Collection Collection and and

Community:Community:

The Context

LIB 610 Collection Management Summer 2009

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What is the context?What is the context?

Extract from a collection development policy:Extract from a collection development policy:

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Context for a school library?Context for a school library?

Curriculum

Clients

Community

Carol L. Tilley, Syllabus for L595 Collection Analysis for School Library Media Specialists

(Web-Based Workshop)

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What’s curriculum got to do with it?What’s curriculum got to do with it?

CurriculumCurriculum The purpose of the collection is to support learning. The purpose of the collection is to support learning.

As such, the materials selected for inclusion must As such, the materials selected for inclusion must support the curriculum.support the curriculum.

• Information Access & Delivery: School Library Collections

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Clients?

ClientsClients Your clients include students, teachers, Your clients include students, teachers,

administrators, parents, staff, members of administrators, parents, staff, members of community, and anyone else connected with the community, and anyone else connected with the learning community. learning community. The primary purpose of a The primary purpose of a school library media center collection is to provide school library media center collection is to provide access to information. This access is provided by access to information. This access is provided by serving your patrons.serving your patrons.

. . . all decisions should be based on sound data . . . all decisions should be based on sound data regarding the reading level, developmental level, regarding the reading level, developmental level, interests, and needs of students. A collaborative interests, and needs of students. A collaborative planning process is essential in determining planning process is essential in determining those materials that will best impact student those materials that will best impact student achievement.achievement.

• Information Access & Delivery: School Library Collections

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But what is the (a) community?But what is the (a) community?

What is a Community? In the physical world, communities are

typically groups of people (a town, for instance) held together by some common identity or interest.

Coming from two Latin words meaning “with gifts,” the term community suggests a general sense of altruism, reciprocity, and beneficence that comes from working together. Communities help generate a shared language, rituals and customers, and collective memory of those that join the group.

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School and CommunitySchool and Community

Visionary Educator Interview:Visionary Educator Interview: I believe that a school and a community

shouldn’t be separate entities.  They are the same. I believe it is the responsibility of the educator to explore and learn about the community, to have the critical conversations necessary to learn what resources are available there to enhance the curriculum that you are using or developing. 

• Alicia Fitzpatrick of Twin Buttes High School, Zuni, NM

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Community resources?

Part of the School Library Collection As school librarians and media specialists collaborate

with classroom teachers and assist them in finding relevant materials for resource-based learning, the use of both material resources and human resources from the community can be invaluable. Accessing resources within the community can make learning more relevant to students and enable them to see a connection between the curriculum and the real world. Establishing community resource collections also results in stronger business and community partnerships with the school.

• Jennifer Hammond, “Community Resources as Part of the School Library Collection”. Library Philosophy and Practice Vol. 4, No. 1 (Fall 2001)

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