into the community and how those partnerships or collaborations with other people or other groups in the community may or may not have an impact on your collection development plan".====

====I made one such community connection when I visited John Barsby school to speak with Connie Kulhavy, our District Aboriginal Resource Coordinator. While I was in her office discussing possible resource purchases, I met Mandy Jones, who lives on the Stz'uminus reserve. Mandy not only teaches Hul'qumi'num in our district, she is also a very well respected [|knitter]. I was able to see an example of her beautiful work and discuss the possibility that she might be able to visit Ecole Davis Road in the spring to talk about Stz'uminus culture and language with some of our Grade 4 students. I recently purchased a lovely book by Sylvia Olsen called [|Yetsa's Sweater]. It's exciting to consider the rich learning experiences which could result from a discussion of this beautiful resource in conjunction with a visit from a highly regarded Stz'uminus knitter. ====

====Working through our community analysis assignment has made me much more aware of the collaborative possibilities within my community and I intend to explore a number of these this year. To start, here are three avenues I'd like to pursue:====

1. Make connections with the local Stz'uminus First Nation:

 * ====I plan to follow up with Mandy to see if we might have her visit Ecole Davis Road in the spring.====
 * ====While visiting Connie Kulhavy, I discovered that the district has a variety of exciting First Nations artifacts which they loan out the schools. I plan to ask if she might visit Ecole Davis Road and introduce some of these artifacts to our Grade 4 students. Connie is of Metis decent and I'm also hoping she will consider discussing some aspects of Metis culture with our classes.====
 * ====While completing our Selection of New Materials assignment,Terri Mack introduced me to four new resources written by members of the local Stz'uminus community. I have now purchased these resources for our library. Because Terri is the Community Literacy Coordinator for the Stz'uminus First Nation, I trust she can help me connect with one of these local authors so that I might request an author visit to our school.====

2. Liaise with our local Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL) Branch:

 * ====On November 24th, I attended our district teacher-librarian meeting in Nanaimo. Two VIRL librarians had been invited and we had an exciting exchange of ideas where we discussed the various ways schools and the VIRL could develop collaborative programs and establish joint literacy initiatives. I would like to have a similar conversion with our local branch librarians. To start, I plan to invite them to participate in the read-a-thon event I am planning in conjunction with Family Literary Day on January 27th. I hope this can be a first step in establishing a mutually beneficial collaborative relationship with these key partners within our community.====

3. Connect with the Ladysmith Historical Society:

 * ====The Ladysmith Historical Society is hoping to open their new museum in the spring of 2012. Once their opening date has been confirmed, I plan to connect with Bernardien Knol, the volunteer curator, to discuss what learning opportunities might be possible.====

====While an evaluation of the broader community context is an essential aspect of community analysis, no less imperative is the need to thoroughly assess the needs of the various user groups within the school. Bishop (2007) highlights this point by stating: "Your community analysis should also include a detailed description of the school itself. It is extremely important to have knowledge about the students, teachers, and administrators who utilize the media center" (p. 21). It was very instructive to undertake this process during our Community Analysis assignment and I now feel I have a pretty thorough grasp of the general needs of my school community. I found Bishop's (2007) suggestion to conduct surveys for teachers and students when making collection development decisions to be of particular benefit. Much of the feedback I received from our Grade 4 teachers directly affected my ultimate resource choices. My long-term plan is to attack one section of our non-fiction collection each year. Before making any development decisions, however, I will be sure to use a survey to determine which non-fiction areas teachers feel require my most urgent attention. Students have always been encouraged to make resource suggestions for the Davis Road library and they do so with great enthusiasm. For this reason, I believe they would be receptive to being questioned more formally about their needs. Bishop (2007) cautions that all surveys must be "carefully designed and administered" (p. 24) in order to "provide accurate and reliable data about user needs" (p. 24). I look forward to the opportunity of giving student surveys a try and am curious to see how I might use these results to make the Ecole Davis Road Library more responsive to the needs of its learning community.====

Theme 2: Collection Evaluation
====Of all the themes addressed in LIBE 463, Collection Evaluation and Reporting was by far the most overwhelming. I can understand why Bishop (2007) feels she must counsel teacher-librarians not to "fall into the trap of finding reasons for putting off or avoiding evaluation" (143). I could see myself doing so for the following two reasons:====

