More than just a pretty face....

and other observations on school libraries and teacher-librarianship


Mocassin Telegraph, Vol. 20, No. 2, Winter 1978, p. 4.  Reprinted:  School Libraries in Canada, Vol. 7, No. 3, Spring 1987, p. 5.  BCTLA Bookmark  , Vol.20, No. 1, September 1971, pp. 31-32.The Book Report, ( With some modifications and a different title "Help Stamp out the Annual Inventory") Vol. 6, No. 1,May-June 1987, p. 28.

Inventory: Folly or Fancy?



Every June school librarians all over the country busily prepare for their annual ritual -- inventory.  While the origins of this curious custom are shrouded in mystery, the annual check must have some relationship to moon phases, celestial appositions and "things that go bump in the night" for the logical necessity for the option cannot be found in rational terms.  The "action" will be defended by many of you as you read these words, in several quite "rational" arguments that have unfortunately, little validity.

"Inventory is taken every year".  The argument rejecting this purpose is painfully obvious.

"Inventory is a requirement of the Board, the Principal, the powers that be" . . . is only true if you choose to accept that truth.  Few Boards have any policies about the libraries within their schools, let alone about details of their operation.  (In fact, many might be alarmed at the annual cost of discovering how much it costs to find out how much was lost.)  Principals often suggest "Inventory" to the librarian as a way of pretending that they know something about the operation of the library.  There is no legal requirement that a school library discover what is missing . . . that must be a decision made by the people who need that information.

"Inventory will assist me in buying materials".  It will help you know what you don't have but surely any conscious, organized, purposeful collection policy will reveal those details in a constant process -- not an annual binge or emotional purge in June (just before the well-earned break).  All that Inventory tells some librarians is that they don't have as many books in certain areas -- like cars and sports and photography and horses and sex . . .  that they purchased and catalogued.  For many librarians, this valuable information will lead them "not to buy any more books in those areas" (why the Inventory then?) or to establish closed areas within the library so that the grubby kids will keep their grubby fingers off the books!

"Inventory is a necessity to keep the card catalogue accurate."  While a good argument on the surface, several questions emerge.  If the catalogue is so important and useful then users will report missing items to the librarian throughout the year, allowing instant catalogue correction and re-order procedures.  If the patrons do not report losses--does it mean that they did not care enough about the missing items to ask you to replace it, or does it perhaps mean that no one needed the item?  The only other argument might be that the patron does not use the card catalogue to locate material -- but then, that would dispute the entire thrust of the question and perhaps, the library itself.

"Inventory is necessary to show how terrific I am as a librarian because a small number of losses will mean I am terrific, and a large number of losses will show how horrid the kids are, or how overworked I am (without sufficient clerical assistance to watch the kids steal)".

"Inventory is part of all those marvelous tomes we read in library classes."  Most of those tomes contained much that you ignored or rejected as American panache or "irrelevant in the Mud Coulee situation".  Why then has this dinosaur remained firmly mired in the library quicksand?  Is it part of public or university library tradition?  No . . . most large libraries seldom take Inventory.  Its cost is far more than its value.

"Inventory is the time each year that students can see that we value the materials because we don't let them borrow them." Yech!

"If I don't take Inventory in June how can I justify refusing loans in mid-June so that I can get all books back before school ends"?  Does school ever end? Can't you loan books for the summer?  Isn't it a great idea!  Parents might even think so too.  (Public relations begin at home).
   
Help stamp out annual regular Inventories -- they are not a form of evaluation.  They can be a mischievous reaction to a long hard winter, a masochistic final kick at the shelves before the summer lazies, or a reaction to charity - "free" reading.  (Self-service doesn't necessarily mean you can help yourself.)

The regular annual Inventory is dead.  Long live the essential, planned evaluation of the collection as an on-going process of building a responsive, relevant body of learning materials useful to the total life of the school.  If that means that you have to find out what's left of what you bought in response to needs perceived when you bought the things that satisfied those needs, then by all means approach the Inventory as a means to that end.  Think.


Donald Hamilton