Dear SLIA: On the Depth and Breadth of a School Library's Collection

A year ago, more or less, an interesting query started out on the Facebook Page of librarians from IB schools worldwide. The question grapples with the evaluation criteria for collection development in schools, especially the ones who are running the IB program. The question came from Ms. Mikee Chan and with her permission, I am putting out our extended conversation on chat regarding the matter.

Mikee Chan (MC): Hi Ms Zarah, I was the one who posted in IB Librarian group regarding the distribution of books in each area. If you can remember me, I was Raya School's Junior High School Librarian. I am using the DDC % rate attached in DepEd School Library Guidelines and from what I have understood, our collection should grow based on the recommended growth rate. For example if we have 500 books in the 100s for this school year we will need to add 5 book next school year since the recommended growth rate for 100s is 1%. And I am still actually confused on how am I going to deselect the books using the recommendation by DepEd though I have established basic standards/guidelines when it comes to weeding which are 1. Timeliness of the book -- I am following the 10 year rule for STEM 2. Physical look (if the book is already worn out, damaged, etc.)

ZarahG: Yes. And you can also use it (the DDC standards) as the baseline or mean for each division. that's the standard. A DDC division can go below or beyond the percentage. Also, a balanced collection is not the norm in the IB Library. IB authorization visitors would look for depth and breadth of a collection. This is what I am grappling with because, for a student population of 110 plus, we have a total book collection of 9000 titles. And in the last IB authorization visit, the authorization officers told me that we need to grow the collection further. And this makes sense because we run the MYP and the DP, programs that put great value on collaboration and inter disciplinary studies.

MC: So does that mean that we cannot say that "oh I have too much books in this certain area and I lack in this other area". I am new to my work and right now I am trying to figure out the gaps in our non fiction collection and I am thought looking at the distribution of non fiction across different areas is a good step.

ZG: Your collection analysis can always inform you of the numbers. And if you subscribe to a library management system, it will compute the numbers for you. This data can serve you in reporting and in meeting the quantitative standard. But where is the reader in all of in this? Start asking the questions how does my collection reflect the school curriculum? How does my collection support the learning needs of the community?

MC: I am trying to look if we need to add more books in certain subject area specifically in our 600s coz the number of books in the 600 is only half of the 700s.And if we also need to update the STEM books

ZG: What informs your decision to add titles other than statistics and standards? Of course you will have to update the sciences. Once you have met the standard % management of the collection should no longer be a numbers game but a knowledge management issue. Use the curriculum to analyze the content of the collection.

Any thought you wish to share on the discussion? It will add to the growing practice on collection development and programing. Type in the comment space or send me an email. This is how we learn online.