Selection of Resources

Selection of Resources

As I said in my summary for Module 1, I believe that the school library or resource centre (I think the name of the actual place is slightly irrelevant) needs to cater for the different learning styles and paces of all students. It needs to cater for ALL individuals. Not simply one select group. Thus, the school library collection exists to meet the specific needs of the school, including students, teachers and the wider community.

There is some debate over whose responsibility it is to select and acquire resources for the school library. However, I firmly believe that while the Teacher Librarian is indeed the information specialist, they are not/should not be solely responsible for the selection and acquisition of resources. They have a sound overview of all curriculum areas and school needs, however it is the classroom teachers who spend day-in day-out with the children, thus they are the specialist when it comes to catering for the actual clientele. The TL and the CT need to collaborate to distinguish what needs to be added to the collection, what should be built upon and what should be weeded.

The TL would be the best person for the selection of fiction books as they have the knowledge of what the students in the school enjoy reading. They can do this through informal observations and anecdotal records, or they can print reports and stock up on the most popular series of books etc. However, the classroom teacher knows best if the students are visual or spatial learners etc and they can assist the TL to best select and acquire the resources that would benefit the students in their learning.

In a nutshell: selection and acquisition is NOT a job solely for the TL. It needs to be done in close collaboration with the CT as they both has unique attributes that they can bring to the table to ensure that the learning outcomes of all students are greatly strengthened and that the students have the best possible experiences and opportunities to learn!