Beth Fowler - Acquisition

Providing wide access to information through a variety of formats:

In order to provide the widest possible access to information in a variety of formats through the library, it will be important for me to have knowledge of curriculum, topics covered, and needs of classroom teachers. I will also need to ensure I regularly survey students on their preferred formats for reading as well as genres and topics they frequently select from when reading independently. Evaluating and working to strike a balance between physical and electronic materials when adding to the collection will be crucial because “libraries allocate major portions of their budgets to acquire collection materials” (Breeding, 2017). With our school district’s relationship with the public library in our city, I am able to focus on our physical collection largely because our public library has such an expansive collection of electronic and digital materials that are accessible to our students. Reviewing our public library materials on a regular basis allows me to consider additional collection items and subscriptions to databases, for example, to provide even more access to information beyond this school library/public library relationship.

Library collection formats other than physical:

My library’s collection primarily has fiction and non-fiction in both physical and electronic formats. My students prefer physical books when reading for pleasure, so having these in physical format, but also providing an electronic option either through our own library collection or through our inter-library lending is important. Although our non-fiction collection is weeded and materials purchased for it each year that align with courses and topics taught, if a class is conducting a research project and needs physical materials, we will request items from the public library through the inter-library lending option for student use.

Audiobooks are one format that are still in the minority for preferred reading format by students, but it has grown more in recent years. Our library’s collection does not include audiobooks due to them being the least preferred, but through the public library, students are able to check out audiobooks available.

My collection only has a small section of reference materials in physical format due to the need to keep them updated, but provides “how-to” guides for accessing credible and reliable reference materials electronically or digitally through the public library. Because I am in a high school library and students are taught and prefer to research and reference online, it makes the most sense for things like the dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedias and more remain in electronic format.

Magazines and newspapers are not a part of my library’s collection because historically, they have not been used when made available and have not been requested since the removal of them from our collection. Again, through the public library, our students and staff are able to access our local newspapers as well as thousands of newspapers and magazines through Pressreader.

Collection format of the future:

The school I have been at has been a 1:1 school for the last nine years with the rest of the district becoming 1:1 within a few years of our building (we co-piloted 1:1 devices and curriculum platforms). My 9-12 grade students have been learning on computers for nearly their entire educational career at this point, and though they are avid technology users and prefer to conduct research this way, they still largely prefer to read poetry, novels, short stories, and literary non-fiction in physical format over electronic format.

I anticipate this will continue to be the case, even ten years from now. I expect libraries will maintain a balance of physical, electronic, and digital materials to serve their students/patrons needs, but with a more streamlined process for maintaining these different groups of materials.

Resources in non-traditional format:

From personal experience, I think resources primarily used for research tend to work well in a digital and electronic format. Being able to access materials for research through databases with search functions and filters somehow seems less daunting than having to identify and locate physical materials for research. Fiction literature, non-fiction literature, and self-improvement books seem to work well, though I would not say work best as audiobooks. They do provide flexibility and expand accessibility in audio format for listeners to be able to “read” while cleaning, folding laundry, and driving that they would not be able to do with a physical or electronic format of the same book.

Changes for students with special needs/accommodations:

For students with special needs and accommodations, electronic resources can be more quickly adapted to meet needs than print resources. Adaptations of print resources are available, such as having print resources available in large print, the original version copied and magnified, or having resources that have Braille versions available, but this may not be a plausible option due to cost and availability. With electronic resources, however, adjusting the text size, color of font versus the background the font is on can be changed, audio narration and other technology for special needs students and students with accommodations can be more readily provided.

References

American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. ALA Editions.

Breeding, M. (2017). Meeting the Challenge of Simultaneously Managing Digital, Electronic, and Print Collections. Computers in Libraries, 37(2), 16-18. https://login.cyrano.ucmo.edu/login? url=https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/meeting-challenge- simultaneously-managing-digital/docview/1891747069/se-2?accountid=6143