LIBE+463+Assignment+3

=LIBE 463 Assignment #3: Collection Evaluation=

=Data:=



The process of collecting data for this project mostly involved the printing of reports from the L4U Library management system and then making calculations and observations based on the raw data print outs. Qualitative data was noted beside resources when something was observed. There were over 100 pages of resource information printed out and analyzed.

=Collection Analysis:=

Overall Collection

 * **Whole Collection** ||
 * Size of Collection: 14 910 ||
 * Number of students: 530 ||
 * Number of resources per student: 28 ||
 * Average Age of Collection: 16.4 ||
 * Average Year of Publication: 1996 ||


 * **Publication Date by Decade** ||
 * **Decade Published** || **% of collection** ||
 * 1900-1950 || 0.56 ||
 * 1960s || 1.27 ||
 * 1970s || 4.04 ||
 * 1980s || 12.95 ||
 * 1990s || 42.74 ||
 * 2000s || 35.57 ||
 * 2010 (-2012) || 2.87 ||

Achieving Information Literacy Collection Standards Comparison
(Grey highlight indicates the assessment for each category in relationship to the library collection at Journey Middle School) or 22 items/student whichever is greater || Minimum of 25 000 items or 30 items/student whichever is greater ||
 * **Size of Book Collection** ||
 * **Student Population** || **Below Standard** || **Acceptable** || **Exemplary** ||
 * 500-999 students || Less than 15 000 || Minimum of 15 000 items

Curriculum related, student interest, diverse viewpoints || Middle: Less than 30-40 periodicals || Middle: 40-60 periodicals || Middle: 60+ periodicals || Preference is for electronic indexes || No access to periodical indexes || Access to at least one periodical index Access to print indexes || Access to print and electronic indexes || Print and electronic || No or limited access to newspapers: local, provincial, and/or national || Access to 1 local, 1 provincial and 1 national newspaper in print or electronic format Access to full-text news database || Access to print newspapers and full-text news databases to meet program demands || In a variety of formats such as: CD-ROM & on-line subscriptions || 25 titles || 25+ titles || 60+ titles || Curriculum related, instructional, reference, library management, production, administration, utility, etc.
 * **Types of Resources** ||
 * **Resource** || **Below Standard** || **Acceptable** || **Exemplary** ||
 * **Periodicals**
 * **Periodical Indexes**
 * **Newspapers**
 * **Electronic &**
 * Digital Resources**
 * **Computer Software**
 * Programs**

Subscribed and free online databases Internet access || Middle School: Less than 5 reference databases

Less than 5 curricular programs

Word processing, Spreadsheet, Web page development software || Middle School: 5 reference databases

5 curricular programs and electronic encyclopedias

Electronic encyclopedias

Internet access

Presentation, database utility, spreadsheet, and word processing software and web page development programs || Middle School: All components of "acceptable" category plus:

Online databases in sufficient number to support all instructional programs and a broad range of user needs

Sufficient software to support all instructional programs and a broad range of user needs

Networked library catalogue with catalogued WWW sites

Interactive circulation program that provides user and resource information ||
 * **Videos & DVDs** || less than 100 titles || 100-400 titles || 400+ ||

within the last 10 years: less than 50%of the collection || Copyright dates within the last 10 years: 50-70% of the collection || Copyright dates within the last 10 years: 80% of the collection || automated || Catalogue is automated and available through a WAN or as part of a central union catalogue || Catalogue is automated and available through a WAN or as part of a central union catalogue, and through the World Wide Web ||
 * **Accessibility and Currency** ||
 * || **Below standard** || **Acceptable** || **Exemplary** ||
 * **Currency** || Copyright dates
 * Library Catalogue || Catalogue is not

Sciene 6 Analysis

 * **General Science Resources** ||
 * **Number of** **books: 107** || **Dewey #s** || **Subject** ||
 * 13 || 500 || Natural science and Mathematics ||
 * 1 || 501 || Philosophy and Theory ||
 * 2 || 502 || Miscellany ||
 * 4 || 503 || Dictionaries and Encyclopedias ||
 * 34 || 507 || Education, Research ||
 * 15 || 600 || Technology ||
 * 11 || 608 || Inventions and Patents ||
 * 10 || 609 || Historical, areas, persons treatment ||
 * 7 || 620 || Engineering and allied operations ||
 * 10 || 629 || Other branches of engineering (robotics) ||


