Why collection development will be benefited from librarians’ life long learning

My roles, as other information professionals, as Hirsh wrote “to serve and transform their community (Hirsh, 2018, P. 6). This means with the rapid development of technology and demand of patrons becomes diversity than before, our career success rests upon how well we help our users to adapt to new technology, how easily our users access to technology and information and how creatively the learning space and learning opportunity provide to users motivate and engage them with technology and information. Therefore we need to be technology hub of our organization and community (Hirsh, 2018, p. 9). Once we offered those services, shall we stop here?

As Hirsh argued the library professionals should keep on life long learning to keep their knowledge and skills most updated and relevant to their profession. What’s more, she encourages library professionals to be global information professional via actively interact and exchange ideals through global network to get insight new emerging trend, be aware of the issues and concerns aroused from the trend and the best practice to effectively adopt the change and technology integration to organizations. The new trend not only helps information professional survive but also being a driving force leading the trend. (Hirsh, 2018, p. 5-12).Why do we need to be a leading force? The proliferation of AI makes robots can perform many of our duties. The robots may function better than human on those tasks. One thing Robots could not replace us is they are lacking of ability of thinking. This is why we must keep on learning and establish global network, which helps us know more, understand more and able to think beyond what we have been seeing. The kind of ability makes us live better and constantly and promptly provide service that satisfy the needs of our library users.

However, from case study <Using a Shared Leadership Model to transition to a new ILS & Discovery Service> (Van, 2015), we learned simply relying on library professional’s own lifelong learning and motivation being a global information professional cannot guarantee the successful completion of adapt to change. Effective leadership and adequate and right resource provision must be included (Rudasill, 2015, p. 153).

References:

Hirsh, S. (2018) Information services today: an introduction Secondary, (Ed., pp. 1-16). MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Rudasill, L.M., 2015. The IFLA Trend Report: Looking Beyond the Walls in Library Planning. Journal of Library Administration, 55(2), pp.1–12.

Van Kampen-Breit, D. et al., 2015. Using a Shared Leadership Model to Transition to a New ILS & Discovery Service: A Case Study. Library Leadership & Management (Online), 30(2), pp.C1–C12.

Young Adult Use of Ebooks

Gray, R. & Howard, V. (2017, May 11). Young adults use of ebooks: An analysis of public library services and resources. Public Library Quarterly 36(3). Retreived from https://doi-org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/10.1080/01616846.2017.1316149

In their survey of teen / young adult librarians across North America, Robyn Gray and Vivian Howard found that most librarians believe there is little to no interest in ebooks among the teen patrons they service at their libraries. However, these authors believe that the programming and promotion of ebooks is being done all wrong. Instead of focusing on advertising the titles and procedures for using the ebooks, libraries should be informing teenagers of the benefits of reading an ebook. Many teenagers are self-conscious about the types of books they read, or their reading level. By reading ebooks they can have more privacy, since their peers are not able to see the books they are reading. There are many advantages, and many disadvantages, to reading ebooks discussed in the books. However, one advantage that I can think of is the ability for students to immediately search for the definition of a word they do not understand, assisting in their vocabulary development and reading comprehension. There are many reasons that teenagers should have the option of ebooks in their accessible library collections.

Lisa Houde's Serving LGBTQ Teens: A Practical Guide for Librarians (2018)

Houde, L. (2018). Serving LGBTQ teens: A practical guide for librarians (35-53). New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield.
   
