Collection conundrum
Last year we started talking about collection development and what it means for school librarians in the 21st century. Do we really need those expensive print reference books when we have access to the same type of information in our online databases? Where should we direct those ever decreasing budget dollars?
We aren’t the only ones pondering these questions. The topic for this year’s SLJ Summit was Remixing Library Collections for Digital Youth.
In her post on this topic, Joyce Valenza asks the same question that we did when we began our discussions:
I thought back to everything I learned more than thirty years ago in grad school (the first time around). I learned about building balanced collections. About ensuring that various viewpoints were represented. About ensuring that great authors, and classics, and best sellers were represented. That as my users/patrons/members browsed my collection, there would always be something to happen upon and discover.
But I wonder if what I learned about having a just-in-case collection makes any sense right now in a just-in-time, just-for-me, 24/7 demand-met universe. Is serendipity dead?
This is something that I’m still thinking about. What are your thoughts?
Image citation: Balancing act uploaded on October 7, 2007 by tanakawho. Used under a Creative Commons Attribution License
November 19th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
I’m not quite ready to abandon my ‘just in time’ collection on the shelves although it is pared down considerably. I need to wait a bit until there are sufficient computers in the library. I’m finding I can purchase very few online databases with a meagre $8.56 per student budget in a small school. I think the web2.0 community has the right idea making so many applications free for education. Maybe that will spread to the keepers of knowledge as well in the future. One can only hope.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:03 am
Thanks for your comment, Lesley. Those shrinking budgets are a problem for all of us, I think. It is definitely hard to know where to spend and get the most “bang for your buck”!
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:03 am
How timely the topic. This past week I watched as students pondered the use of printed materials. They were to do an assignment with out the internet. The moans and groans.
In my middle school, the students I have are digital searchers. My library is a basic print collection with access to Ebscoe Host (which students prefer to Google then to take the time to learn how to use).
This past week’s 8th grade assignment was to locate information on their topic from an encyclopedia set.
As I watched them flip through the pages, not using guide words at the top of the page, groaning because it “took longer.” I don’t think that students realize how much time they spend sifting through the google search results for what they really need.
I also noticed that the key words they wanted to use were phrases, not single words. For example, For the California Gold rush, they chose the word California instead of Gold rush.
I also had a demonstration this week of the online World Book. I’m just about ready to buy the on-line encyclopedia set. Companies are really going out of the way to have everything that the student needs–images, bibliography, etc.
But will buying a prepackaged information really teach the students how to effectively
efficiently find what they need on the internet?