3.++Collection+Evaluation+and+Report

 Introduction: As stated in all of the reading we did for this theme, evaluating a collection is both time consuming and valuable. It offers Library Media Specialists a data-supported view of their collection, as well as a visual tool that can be used to support library programs and policies. Because my evaluation looked at statistics and data related to "items" in our library collection and not at the on-line research that students and staff do, I was not surprised at the results. Bishop (2007) lists five barriers to evaluation as identified by Baker and Lancaster (1991). I felt that all five of these barriers applied to me, especially "fear [of] the results", "lack [of] experience with or knowledge about collecting and analyzing empirical data" and "uncertainty about what to do with the results". I generated report after report, counted lists and sign-up sheets, scanned shelves, searched the catalogue, and asked questions, many of them more than once. My conclusions? I have a lot to learn**.** Students do not sign out non-fiction books. And, the Alexandria system our library uses is very user-friendly.

For my collection evaluation, I looked at the entire collection for some general data, and then at the following sections as they related to the curriculum area I am reviewing, Social Studies 10.
 * section 970 (History of North America)
 * section 971 (Canada)
 * the 320's (Political Science)
 * the 920's (Biography)
 * DVD's - as they relate to the above sections
 * VIDEOS - as they relate to the above sections
 * REFERENCE - as they relate to the above sections

 Quantitative Data: The Hope Secondary Library uses Alexandria v5.5.0 to manage the library resources. The current librarian was very supportive of my "exploratory" approach to generating reports and learning the system. He gave me full access to generate and print reports as I wished. He said that he does not generate reports as he has not been asked, nor has he felt the need, for at least the last 10 years. He does a full inventory every year but has not done a collection analysis or map.

Although I felt the system was user friendly, I had difficulty in creating reports that included everything within the parameters I wanted. For example, I could not get a report of the full 900 section of the library. For an unknown reason, it would only create a report that included 900-940. I even tried doing a second report for 940-998 (which I visually confirmed was the highest call number in this section), but the report would say "no records matching". I ended up doing a manual count from the "all items" list of the 900 section.

While doing these reports I also realized that the reports are only as good as the data that was inputted. I noticed errors in publication dates - I doubt we actually have books published in 1099, 1197 or 4500 - and book cost values were not entered. I also believe that the preferences were not completely re-set at the beginning of each year. When I attempted to generate usage reports I got numbers that made no sense. I finally was able to generate a report that leads me to believe these records are from 2005 to the present, suggesting it has not been re-set since then. I also struggled with fiction lists as they have not been consistently entered. Sometimes they are prefixed with "FIC" and sometimes the call number is just the first three letters of the author's last name.

Discrepancies also exist in the collection numbers. I could generate several different reports that said there were 10, 797 items in the collection, however, when I sorted the collection by the Dewey Decimal System class as well as DVD's, VID's, CD's, REF's, and FIC, I cam up 1503 items short. I reviewed the total item list to see if I had missed an abbreviation but could not see one. I did notice that there were approximately 23 items at the start of the "all items" list that showed as having no call number. The librarian could not help with an explanation for this and it still leaves 1480 items unknown.

I created over 35 reports in gathering data for my collection map. I have included 13 of these reports ** HERE **. In the interest of being environmentally friendly, I wrote information from many of the reports and then generated the collection map tables below. I still was not completely satisfied with the data as it was hard to have faith when many of the numbers just didn't "add up." This process definitely made me realize that much of my time next year, my first year in the library, will be spent getting the systems working for me. It is always difficult to follow someone whose organizational techniques differ from your own. I hope that I may be able to begin this process a bit in the spring and summer to help make September a smoother start-up.

Data

Qualitative Data: There were many things I wanted to know through my qualitative data analysis that I could not see by looking at the quantitative data. The statistics only give me numbers and don't account for the "humanness" of the library, and of teenagers for that matter. As the world and education become more technology focused do we still need books? (that is a tough question for me to even consider) And if we do still need books, why aren't our students using them? I knew that the numbers provided by our library system did not tell the true story. I knew our social studies teachers used the library and I had seen students using books. I was also questioning the accuracy of the reports in my quantitative data as I knew the numbers were not completely accurate. I spoke to the **teacher librarian**, the **Social Studies 10 teacher**, and **15 grade 10 students**, which represents 20% of the grade 10 social studies population at my school. I also spent several hours over the period of 2 weeks, browsing the shelves and making note of library usage during the day.

The teacher librarian was very helpful in this evaluation process. He too was interested in the results of the quantitative data and would then add qualitative information to explain the numbers on the reports. The most important element he felt is that the reports do not tell the story of library usage, and how students often use the books but do not sign them out. He said the fact that the 900 section is the largest in the non-fiction section is because, historically, social studies teachers and classes have used the collection the most. Students are told on assignments that they must use a "variety of sources" for their reports and that three web sites is not "variety." We then took out the file where he stores the library sign-out sheets**.** Although I was able to create a quantitative table to show the information found on these sheets (see chart in the "collection map" section), the process of getting that information was much more qualitative. We discussed what the classes were doing - was it just to use computers or was there an assignment involved - we considered Learning Assistance classes where grade 10 students may have been working on a social studies assignment, and we considered other classes, like History 12 or Comparative Civilizations, that may have used resources in the sections I am analyzing.
 * Teacher Librarian: **

Another important element the teacher librarian added, was his frustration at the students' outright refusal to use books. He says that he will often walk right up to them with a book that is on the exact topic they are researching and they will just ignore his recommendations. He says that even though teachers say they was a variety of sources in their students' work, the students still will only use the internet. He also adds that his concern extends to when they go to off to post-secondary schools and cannot do research. This was something I had not considered and something that someone in my discussion group also mentioned. Post-secondary institutions still rely on research that is not from "some web site." Even though we can find our articles and books on-line, they are still articles and books, and we have to know how to use them. This is definitely an area I am going to emphasize next year.