    Houde’s (2018) text is a great resource for anyone looking to serve LGBTQ teens; chapter 4, in particular, concentrates on the collection - first reviewing the history of LGBTQ lit, discussing concerns some librarians may have when considering titles for this group, as well as tips on assessing and maintaining the collection.
    For anyone selecting titles for YA, there has been a noticeable surge in LGBTQ titles in the last 10-15 years: answering Houde’s (2018) subtitle for this chapter - “Will they find themselves at the library?” (p. 35) - the answer is, ‘More likely now than before.’ As Houde explains, LGBTQ titles went from only 40 titles in the 80s, to still only 75 titles in the 90s, to 493 titles in the first decade of the 2000s (Houde, citing Cart & Jenkin’s 2015 work). While this certainly is an improvement, selectors need to be mindful of the many identities that exist within this group, and titles that someone who is transgender, intersex, or bisexual can relate to may be harder to find, but not impossible.
    Houde addresses the many concerns that librarians may have when selecting LGBTQ titles. Houde (2018) is clear: “There are truly no defensible reasons to exclude LGBTQ materials from any library collection” (p. 39), but nonetheless discusses them (paraphrasing Gough & Greenblatt’s 1990 work) - in part to put these excuses to rest, in part to encourage those who feel intimidated by the possible backlash. Here are a few:
Gay People Don’t Live in My Community
Citing 2014 and 2016 statistics, Houde notes that those who identify as LGBTQ increased from 3.4 percent to 4.1 percent; Houde adds that sites like Wikipedia show that, state by state, “there are LGBTQ people in every library community” and that Gough’s work “points out that there are certainly LGBTQ people living in towns that are large enough to support a public library” (p. 39).
Gay People Don’t Seem to Use My Library
Naturally following is the belief that those who do identify as LGBTQ don’t even frequent your library. Houde notes the obvious dangers of trying to identify who is LGBTQ; internal statistics may not show who is a part of this group, as members may not indicate who they are but nonetheless use the materials.
I Don’t Feel Qualified to Order These Materials
This “problem” allows Houde (2018) to be the most encouraging: “Gough states here that no librarian is uniquely qualified to order books about any given topic; they are by no means experts in every topic about which they have to order materials” (p. 40). There are tools that can be used to select materials for any group, tools readily available to the librarian that wishes to surpass excuses that have stifled the collection. 
I’m Uncomfortable with What Some of These Materials Are About / That Stuff Doesn’t Belong in Libraries—at Least Not in My Library / I Don’t Approve of Homosexuality or Homosexuals
Houde (2018) makes the role of the librarian clear:  “Librarians are trained to refrain from passing moral judgments on an item when evaluating its other aspects (the item’s level of technical difficulty, currency, price, etc.)” ( citing Gough and Greenblatt (1990, p. 8), p. 40), adding that librarians have an obligation to “not permit what may be their own personal perspectives, and even distaste, of library materials to interfere with equitable collection development for all groups” (p. 40).

ALA's Web Resources and Wiki

ALA. (2019, June 26). Resources for Library Collections. Retrieved May 10, 2020, from http://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/collect

§  ALA’s collection development resources published on their website

o   Dated but useful

§  Most recent articles appear to be 2015

o   Challenging librarians to assume more risk

§ http://www.ala.org/alcts/sites/ala.org.alcts/files/content/resources/papers/risk_ogburn.pdf

§  Challenges libraries to assume more risk to keep up with tech and connect with patrons

ALA. (2014, August 6). Collection Development Wiki. Retrieved May 10, 2020, from https://wikis.ala.org/professionaltips/index.php?title=Collection_Development

§  ALA wiki with resources on collection development

§  Once again dated, but a great web 2.0 idea

§  Useful resources and links still here

o   General Guidelines

o   Collection Development Policy Examples

o   Tips on collaboration with community

o   Tips on ciriculum development

o   Guideline for reference collections

I wanted to share these resources as I found it very interesting the way that ALA is handling sharing information on this subject. The first thing of note, is there are a plethora of useful resources here for all level of collection development. The second thing I like about these resources is the choice to hare these online, and create a Web2.0 functional wiki page to encourage collaboration from librarians in sharing what they know about the subject. This is where the good aspects of this service end, as both of these resources have not been updated for the last five years or so. Something I see too often in every industry, an overzealous attempt to create social media accounts, websites, or Web2.0 features, and then let them die from some combination of a lack of regular updates and content, a lack of marketing, or someone leaving and having he account go dark. I wanted to share these resources as there is good stuff here, but also as a warning on how not to handle collaborative content like this.

