ETL 503 Assignment 2 Reflection

When I evaluated a school library's collection and existing collection management practices, what became most evident was that a quality collection development policy (CDP) leads to a quality school library collection. The school library I looked at had not had a CDP for almost a decade. The previous teacher-librarian was primary trained and did not have a good understanding of high school curricula. These two factors led to the development of a collection that did meet the school's teaching and learning needs.

Evaluating a collection helped me gain a greater understanding of the various categories and formats a collection should maintain to cater for the needs of all users. The evaluation was quite general though, and I would have liked the opportunity to carry out more specific evaluation such as collection mapping to create data to support my thoughts.

Through this assignment I was able to see how the poor quality of the collection was the effect of the lack of a CDP. Collection policies "serve as blueprints for the operations of a library as a whole" (Gregory,2011), so I found it hard to understand how the library was able to function for so long without one. The collection suffered terribly which showed in the its lack of relevance to the curriculum, and the underutilization of resources.

Providing context through an analytical overview of a current collection and it's users was thought provoking. For collection development to be effective, it must be based on knowledge about the collection's users (Bishop, 2007). Therefore, considering the needs of the users in relation to the curriculum is paramount when writing a CDP. Basically, if the students can't read the information (too difficult), won't use it (not relevant) than it's a waste of time and money.

A school library library's priority is to support the school curriculum and the school community. While trying to write a CDP that aimed to do this, I realised what a huge job it was and also why we were doing it as an assignment. Writing a CDP brought together all aspects of collection management studied. Having written one already also means it would not be such a daunting task when we need to organise a committee to write one for another collection.

In the assignment I wrote that the policy was formulated to communicate the scope and value of the collection (Mitchell, 2012). This is what this assignment has done for me. Some of the CDP's I reviewed were so detailed and with so much information available, I found it difficult to adhere to the word count.

The TL, as leader and collection manager must have a clear understanding of the purpose and goals of the collection. As a well defined public document, the CDP ensures the collection is supported by systemic, consistent practices. It ensures the collection becomes relevant and integral to the school community.


References

Bishop,
K. (2007). Community analysis and needs assessment. In The collection program in schools: concepts, practices and information sources. (4th ed.). p19-24. Westport, Conn. : Libraries Unlimited.

Gregory, V.L.(2011). Collection development and management for 21st century library collections. New York, NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

Mitchell, K. (2012). Library collection management policy. In ETL503 - Assignment 2.CSU.