More than just a pretty face....
and other observations on school libraries and teacher-librarianship
School Libraries in Canada, Vol. 8, No. 3, Spring 1988, pp. 5-6.
What do you need?
Let us consider what it is like to visit a book store with a voucher from the school.
"Now there's an attractive book - by a well known author. Oh we have
several other books by that author and they are all very popular with the
children. Oh, look at the illustrations, aren’t they charming, the
quality paper and the exceptional binding. And its only $14.95!"
And another dud hits the shelf! Another statistic for the school.
"Our library prides itself on the fine collection it has assembled for the
students. The librarian reports that there are now 8567 items!
All selected for our students!."
And the dust settles on the dud, as it waits quietly until someone decides
that it really wasn’t any good. That will be after a long period during
which many students may actually have been forced to look at it.
We could choose materials for our school libraries according to the way we
were taught to do so in Library School. Selection is that process in
which we analysis the needs of our client group and after consulting the
appropriate sources - reviews, major bibliographic sources, etc.- and relating
that information to the materials that we already hold in our particular
collection, we search for new materials when we discover that our needs cannot
be satisfied by the collection. In very simple terms, we are to buy
what we need! And we are only to buy what is good, but then that would
be obvious if we are using public money to support the needs of our kids.
That is not the way in which we actually choose things for our school libraries.
I am sure that there are areas we attempt to cover when the need is ripe,
but we actually resent intrusions (like new curricula concerns) into our
already well established need patterns.
I can hear the knashing of teeth and the sharpening of spears from here.
We just don't buy materials the way they said we must at Library School.
You and I know that the reality of the situation is quite different.
The publishers are very aware (and probably not surprised) that we don't
work that way. We buy materials for our libraries on the basis of perceived
need and "perfect luck". We buy materials for our libraries (out of
the best of intentions) that we discover rather than actually seek.
We do not really care much about reviews especially when we do much of our
buying without reference to them, before the reviews are available.
We probably buy most of our materials from their covers, just as most of
our clients probably choose books by their covers.
Just look at the evidence. School Library Journal has over 40,000 subscribers.
The publishers spend thousands of dollars each year advertising their new
books (with pictures of the covers). They would not do that if they
did not find that sales of those materials (long before they are reviewed)
did not justify the expense. In fact, I would not be surprised if those
publishers are less excited about reviews than we appear to be. Oh
I am sure that when a book gets a favorable review that will affect its sales.
But please consider all those books that never appear in reviews that somehow
find their way to our shelves. Those good reviews may actually help
a title make it into a major bibliographic tool where it will be used to
build those new libraries for new kids. Strange isn’t it that we would
fill up a library with old stuff for the new school. Tried and true
and dull. Just who wants the stuff in the Wilson Catalogs? Who called
The Elementary School Library Collection that name?
I don't think that we buy very much that we actively seek out. It is
just too much work. So we accept that which comes across our consciousness
and that is where luck comes into the quotient. When you really think
about it there is no other way. You have money to spend (this year)
provided by a budget that for most schools is struck , not on the basis of
what is needed, but on what the library had last year. Or it might
have been determined after all the other real needs of the school have been
met. So we money to spend on materials for our libraries and we have
to spend or lose it. We do know what the kids need don't we! And so
do the publishers! Who drives this vehicle? Who decides what
we shall read? Who leads and who pushes?
It is very difficult to choose materials for a school library. To properly
do the job, the school librarian has to be fully aware of every curriculum
thrust in the school, every teacher's teaching style, every kid's reading
level, every item in the existing collection. It is hopeless to pretend that
it could be done.
That hopeless mandate becomes compounded with the realities of that marketplace.
The relentless flow of new material in all its technological splendor confounds
any attempt to change the pattern. We have to buy because we have to
buy. Consider what it is like to take a year off. Think of all
the wonderful things that will go by. What a shame.
The real shame is that we cannot do more than we are doing. We have
to give all we can to the collection-selection process we have designed for
ourselves. We have to acknowledge that what we are doing is not a perfect
process. We have to consider more what it is that we are going to do
with this stuff that we buy along with all the other stuff we bought.
Buy what you need. What is it that you want to change with
this stuff? What do you need?
Donald Hamilton