Collection Development Policies in Public Libraries in Australia

Kelly, M. (2015) Collection Development Policies in Public Libraries in Australia: A Qualitative Content Analysis, Public Library Quarterly, 34:1, 44-62, DOI: 10.1080/01616846.2015.1000783

§  Analyzes how sections are made by looking at

o   Criteria in use

o   How selections are explained by the library

o   Why some libraries have seemingly better sections than others

§  Only 7 of 24 studied libraries had published collection policies

§  6 main findings

o   Selection Methodology

o   Planning a Budgeting

o   Collection Scope and Depth

o   Professional Judgement

o   Discerning Material Standards

o   Balancing Collection Priorities with popular demand

o   Equity and Inclusion

§  Article ultimately finds too much focus on professional judgement and argues more guiding principals need to be established to replace a portion of the Professional Judgement

Part of what I found interesting and worth sharing about this article was its assessment that too many of the libraries studied in this report rely on professional judgement as one of the primary means of acquisition. With my prior career as a graphic designer, and my training in design thinking, I have found that often a professional outlook on the community or organization they are working for is skewed and can miss some of the important needs of the patrons. Focusing on collaboration with the community as well as data driven decisions is the only way to ensure a collection, or any project for that matter, meets the needs and expectations on users. I think this article did an excellent job at making its points by analyzing the collection development policies of the libraries studied and each of their relative success based of their approaches.

A Case for Popular Culture in Academic Library Collection Development

Blick, W. M. (2015) Pulp Poets and Superhero Prophets: A Case for Popular Culture in Academic Library Collection Development. Community & Junior College Libraries, 21:1-2, 5-10, DOI: 10.1080/02763915.2015.1111069

Notes on the article:

·        Argues for popular culture materials in academic libraries

o   Not for leisure purposes

o   For sociological and relevant issues

o   Keeps students interested by learning through medium they like

§  Maus + Watchmen referenced

o   Find balance between functionality and diversity

§  Argues academic libraries focus to much on functionality rather than diversity

I found this article particularly interesting as the literary and sociological importance of non-traditional media is a particular interest to me. The article specifically argues that materials like comic books, graphic novels, film, and music can be of importance for academic collections for popular culture references. I posit that this can takes a step further and that video games and manga can be analyzed for similar purposes, but it is nice to see this process being discussed on an academic level.

I think this article did an excellent job justifying its case for these types of materials in academic library collections. Part of its justification was that Academic libraries tend to focus too much on functionality rather that diversity.

Manning, Laura

SPRING 2020

Early Literacy

Roach, E. (2019, May 23). Education in Mexico. WENR. https://wenr.wes.org/2019/05/education-in-mexico-2. https://wenr.wes.org/2019/05/education-in-mexico-2

"First published in 1987, World Education News & Reviews (WENR)
is an authoritative news and information source for professionals in international education.
Published 10 times a year by World Education Services, a not-for-profit organization
specializing in the evaluation of foreign academic credentials, WENR keeps readers
abreast of education developments around the world and includes practical “how-to”
articles on credential evaluation, international admissions, and recruiting."
From their Website:
https://wenr.wes.org/

I found this 32-page article written/posted by Eric Roach to be very enlightening about
the politics of the Mexican education system. It helps us to understand the
differences and barriers to education in Mexico.
For the purpose of my research, I focused on ages 3-9 years old.

"Since 2008/09 academic year, all Mexican children are required by law to attend three years of early childhood education beginning at age three." This has resulted in 72 percent of Mexican children having a public preschool education nationwide an increase of 42 percent in six years.

Public libraries are not an integrated part of Mexican culture. Children's reading rooms are available. They are collections of children's book for onsite use only. Mexico City has some big collections, IBBY for example, yet they are not local library systems. What a luxury a local

Library is!

Supporting Early Literacy in Mexico by teachers and parents is tricky. Books are expensive here. There are not a lot of options for used picture books. And the beliefs around early reading vary widely. Oral language and storytelling is traditionally how Mexicans teach their children. In classrooms presentations are created at an early age. I believe the answer is to create online public libraries for Mexican children. This would support their reading learning in an age when being literate is more important than ever. It could also support indigenous languages by keeping their stories for future generations.