====1. Effective collection evaluation provides an essential foundation for all other aspects of collection development practice. It's critical importance makes collection evaluation a very daunting process for a librarian of relative inexperience such as myself.====

====2. Our readings and discussions presented a myriad of activities which could be undertaken to evaluate a collection. It was difficult to determine which of these would be most effective based upon the unique circumstances of the Ecole Davis Road Elementary Library.====

====As I admitted in my Collection Evaluation and Report, this assignment did turn into somewhat of a "monster" for me. This said, I also believe it was the assignment where my personal growth was most rich. To start, I needed to become much more familiar with our automated computer system and the various reports it could generate. The learning which took place during my time spent with Angela Gurney, our Senior Library Technician, will be of immeasurable benefit as I continue my career as a library media specialist. Also, muddling through the plethora of collection evaluation activities, both quantitative and qualitative, helped me refine which of these practices I found most helpful and effective. These will be the activities I adopt in my future practice and I will speak to these shortly. First I'd like to underscore the theory which I will use to shore up my resolve in assuming the critical responsibility for collection evaluation.====

====According to Agee (2005), " ...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). The words of Franklin and Stephens ( 2009) also really hit home for me as they spoke to the painful issue of dwindling library funding: "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). Agee (2005) reinforces the point that being "smarter" means that teacher-librarians "are building useful collections that will provide a good return" (p. 92) on their financial investments. With fiscal restraint virtually paralyzing the effectiveness of many of our district libraries, adherence to this advice becomes even more critical. Bishop (2007) presents yet another argument in favour of effective collection evaluation when she states, "Those who fund media programs need facts on which to base funding decisions, shifts in financial resources, expansion of programs, and cutbacks" (p. 141). These "facts" can be only be provided through a variety of collection evaluation strategies.====

====The authors of our various LIBE 463 readings on this topic suggest that there are //qualitative// and //quantitative// methods for acquiring information about a collection. In her Theme 2 podcast, Joanne expresses the opinion that "the best evaluations are those that collect data from both" the qualitative and quantitative perspectives. I found it very instructive to develop a Grade 4 Social Studies collection map as a means of assessing and displaying both types of data on these resources. Now that I have worked through the process, and know how to use my automated library system to provide the necessary information, I plan to use this collection mapping strategy whenever I undertake the development of a particular area of my curriculum. Also, because I hope to target one subject area annually, I will use my next collection map as a compelling means to communicate our library's resource needs to my administrator, to our PAC, and to others who might be able to provide financial support. I am grateful to now have such an compelling and effective tool in my "teacher-librarian toolbox", which can be used for this purpose.====

====There were several other strategies that I found very useful in the context of our collection evaluation assignment. I will no longer even consider making a large-scale purchase of resources in a specific resource area without first undertaking the following collection evaluation activities:====

====**Physical Assessment:** This qualitative, collection-centered approach, while time consuming, is essential in order to get an accurate picture of what resources are available within a particular subject area. It also provides an essential mechanism for determining the physical and intellectual quality of the individual resources. Agee (2005) underscores the usefulness of this type of evaluation when he states,"Physical assessment provides a good indicator of the condition of the overall collection, but also allows examination of each individual book. This process is also an excellent opportunity to list books for deselection and in that way receive a valuable return on the investment of time and energy by the people involved" (p. 93).====

====**User-Opinion Surveys**: According to Bishop (2007), "A survey of users and user groups requires soliciting verbal or written responses through interviews, questionnaires, or a combination of methods" (p. 151). I conducted two user-opinion surveys while completing our LIBE 463 assignments. The first survey was used to narrow down my choices when deciding which curricular area most needed my attention. The second survey was conducted in the context of our collection evaluation assignment, and provided very instructive teacher feedback on how effectively the current Grade 4 Social Studies collection was meeting their needs and the needs of their students. I include the second survey results again here for you review.====



