Kim Hayward - School Library Media Portfolio Reflection 5:1

5:1 Collections
Candidates evaluate and select print, non-print, and digital resources using professional selection
tools and evaluation criteria to develop and manage a quality collection designed to meet the
diverse curricular, personal, and professional needs of students, teachers and administrators.
Candidates organize school library collections according to current library cataloging and
classification principles and standards.
Artifacts
ISTC 789 Practicum and Portfolio
A project that I completed for the Practicum and Portfolio class was to evaluate a list of notable
and award winning YA novels for the Edgewood Middle School library. The list was evaluated
for age appropriateness and scholarly reviews in order for the books to be added to the
collection.
ISTC 789 Practicum and Portfolio
A responsibility that I took on at Deerfield Elementary School was to weed the 600 collection in
order to identify books that were out of date and/or physically damaged.
Relevance
The artifacts included in this reflection represent ways that I have worked with the media
collection to ensure that it meets the standards for classification, quality, diversity, and relevance.
The ISTC 789 collection development evaluation addressed standard 5:1 Collections through a
focus on acquiring high quality books for diverse readers. The list that I worked from was the
2016 Best Fiction for Young Adults from the ALA. As I went through the list, I looked up each
book to find at least two reviews. Each book that I chose for the list had to be recommended by
Booklist, Kirkus, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, or Horn Books. As I read the
books, I looked for age recommendations and why those recommendations were made. If a book
was on the borderline for middle school, perhaps eighth grade, I read a little more about the book
to determine whether it was still worth purchasing. The librarian at Edgewood Middle School
had mentioned that she was considering an eighth grade section, so those books were selected for
that category only. The books chosen had diverse characters from different ethnic groups, races,
and time periods. The books covered many contemporary topics such as anti-Semitism, mental
illness, body image, racism, and death.
The ISTC 789 weeding project addressed standard 5:1 Collections by using media standards to
evaluate the 600 collection. The books were reviewed according to their publish date and
appearance. Books with a publish date of over 10 years were reviewed for current information,
physical appearance, and value to the collection. One set of books were considered for disposal
but due to their bi-lingual content, they remain in the collection. Knowledge of the students

interest and curriculum needs were considered as well. The media specialist was helpful in
sharing her knowledge of the students and various curriculums with me when a book was being
considered for disposal.
Analysis
The creation of these artifacts allowed me the opportunity to use the collection skills that I
learned in the program in a school library setting. Knowing the students that will be using the
collection is an important part of the process and using the media standards to evaluate books for
the collection ensures high quality.
The collection project for the librarian at Edgewood Middle School for the ISTC 789 class was
useful for both my professional development and the school librarian. She had been tasked with
spending a budget on new books for the following year and had recommended book lists that she
needed to sort through to evaluate books for next years middle school readers. Ms. Gorman, the
librarian, told me that I had done a good job with the evaluation and that she had used my
suggestions for her book order. When I am a school librarian, I will be sure to look at the ALA
website to find lists for book selections over the summer which will give me the time to create a
draft list for the following year. The amount of the budget and the student population will
require me to revise the list as needed.
The weeding project at Deerfield Elementary School for the ISTC 789 class was an excellent
way to get to know the collection. In order to make good decisions, I needed to study the
collection list to look for the dates of publication and then find the books in the collection to
ascertain their relevance and physical condition. When speaking with the librarian, Ms. Minton,
about the books that I had pulled, I learned about the needs and interests of the students and then
we made a joint decision on whether to keep or discard the books. This project will be a very
important step in getting to know my own library collection. It was invaluable and I will put
weeding at the top of my list when I have my own library. I learned so much about the collection
and was then able to direct students and teachers to the books that they needed.