Mrs. Houston is excited about creating a diverse library collection at Twin Ridge Elementary School. In order to do that, an action research project must be conducted. Purchasing decisions are often made based on the results of the action research project. To take a look at the diversifying the library collection action research project created for FCPS' Valley Elementary School in Jefferson, MD click here.
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Selecting diverse books are often be met with much controversy. Why does Mrs. Houston believe that all students have the right to see themselves represented in the library collection? Click here to access a video to better understand the power of representation in literature.
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The books arrive to the library media center with barcodes and call numbers already placed on them by the vendor. All vendors have a barcode range that they are to use when creating barcodes for the collection. It is important that the barcode ranges do not overlap. All cataloging and processing occurs in the Media Services office before the books arrive from the vendor. When the new books arrive, Mrs. Houston scans each book and determines how the nonfiction books and fiction books are genrefied within the collection. She utilizes a dropdown menu and selects the correct genre that best reflects the book. It is possible to see where other Library Media Specialists in the county have placed the book in their collection.
If a book comes from an untraditional route (i.e. is donated), Mrs. Houston has barcodes she can affix to the book. She can also create her own call number label. She manually enters the barcode into the The Library Solutions software, scans the item, and decides where in the collection the book will be genrefied. |