 * **Electricity** ||
 * **Number of books: 46** || **Dewey #s** || **Subject** ||
 * 4 || 537 || Electricity and Electronics ||
 * 6 || 538 || Magnetism ||
 * 2 || 539 || Modern Physics ||
 * 2 || 551 || Geology, hydrology, meteorology (lightning) ||
 * 32 || 621 || Applied Physics (alternative energy, electronics) ||


 * **Extreme Environments** ||
 * **Number of books: 303** || **Dewey #s** || **Subject** ||
 * 1 || 500 || Natural science and Mathematics ||
 * 2 || 507 || Education, Research ||
 * 4 || 508 || Natural History ||
 * 39 || 520 || Astronomy ||
 * 4 || 522 || Techniques, equipment, materials (astronomy) ||
 * 132 || 523 || Specific celestial bodies & phenomena ||
 * 11 || 525 || Earth ||
 * 45 || 551 || Geology, hydrology, meteorology ||
 * 2 || 574 || Biology ||
 * 16 || 577 || Ecology ||
 * 6 || 578 || Natural History of organisms ||
 * 4 || 600 || Technology ||
 * 43 || 629 || Other branches of engineering (space exploration) ||


 * **Diversity of Life** ||
 * **Number of books: 626** || **Dewey #s** || **Subject** ||
 * 2 || 500 || Natural Science and Mathematics ||
 * 5 || 507 || Education, Research ||
 * 14 || 508 || Natural History ||
 * 68 || 574 || Biology ||
 * 15 || 577 || Ecology ||
 * 6 || 578 || Natural History of Organisms ||
 * 5 || 579 || Microorganisms, Fungi, Algae ||
 * 2 || 580 || Botanical Sciences ||
 * 13 || 581 || Botany ||
 * 12 || 582 || Spermatophyta (Seed bearing plants) ||
 * 1 || 583 || Dicotyledones ||
 * 2 || 585 || Gymnospermae ||
 * 5 || 589 || Thallobionta & Prokaryotae ||
 * 5 || 590 || Zoological sciences ||
 * 104 || 591 || Zoology ||
 * 3 || 592 || Invertebrates ||
 * 1 || 593 || Protozoa, Echinodermata, related phyla ||
 * 7 || 594 || Mollusca & Molluscoidea ||
 * 50 || 595 || Other Invertebrates (insects) ||
 * 1 || 596 || Vertebrata (Craniata, Vertebrates) ||
 * 75 || 597 || Cold-blooded vertebrates Fishes ||
 * 61 || 598 || Aves (Birds) ||
 * 167 || 599 || Mammalia (Mammals ||
 * 2 || 600 || Technology ||


 * **English vs French** ||
 * **General** ||  || **Electricity** ||   ||
 * English: 99 || French: 8 || English: 36 || French: 10 ||
 * **Extreme Environments** ||  || **Diversity of Life** ||   ||
 * English: 252 || French: 51 || English: 577 || French: 49 ||

=Summary of Findings=


 * Overall Collection:**

-When analyzing the overall collection it is apparent that the collection is no longer current. With an average publishing year of 1996, according to the standards established by the Canadian Association for School Libraries (2003), the collection is too old. Some older items should be removed so as not to take up extra space and to reduce the number of resources that students need to go through to find what they need. Having said this, not all old materials should be removed, if they circulate well and still have current information then they can still be a valuable part of the collection.

-As a whole the library collection at Journey Middle school lies in the "below standard" assessment category set by the Canadian Association for School Libraries (2003). Efforts should be made to improve the library media center to at least an "acceptable" standard.


 * Science 6 Resource Collection:**

-1082 resources currently exist in the Library Media Center that support B.C. Grade 6 Science curriculum.

-Within these resources there is an abundance of resources to support the Diversity of Life section of the curriculum, while very few resources to support the Electricity section of the curriculum. This imbalance may exist, in part, because there has been a tradition of inquiry based learning activities in the Diversity of Life and Extreme Environments areas while the Electricity unit tends to be more hands on, textbook, and classroom based learning. What is difficult to know is if the collection has developed around the need for learning resources as requested by students and teachers or if teachers have developed the inquiry projects more in the Diversity of Life area because that the topic with more resources to begin with.

-Some subject categories within specific units of study are over or under represented. For example, the vast majority of resources that support the Extreme Environments unit are about Space (and not even necessarily space exploration, which is the curricular focus). Other extreme environments that teachers and students are encouraged to look at include deserts, caves, mountains, deep oceans, polar regions, etc. So while it appears that the Extreme Environment curriculum is well supported by the collection the reality is that it only covers one subtopic well, with 229 of the 303 resources being space related.