====While the above strategies are very effective when considering specific areas of a given collection, I also really appreciated to opportunity to reflect upon some of the broader issues Joanne raises in her collection evaluation podcast. Here is she brings up the issue of student need for recreational reading materials and asks that we critically ask ourselves the following questions: "Do you have magazines that are available for students to read? Do you provide access to a wide variety of fiction? Do you provide access to graphic novels and manga? Do you have picture books that are of interest to all ages, not just young children? Do you have high interest, low vocabulary books for your struggling readers? Do you provide access to digital resources and electronic books and databases that your students and teachers can access when they're working on projects? Do you have non-fiction that is not curriculum-related but is available for students who prefer to read for pleasure nonfiction material"?====

====To these important questions I would have to add: Do you have French resources that address the differing reading levels and areas of interest of your French Immersion users. Does your library reflect an appropriate balance between French and English resources in both fiction and non-fiction? Do you provide French materials in a variety of high interest formats?====

====These are essential big picture issues and I am curious to know how the students at Ecole Davis Road Elementary would respond to such questions. As mentioned earlier, I hope to conduct a student survey in the near future and these questions would certainly be ones worth asking.====

====After "facing my personal collection evaluation demons" while completing our Theme 2 assignment, I now feel more equipped to effectively evaluate my library collection. In addition, my resolve to do so has been reinforced by the many readings which addressed this critical topic. As Joanne emphasizes in her podcast, "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."====

Theme 3: Weeding
====To follow up on Joanne's statement above, all experts seem to agree that weeding is an essential activity if we want to ensure that our collection is "doing the best possible job" for its community of learners. In her article, Allen (2010) uses a Taoist analogy to stress this vital point: "Fertile fields cannot produce good crops as long as the weeds are not cleared away"(p. 32). She further asserts that "Students cannot efficiently find quality information if outdated wrong, or poorly presented information is overcrowding your library shelves" (p. 32). According to Bishop (2007), "The process of carefully weeding a media center to remove outdated and unused materials is as important as the process of selection (p. 121). The California Department of Education, in their "Weeding the School Library" brochure, refers to weeding as simply "the counterpart to selection". Of all the expert perspectives on weeding, I find Jo Anne Moore's version to be a particularly compelling one: "The school library collection serves as the basis of the educational community. If students are to become problem solvers, decision-makers and lifelong learners in an information rich environment, they must be provided with resources that are relevant, reliable, accurate and up-to-date" (p. 1).====

====Bishop (2007) firmly places responsibility for weeding activities in the hands of the teacher-librarian when she asserts that one of the most fundamental roles of the library media specialist is to preserve and maintain the materials and equipment in a collection (p. 120). In large part, collection maintenance must involve making informed judgements about which materials fit the needs of the library's clientele and which materials need to be weeded out.====

====So, if we know how essential it is to weed, and we are convinced that it is our job to do so, why is weeding such a chronically neglected activity in many school libraries, including my own? This is the question I needed to grapple with as I progressed through the weeding activities of Theme 3. Before undertaking this assignment, I didn't really need to be convinced that weeding was an essential component of effective collection management. It was more my perception of the practical obstacles that interfered with my commitment to this practice. The two most daunting of these obstacles were:====
 * 1) ====my feeling that I could not afford the huge investment of time and energy that weeding would require due to my .400 FTE.====
 * 2) ====my reticence to weed resources from my collection, fearing that I would not have sufficient funds to replace what I had removed.====

====Our Theme 3 assignment required that I undertake weeding a small part of my collection in a time intensive, project-based fashion. I think there is a place for such weeding practices, and I will commit to one such session each year in conjunction with my goal to target one curricular subject area annually. Next year, I will probably have to focus on my Grade 3 Science resources, particularly in the area of Earth and Space Science, as I know many of these resources have become obsolete due to the demotion of poor Pluto from planet status. At that time, as part of my larger collection evaluation process, I will undertake to do a thorough Theme 3-style weed. Obviously, I will not have the time to commit to such project-based weeding on a regular basis, nor, as I have now learned, is it advisable to do so. As Joanne states in her podcast:====

===="Weeding is a cyclical process. Do it often and it won't be so overwhelming. If you undertake an enormous weeding project where you decide you're going to weed your entire collection in two weeks, you'll never get it done because it's just too overwhelming. So focus on doing small bits of your collection over a longer period of time, and then once you've finished your entire collection, start all over again".====

