"Let's Do It!' - A New Approach to Collection Development

Anna Fenerty

Citation

Loertscher, D. V., & Koechlin, C. (2016). Collection Development and Collaborative Connection Development: Or, Curation2. Teacher Librarian, 43(4), 52–53.

Summary

The authors, Loertscher and Koechlin, discuss the progress of implementing Learning Commons in the school libraries and offer a list of tools and templates to help the librarians make the transitions. In 2015, the authors conducted a survey of 900 teacher librarians, which showed some progress in connection developments since most schools were shifting from exclusively traditional book and database collections by adding online resources. On the other hand, shifting from one-way library websites to participatory virtual spaces was still in the very beginning stages in most of the schools surveyed. The authors suggest approaching collection development with a new attitude; WE, librarians, teachers, and students have a collective responsibility “to curate the very best educational resources” together. All need to pitch in at the building, district, state, and national level to develop connections to community resources and OERs that benefit everyone involved.

Evaluation

A relevant and inspiring article that shows the current state of digital collections and trends in school libraries. The authors offer “hands-on” advice, tools, and templates to help school librarians transition into a leadership role to “mentor collaborative curation” of connections and participatory resources instead of building collections of “owned” resources that are constricted by individual and finicky budgets. Everyone can benefit from connected participatory collections. So, “Let’s do it!”