-The data also identifies an imbalance between English and French language resources. With French Immersion studetns representing approximately 17% of the school population it is assumed that a similar ratio would be reflected in the availability of French resources. French resources are represented in the grade 6 science resources as only 11% of the collection. The French resources also seemed to be older with very few new updates compared to the rest of the Science section, though this would have to be confirmed by doing an age analysis.

-While circulation data was initially collected as part of the data gathering process it was not included in the collection map. It was observed that while they may be widely used, the Science 6 resources tend not to get checked out by students, rather, resources that are highly used tend to be pulled and reserved for when an entire class comes in and does research. Students are not encouraged to take out the books while the class is working on their project because it depletes the stock and some students are left without resources to work with. By holding the resources aside, students are able to all share them during their assigned library time. This process means that the circulation data in the library management program does not really reflect how much the science books are being used. I think that circulation data that is present does reflect areas of high interest for students who prefer to read non-fiction for pleasure. For example, circulation data shows peak interest in categories such as: How things work, Mythbusters, Animals, Insects, Sharks, Reptiles, and Wolves. This knowledge can help guide future selection as the librarian seeks to encourage non-fiction reading beyond the traditional fiction choices.

=Reflection=

As someone who does not yet have a Teacher-Librarian position I was excited to get to learn a bit about the Library Management Software that we have in our Library. The system is called L4U and I have always been curious to see how the program works. Unfortunately my curiosity turned mostly to frustration as I tried to extract information from such a complicated system without any previous experience. While my librarian and her assistant tried their best to help me I found it difficult because they were not able to answer many of my questions about the program. They do not seem to have ever tried to run any of the data that I was seeking, they only seem to use the aquisition, circulation, and overdue functions of the program. While I am sure there is a way to get the program to spit out an average age for the collection I could not figure it out. I did manage to get a print out of a number of items per publication year, but then spent a lot of time calculating the average publication date by hand. I also found myself recording, by hand, the publication date and circulation information for every item that I had selected as possibly relating to Science 6 curriculum. I have to say that while this task of entering into each record individually was very time consuming, it did help me understand the program better and allowed me to gain a better understanding of the resources that are available.

Bishop (2007) suggested examining the collection directly, which is something that I did do in order to determine the relevancy of certain resources in relationship to the curriculum. For example I had a look at the resources about volcanoes to see if they were a match with the Extreme Environments unit (which they were not, instead they were more about the geology of volcanoes so I omited them from the Science 6 list). I liked figuring out the location of the different sections. I feel more prepared now to help my own students find what they need instead of waiting having to wait for our often busy Librarian. Direct examination of the collection also allowed me get a feel for the amount of resources available for each topic.

I liked Bishop's idea of applying standards (2007). I like standards because it feels like something concrete to is compare the collection against. I think that the comparison against standards might be the best way to get the attention of administrators because it paints the big picture of the collection in a quick way. Administrators will hopefully be concerned to see their collections at "below standard" levels and try to work with the Teacher Librarian to make improvements. I also liked comparing against the standards because it did not require a lot of leg work on my part. It was easy for me just as a teacher with basic knowledge of the collection to analyze it against the standards criteria.

Bishop also suggested conducting user-opinion surveys (2007). I tried to survey students as part of my community analysis assignment and found that many students did not take the task seriously or did not put a lot of effort into making meaningful suggestions for improvement. Perhaps if students are able to see their suggestions come to fruition they might respond in more meaningful ways on the next survey, which is something I will try to take into consideration should I be able to secure a library position in the future.

Sometimes during the process I felt a bit lost because I had not drawn up enough of a plan ahead of time to help guide my search. Sometimes I was unsure of what I should collect and why. Now that I have gone through the process and undertaken a bit of an analysis I have a better understanding of what kinds of data might be useful. In the future I would try to make a clearer path ahead of time so as to maximize available time. If I had had more time I would have tried to compare the collection to the Resources suggested in the Integrated Resource Package for the Science 6 curriculum. While the list itself is becoming too outdated it would have been interesting to see if we had acquired any of the items when the curriculum first came out. I also felt that if I had made a clearer plan ahead of time I would have been able to collect better qualitative data and would have done an age analysis on the individual topics of study in the Science curriculum.

References:

Canadian Association of School Libraries. (2003) Achieving Information Literacy. Retrieved from: http://www.clatoolbox.ca/casl/slic/ail110217.pdf

BC Ministry of Education. (2005) //Integrated Resource Package for Science 6.// Retrieved from: http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/sciences/2005scik7_6.pdf

Bishop, Kay. (2007) //The Collection Program in Schools: Concepts, Practices, and Information Sources//. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.