====Jo Anne Moore, among others, reinforces this point of view by advocating the "CREW method" (p. 2) of collection maintenance. **CREW**, of course, stands for **C**ontinuous **R**eview, **E**valuation, and **W**eeding. Moore's assertion that weeding should be "continuous" is particularly helpful and realistic considering my limited time in the library. In fact, I have already converted to Moore's "day-to-day" (p. 2) weeding strategy. For example, for Thanksgiving, Halloween and Remembrance Day, I had the opportunity to pull a large number of resources from the shelves in order to feature them with students. Before returning items to the shelves, I weeded all those resources which were dated, in poor physical condition, or no longer useful. In addition, I now give books a quick "once over" when they are being discharged. Any resources which I feel need to be evaluated for possible weeding are put aside at that time and weeded later that day.====

====In her Theme 3 podcast, Joanne challenges us with following statement: "..in order to be an effective weeder, you need to be objective, you need to be critical and you need to be ruthless. When in doubt, toss it out". While I aspire to be the "ruthless" teacher-librarian that Joanne would be proud of, I must admit that it was initially hard for me to consider weeding items from my collection while I harboured a doubt that these resources could be replaced. While discarding under these circumstances is admittedly somewhat of a leap of faith, after completing our various readings and participating in group discussions, I now feel more equipped to do so. Also, any vestiges of "weeding guilt" must dissipate under the uncompromising tutelage of Doug Johnson (2007), who states, "Poorly weeded collections are not the sign of poor budgets but of poor librarianship. Period. Only two things can happen if library material replacement budgets are inadequate. The collection ages if the librarian does not weed,. The collection gets smaller if the librarian does weed. That's it. Small, but high quality collections are infinitely better. And this is why. Continuous, thoughtful weeding..." (p. 1). And if Doug Johnson's admonition was not enough to convince me, I could not help but heed the ancient advice of Lucias Annaeus SENECA, (3 B.C.-65 A.D.), which can be found on The California Department of Education "Weeding the School Library" brochure: "It does not matter how many books you may have, but whether they are good or not".====

Theme 4: Issues in Collection Management
===="One of the most important responsibilities of a school library media specialist is to develop or maintain an updated policy and procedures manual. Written policies and procedures are critical to the efficient management of a school media program and collection" (Bishop, 2007, p. 33). I must admit that I was not looking forward to addressing this section of our Final Reflection assignment, as it requires me to admit that Ecole Davis Road Elementary Library has no policies and procedures manual. I do not need to be convinced that such a document is necessary. If I had any doubt, these were dispelled by the 17 "purposes" (p. 33) that Bishop (2007) outlines in Chapter 5 of her book. I only need to commit to putting the creation of such a document on the top of my priority list. Luckily, last year I was involved in a district teacher-librarian initiative that sought to create a document which would inform the practice of all teacher-librarians in School District 68. After reading Bishop's (2007) recommendations, however, I know that I cannot apply this manual in cookie-cutter fashion to the Davis Road Library. As Bishop (2007) asserts, "Policies need to reflect the goals and needs of the individual media program and its institution" (p. 35). This said, I'm hoping there will be pieces of this document which I can adapt and apply to the circumstances of Ecole Davis Road Elementary. The necessity to not "reinvent the wheel" is critical to my success in this situation, as the time I have to commit to the creation of such a document is very limited. This said, I found pages 38 and 39 of Bishop's (2007) Chapter 5 text to be particularly helpful as I attempt to drum up the courage to attack this daunting and long-neglected task. I am very appreciative of the framework she provides here, not only for its clarity, but also because it encourages me to consider aspects of collection management that I had given little thought to in the past. Specifically, I would like to address issues of intellectual freedom, censorship, and access, as reading Bishop and others has required that I reflect on these important issues and consider how I might address them in my school context.====

Intellectual Freedom, Censorship and Access:
====I must admit that before completing our LIBE 463 readings, I did not fully understand the concept of intellectual freedom. Bishop (2007), describes this concept in the following way: "Access to information involves both intellectual access and physical access. Intellectual access addresses students' rights to hear, read, and view information; to receive ideas; to express ideas; and to develop skills to receive, examine, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and use information" (p. 161). She further clarifies that "The media specialist's commitment to intellectual freedom influences the extent of intellectual access provided" (p. 162). Bishop (2007) also states that teacher-librarians have differing approaches to the intellectual rights of children. In one situation, they feel they need to take on the role of "protector" (p. 164), assuming an "adults know best" (p. 164) attitude. In the second circumstance, the teacher-librarian assumes the role of "advocate" (p. 164), perceiving children as capable of defining both their information needs and their resource needs. In my attempt to consider the "big issues" here, I have decided to turn to the Canadian Library Association (1985), who has created a strong statement clarifying their position on intellectual freedom. I include the link here for your review:====

