Lesson 4 reflection, Collection Development Policy

In our School District we do not have much of a formal collection development policy so I was very interested in looking through the different policies. The online sites, and the reference materials in the Course Material package, along with the ministry guidelines, are great resources in developing a collection policy. Many TLs have done one for individual schools in the district, but very few have anything online. I think a collection policy is a necessary and valuable resource for a school library as it gives a master that drives the purpose and direction of the collection. Policy also helps in assessment of the collection, minimizes personal bias, and gives documentation for the TL to defend the collection against. I decided to look at Westwood Elementary. I liked the layout and simple summary for an online document. For more info check out my discussion posting. Another great resource suggested by classmates is the Surrey District online policy handbook. This site gave me an idea of what a District policy should look like.

I also saw the need for a collection development policy while writing my review of four articles for Assignment #2. After reading these articles I understand that online resource use is a necessary and valuable tool in developing intellectual freedom and information literacy. Inquiry Learning and intellectual freedom dictate the use of multiple resources and formats. That includes electronic materials or online resources. If intellectual freedom is the right to different points of view and voices, this also means intellectual freedom dictates different formats and ways of learning information. We can not ignore online resources when a great majority of our students use this resource everyday and are accustomed to acquiring information through the Internet. However, the Internet is a highly unregulated body of information that we need to monitor. The construction of an online resource collection development policy will help us to provide the school community with stable, quality, valid information.

This is especially important when having an online library page connecting the community to your school. It is essential that your resources be valid and defendable. An online connection makes your SLRC very public and thus open to criticism. It is essential to have a development policy not only for physical materials, but for virtual materials, in order to protect yourself and school, along with giving guidance in resource selections that are of quality for your users.