"Juvenile collection in an academic library"

   Liebau-Nelsen, Catherine

Shipman, T., Schmidt, G., & Bannon, S. (2013). Juvenile collection in an academic library. In Holder, S. (Ed.), Library collection development for professional programs: Trends and best practices (209-228). Hershey, Pa.: Information Science Reference.

Juvenile collections in academic libraries have various purposes and are placed in different positions throughout the library. While some may have their own collection development policies, others will fall under the umbrella CDP of the academic library. Some may have children's access policies and other will not. Some will have their own sections in the library and others won't. The type of juvenile collection and how it is treated within the academic library depend on the library, the collection itself, and the needs that it meets for its patrons; each should be treated as an individual collection that should not be restricted by others like it (which is the main purpose of the chapter). While there are variations of all sorts among juvenile collections in academic libraries, there are some aspects that they mostly have in common: the purpose for these collections will probably be to support education learning or as a source of study for social sciences. One thing is for certain: juvenile collections have become increasingly more important because of the level of importance that western culture has placed upon literature. The chapter discusses the different factors (such as age and genre), different forms (such as print and audiobooks), and ways to find good resources for acquisition (such as awards and book lists).

This chapter was extremely interesting to me because I studied a children's and young adult collection this semester for all of the projects. There were many things that I recognized from the article that I learned throughout the semester while studying the collection, so it was (in a way) validating to realize how much I learned from a collection that is (in many ways) sub par. The chapter includes many lists that both help and hinder the reading experience; they were clearly written, but it was difficult not to skip to the next bullet point because of its form. Still, for as long as it was, the chapter was written in a way that made sense sequentially. Out of all of the readings from this semester, I found this the most relevant to my research and the most interesting in general.

Overcoming the Obstacle Course: Teenage Boys and Reading

Overcoming the Obstacle Course: Teenage Boys and Reading

Jones, P., & Fiorelli, D. C. (2003). Overcoming the Obstacle Course: Teenage Boys and Reading. Teacher Librarian, 30(3), 9.

This article addresses the difficulty of reading among teenage boys in the U.S. Jones and Fiorelli summarize the current research that explains the reading and non-reading habits of boys. In it, they list suggestions about the following topics:

• What boys see as obstacles

• What the teacher-librarian can do

• Building a guy-friendly collection 

• Twenty great fiction books for grade 7 boys

• And a collection of success stories from teacher-librarians. 

• They also provide references to 30 sources where we can delve deeper into this topic. 

Evaluation: The issue of boys not reading is one that has been troubling me and should be one that all secondary teacher librarians should be addressing. This resource provides valuable information that can kickstart a librarian's effort to increase readership of adolescent boys. This allows us to take immediate action.

Juvenile science collections of public libraries

Tracy, Anna

INFO 266, Fall 2016

Juvenile science collections of public libraries

This article posed 6 questions to determine the differences and similarities between three public libraries within the same county but that have varying demographics and locations from a rural, suburban and urban. The proportion of J 500s to overall nonfiction were looked at, as well as the type and caliber of science materials offered at these three different locations. A good portion of this article discusses the importance of nonfiction, not only for school work but for leisure reading and how different libraries do their nonfiction selection and weeding.

I chose this article because it sounded similar to what sections I had chosen for our collection mapping project. Just as I mentioned in my infographic, this article relates the importance of nonfiction science sections to schools and the natural relationship between schools and public libraries in offering a valued service to their community. It suggested a partnership with local science teachers to bridge the gap in knowledge for librarians who, more than likely, do not have a scientific background, to cease any discomfort in lack of knowledge and the ability to order effectively.

Approximately 20% percent of the three libraries nonfiction sections was dedicated to Science. I thought this was interesting considering 20.02% of my nonfiction collection is dedicated to STEAM materials which I consider to be too low, given their high circulating nature.

Colom, H. M. (2010). Juvenile Science Nonfiction: A Comparison of the Collections of a Rural, a Suburban, and an Urban Public Library. Current Studies In Librarianship, 30(1/2), 79-94.