====If I did not fully appreciate my responsibilities with regard to safeguarding intellectual freedom before, I certainly do now. According to the Canadian Library Association (1985), it is my professional obligation to "guarantee and facilitate access to all expressions of knowledge and intellectual activity, including those which some elements of society may consider in to be unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable". To this end, libraries shall acquire and make available the widest variety of materials" (CLA, 1985). In other words, principles of intellectual freedom should carry considerable weight when I make decisions about selecting and deselecting resources. What is terribly frustrating to consider in this regard, is how our lack of financial support can seriously curtail my ability to effectively meet these weighty obligations. While I have the personal and professional will to "make available the widest variety of materials" (CLA, 1985), our restricted budget seriously impacts my practical ability to do so. When I am scrambling just to ensure that my essential curricular resources are not horribly out of date, how can I safeguard intellectual freedom by making the "widest variety of materials" (CLA, 1985) available to students?====

====If "knowing is half the battle", then I am at least further along in this area than I was before taking LIBE 463. If I cannot fully achieve my intellectual freedom objectives, a heightened sensitivity to this issue will nonetheless positively influence my broader collection development agenda. This new perspective will also place me on much firmer ground should I have one of my resources challenged, particularly if I am able to effectively articulate an intellectual freedom philosophy in my policy and procedures manual. Also, even if it will be difficult to present "the widest variety of materials" (CLA, 1985) in print format, I am confident that I will be able to access digital resources to reflect a broader variety of perspectives.====

====Of course, issues of censorship and access are inextricably linked to that of intellectual freedom. The Canadian Library Association (1985) also takes a strong position on censorship, the link to which I include here:====

====In the above document, the CLA (1985) states the following: "Freedom to read can never be taken for granted. Even in Canada, a free country by world standards, books and magazines are banned at the border. Books are removed from the shelves in Canadian libraries, schools and bookstores every day. Free speech on the Internet is under attack. Few of these stories make headlines, but they affect the right of Canadians to decide for themselves what they choose to read".====

====While it is obvious to most that this type of overt "book-banning" activity is unethical and inappropriate, I found it fascinating to read Bishop's (2007) more nuanced discussion on the topic of "Selection and Censorship" (p. 168). Here she asks a pivotal question, "What is the difference between selection and censorship" (p. 168)? The lines are a little more blurred in this regard because, as Bishop (2007) states, "Selection is by nature exclusive" (p. 168). We all, as teacher-librarians, choose materials to be added to a collection at the expense of others. How then do we ensure that we are //selecting// and not //censoring//? I appreciate the distinction that Bishop (2007) makes when she clarifies that selection occurs when a teacher-librarian "strives to give each item fair consideration and makes a concerted effort to suppress personal biases" (p. 169). Censorship, on other hand, entails that "an individual or a group attempts to impose certain values on others by limiting the availability of one or more items" (p. 169).====

====Now that I have had an opportunity to reflect upon the selection vs. censorship issue, I feel it will be crucial to frequently hold up "the Bishop mirror" when making collection development decisions. Teacher-librarians or not, we all have personal biases, values, and perspectives, which affect the way we approach all aspects of our lives. Despite this fact, Bishop warns that the professional resource choices of a media specialist must not be "colored by their personal values" (p. 170), but rather by "their commitment to intellectual freedom" (p. 170).====

====The issue of access, or conversely, "barriers to access" (Bishop, 2007, p. 164), is also an important collection management consideration. I have already addressed "intellectual access" (Bishop, 2007, p. 161) and its relationship, whether negative or positive, to a library media specialist's commitment to the principles of intellectual freedom. Bishop, however, also asserts that "physical access" (Bishop, 2007, p. 161) is extremely important and can have a huge impact on a child's ability to learn. According to Bishop (2007), their are many ways in which a child's access to " the widest variety of materials" (CLA, 1985) can be limited. While I will not comment on all of these, I would like to address those areas which I feel most affect Ecole Davis Road Elementary.====

