Collections [3:32]

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About

We want to be looking forward, thinking about print and digital resources, and about how our collection is organized.

Transcript

Let's talk a little bit about collections. One of the things that we've certainly seen in the last few years is this idea of print versus digital. What should we be buying for school libraries? Lots of research studies still show that kids prefer print. I don't see that going away in our elementary libraries. I know reading a great picture book is just a lot more fun to have it in your hand I think than some of the digital formats.

But at the same time, we also want to be looking forward and thinking in terms of where the future is lying. We made sure that our school and our school librarians were in charge of the digital platform that we ordered for e-Books. We wanted to be the leaders in making that transition so that we had the resources that our students needed. We would look at what were the things that we were buying digitally. We tried to buy chapter books more than picture books at that point.

We were buying nonfiction things that might get outdated quickly in a print format that maybe could be updated a little more quickly in an e-Book format. Those were things that we were moving towards. But I think it's just important to realize that. I think we're going to want to balance of those resources at least for the first evil future and seeing how as technology evolves our collections will continue to evolve.

Thinking too how our collections are organized. There's a lot out there about genrefication and ditching Dewey. Genrefication is the idea of putting your collection in order based on genres in the fiction section. Then, ditching Dewey takes it a little bit further and not only organizing your fiction collection, but your nonfiction collection in perhaps a different system may be similar to a bookstore model.

I think there's lots of articles that are out there on both of these ideas. It's interesting to see what people are thinking and trying with them. I'm probably still a little bit more on that traditional side of things. Dewey, worked fine for me, and I was all right with my fiction organized by author. But certainly, these are things that you may want to explore as you think about the future of our collections is. How do we have them organized? What's the best way to have them organized for our students?

Not only for their time in elementary school, but in their time beyond our school. I think in terms of how we keep those together. I know that there's a lot of great articles within the SLC database to look for as far as genrefication and ditching Dewey. You may want to check those out to read a little bit more. The last thing, is digital curation and thinking in terms of, how do we pull digital resources together? Typically, you know that print collection has always been an easy thing for us to build.

We get our budget, we go out, we try to buy the right resources that match our students' needs. Now, with all these online tools, and resources, and information, how do we pull those together in a place that are helpful to our elementary age students? We use tools like Symbaloo which were a quick easy way to organize resources for our primary students. Made it look like great big buttons so that they could click on.

We made sure that we were looking for databases that were elementary appropriate such as PebbleGo, or Rosen's PowerKids, Science databases looking for those things that are really specific to elementary, and making sure that our digital collection was just as robust as our print collection, and that those resources were easy to access. Then, when we were working on projects with our students, we made sure to send home notes or communication home to parents to say, "Here, are things that where our library resources available to you 24/7." Not even beyond what your students are using here in the library. Here's great resources that they can use at home as well.

Additional Resources

About the Author

Carl A. Harvey II, MLS, MS, is associate professor of school librarianship at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. Harvey received his master's degree from Indiana University and is the author of six books, most recently The 21st-Century Elementary School Library Program: Managing For Results, 2nd Edition. He is a past-president of the American Association of School Librarians, and his school has been the recipient of the National School Library Program of the Year.

E-mail: charvey@schoollibraryconnection.com

Twitter: @caharvey2

Select Citation Style:

MLA Citation

Harvey, Carl A., II. "Managing the Elementary Library. Collections [3:32]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, January 2018, schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/2135534?learningModuleId=2135578&topicCenterId=2247903.

Chicago Citation

Harvey, Carl A., II. "Managing the Elementary Library. Collections [3:32]." School Library Connection video. January 2018. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/2135534?learningModuleId=2135578&topicCenterId=2247903.

APA Citation

Harvey, C. A. II. (2018, January). Managing the elementary library. Collections [3:32] [Video]. School Library Connection. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/2135534?learningModuleId=2135578&topicCenterId=2247903

https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/2135534?learningModuleId=2135578&topicCenterId=2247903

Entry ID: 2135534