====As a teacher-librarian, I have the opportunity to visit different libraries around our district and to communicate regularly with my teacher-librarian colleagues at other schools. One thing that became immediately obvious to me when I first became a teacher-librarian, is the fact that "not all libraries are created equal" in our district. While some libraries are housed in brand new state-of-the-art facilities, others, such as mine, are housed in decrepit old classrooms. While some libraries have generous administrators and wealthy PACs and, thereby, fairly generous budgets, others do not. While I choose not to dwell on these issues, it is hard to ignore these hard, cold realities when discussing issues of access. Bishop addresses fiscal and physical limitations to access (p. 164-165), both of which have a huge impact on student learning at Ecole Davis Road Elementary. Bishop (2007) describes my "fiscal limitations" (p. 164) dilemma perfectly: How do I justify, for example, making the leap to purchase expensive e-books and e-book technology when I know this will decimate my budget to replace outdated, inappropriate print resources. Other the other hand, how do I justify //not// doing so in the face of our current library 2.0 reality? In similar fashion, often the physical limitations of our current space can be quite discouraging. Bishop (2007) states, "The physical environment of a media centre can create limitations: lack of seating and work space, shelving beyond people's reach, lack of electrical outlets for equipment, or an insufficient number of terminals" (p. 165). In making this statement, she is describing our library situation perfectly.====

====As previously stated, I choose not to dwell on the inequities between one library and another or, for that matter, between one school and another. I also choose to make the most of what is available and to continually advocate for an improved situation. It is interesting, however, and somewhat disheartening, to consider the myriad ways our situation at Ecole Davis Road Elementary restricts the access rights of students and curtails their intellectual freedom.====

Theme 5: Acquiring Resources
====On a much happier note, I would now like to highlight what I have learned about acquiring resources for my library and how I will incorporate these new ideas into my practice. To some degree, Joanne sums up my sentiments regarding resource selection when she states: "purchasing new materials is perhaps the most fun part of the collection development process. Who doesn't like shopping for new books and spending money that doesn't belong to us..." I do so love to shop and I'd like to feel entirely "footloose and fancy free" about the selection process. This said, my investment in the Davis Road Library makes it such that I actually feel as if the money //is// coming out of my own pocket. Also, as Joanne states, because "there's never enough money", I feel a huge responsibility to make collection development choices that will be of optimal benefit to all my user groups.====

====In her sixth podcast, Joanne highlights the "importance of having really strongly defined accepted selection policies" to guide resource acquisition decisions. Bishop underscores my responsibility in this regard by stating, "As a media specialist, you will be involved in updating a selection policy for your school or if one is not in place, you should take the lead...(p. 41) As stated in Theme 4, I am now committed to creating a policy and procedures manual for the Ecole Davis Road Elementary Library. This manual would necessarily include a section on resource acquisition.====

====In the absence of well-defined policies and procedures for the Davis Road Library, I referred to Bishop's (2007) "general criteria" (p. 44) to guide my purchasing decisions. She outlines these as follows:====


 * ====Reputation of the author, illustrator, publisher, and producer====
 * ====Overall quality and accuracy====
 * ====Currency and appropriateness of the content====
 * ====Value in relation to cost and need====
 * ====Value to the collection====

====In addition to using Bishop's (2007) "general criteria" (p. 44) to inform my practice, I also relied heavily on reviews to make Grade 4 Social Studies resource decisions. As Joanne states in her podcast, reviews must play a "vital role" in a teacher-librarian's "decision-making process". She reinforces this point by stating, "particularly when budgets are tight and particularly when you're forced to make sort of tough decisions about what to include in your collection, reviews from journals like the ones listed in the notes are really a helpful way of picking the best of the best". Not only did I use journal reviews, such as School Library Journal or Quill and Quire, but also reviews from other sources, such as the Faculty of Education of University of Manitoba and the Parents' Choice blog. As Joanne affirms, "the nice thing about reading book review blogs is that they are cheap, they are easily accessible, you can read them at your leisure, you can go from reading the review on a blog to your Amazon or your Chapters online account and you can start placing orders right away". Also, as Joanne mentions, "they're written by professionals who have a real strong interest in children's literature".====

====Another excellent source of guidance for me came from my ability to directly access several resource experts. Nanaimo is lucky to have two individuals who not only own book-selling businesses that distribute resources throughout the province, but who are also extremely knowledgeable. These two experts are Janice Kroening, who runs a company called French Language Resources, and Terri Mack, who owns and operates Core Learning Resources.====

====Perhaps one of the most beneficial aspects of this assignment is that it necessitated that I establish and strengthen working relationships with these two key experts. These partnerships were critical because I was searching for very specific "niche" resources. I would not have felt confident, for example, to purchase French language resources online without having the opportunity to first view these directly and to verify that the language was appropriate for my target users. Also, Janice, due to her vast experience working with other French Immersion schools, is able to provide excellent advice on which resources are most useful. I have also found that, if a resource appropriate to French Immersion education is "out there", the chances are very good that Janice will have it. A strong working relationship with Janice, therefore, brings huge benefit in time savings and in the assurance that I am making the best resource decisions possible.====

====I also feel very privileged to have spent time with Terri Mack while completing Assignment 5. As previously stated, Terri is very well qualified to give resource advice as she has worked in education for nearly 20 years, first as the District Aboriginal Resource Coordinator for Nanaimo/Ladysmith SD, and now as the Community Literacy Coordinator for Stz'uminus First Nation. Bishop (2007) provides some excellent criteria which should be considered when selecting multicultural materials. These are (p 198):====


 * ====The materials should be culturally accurate. This includes the illustrations in a book as well as text.====
 * ====Ethnic materials should contain authentic dialogue and depict realistic relationships.====
 * ====The materials should avoid racial and cultural stereotyping. Characters should be regarded as distinct individuals.====
 * ====The materials should not contain racial comments or cliches.====
 * ====Details in a story should help the reader gain a sense of the culture.====

====Terri and I were able to discuss many of the above issues as she introduced the various materials she has available. I was also able to ask Terri's advice about which resources best met the above criteria, while still addressing general standards for good literature. In addition, she was able to show me which non-fiction resources she found most reflective of current and past First Nations realities. For example, she steered me away from a Bobby Kalman First Nation series. While Ms. Kalman is a respected author with many wonderful books to her credit, Terri is not comfortable with the representations of First Nations people that Ms. Kalman presents in this series. Because she is an educator and a member of the Metis community, I felt very confident with the guidance Terri provided and am very proud of the resources which will soon be added to the Ecole Davis Road Elementary collection.====

====Because I was dealing primarily with "niche" resources for this assignment, I did not initiate a meeting with our local book seller. We, in fact, have an excellent new and used book store in Ladysmith called Salamander Books. While I did not have the opportunity this time around, I will be sure touch base with Salamander Books in the very near future in order to discuss the possibilities for a mutually beneficial partnership.====

====While the heavy responsibility for spending precious library funds made our resource acquisition assignment somewhat stressful, it was also hugely enjoyable. I am grateful for the strategies I have developed and for the relationships I have built as a result of my participation in LIBE 463. I have no doubt that the skills have attained and practiced will continue to guide my resource development decisions in the future, helping me to greatly improve the overall quality of the Ecole Davis Road Library collection.====

====As I stated earlier in this document, LIBE 463 could not have come at a better time for me. Last year, I invested considerable energy advocating for my library in an effort to secure vital resource development funding. I am proud to report that, for the first time in years, Davis Road Library will actually receive $1400.00 dollars from our school budget. I have also acquired $2500.00 from the PAC and I am hopeful that a Raise-a-Reader grant will add another $1500.00 to our library coffers. Ultimately, I could have as much as $5400.00 to spend on our library collection this year. While I am excited by the possibilities such a budget could afford, I am also very conscious of my huge responsibility to purchase resources that are truly "the best of the best" and which will meet the many and differing needs of all user groups at Ecole Davis Road Elementary. I am extremely grateful to have participated in LIBE 463. It has been an exceptionally well-supported learning experience and I believe that valuable tools have been added to my "teacher-librarian toolbox" as a result. Despite my relative inexperience, I trust that these essential tools will help me fulfill my collection management responsibilities with much greater wisdom and confidence.====