With specific respect to the Social Studies 10 areas of the library collection, the teacher librarian feels that we have a good collection. He and I both agreed that even though the average age of the books in these sections is in the mid-1980's, the resources are accurate and diverse. We both felt that this is partly because Social Studies 10 deals with an era of history that has not been challenged in the same way as, for example, the World War II era. This means that even though the book may have been published 20 years ago, it is not necessarily a bad book. We did discuss students attitudes towards "old" books and that they may not use them for that reason. He said that he agrees, but that he often has to weigh that against purchasing things like DVD's or on-line subscriptions that may get used more or that teachers have requested.

One area that we both agreed could be improved is our First Nations resources. We have a very strong First Nations community and a strong relationship through our Enhancement Agreements. There is also targeted funding for First Nations resources that may be available for our library. Last year our district received a grant to purchase First Nations resources for all of the schools. The teacher librarian said it was with much disappointment that he received a box of 22 books to add to our shelves. He said there was no discussion or consultation as to what we may need in our collection, and that unfortunately the resources that were purchased are very academic and more suitable for post-secondary studies. We looked over the selection and not one of the books has been checked out.

The teacher who is currently teaching the three blocks of Social Studies 10 at Hope Secondary is not the "regular" teacher who began the year teaching the class. The regular classroom teacher has been on a medical leave since the beginning of December and it is not known when or if he will return. This has made it difficult for the replacement teacher to plan her lessons and units as she does not know how long she will be working with the class. At this point, she is here until spring break and has decided to stop planning her lessons on a weekly basis and think more in terms of units, even if she will not be around for their completion. She is a beginning teacher who is social studies trained but has not had a continuing contract yet. She worked in our school last year for 3 months, also for a medical leave, and taught our First Nations 12 class. She is very familiar with the material and has a love of the subject.
 * Social Studies 10 Teacher: **

We decided to go through some of the resources together, beginning with the //Learning Resources: Grade Collection// provided by the Ministry of Education. She is currently using the //Horizons// textbook but is not aware if the other two texts are available in the school. I searched the library catalogue for all of the above resources, and only the four highlighted are in the collection. The Social Studies Department Head said she believes there are reading copies of the other two texts but we were unable to find them. (Hope Secondary does not have a centralized book storage room which creates some issues around finding and storing learning resources.) HSS uses the //Oxford School Atlas// for all its social studies classes and there are some other beautiful atlases in the library. The two items from the grade collection that the Social Studies 10 teacher was interested in are the //Historica Minutes// DVD, and the //Historica Radio Minutes// CD. We both thought this would make for for great lesson starters or interactive notebook responses as most kids are familiar with the Historica format.

The Social Studies 10 teacher says that in general she is pleased with the library's collection for her students. She admits that she does not encourage them to use books and she hopes that if she is here after spring break, that she can create an assignment or project that involves some research in the library. We had an interesting discussion about my and the current teacher librarian's concern that our students will not be prepared for post-secondary research. She agreed that she had to do a lot of traditional book and article research for her Bachelor of Arts degree and it can be frustrating if you are used to getting all of your information at the click of a mouse.

I was hoping to get some insight from the students as to why they do not use the library collection and what I could do to change that. Instead, I felt a bit like an old "fuddy duddy" trying to convince these "darn kids" that books are good and that this "internet thing" is not the only answer. (I swear I could hear my grandmother's voice as I spoke to them)
 * Students: **

None of the 15 students I spoke to had signed a book out of the library this year. In fact, they all thought they probably had never signed a book out but thought there may have been a chance for a couple of them with an English teacher in grade 8 who "made them" pick a novel for some silent reading.

The students said that they had used the books in the library for Social Studies 10 with the teacher they had at the beginning of the year. They were working on a year-long assignment that required them to complete annotated bibliographies of resources related to different areas of the curriculum. They said they didn't like "how long it took" because they had to find the book and then read parts of it (insert me rolling my eyes here). I asked them if they felt it was harder than searching the internet for the same information and they said it wasn't really harder, just not as fun - AHA! I asked if they feel they spend their internet research time wisely and most admitted that they did not. They would be looking up their "own" stuff while doing the research for class but when they were using the books, this was not possible. This made me consider plagiarism and most of the students agreed that it is easier to just "cut and paste" information from the internet, but they said they often write the information from a book word-for-word.

I met with the students in the library so we went over to the 970, 971 section to have a look. I asked them to grab a book that looked interesting to them. Most of them chose a book that had lots of visual images and was not divided into writing-heavy chapters. A couple did choose more academic books but said they would have chosen differently if they had more time to browse. I then asked them to pick a book that they thought they would not want to read or use. Most chose thick books with no visual images. Three of the students chose books that were torn or damaged. We then decided to see how long it took us to find a book on a topic they were currently studying, the Métis. They scanned the shelves and began choosing books. I was impressed that most of them, ten I believe, turned immediately to the index of the books they chose. Others read the back or quickly flipped through the pages. All of them were able to find a book that included information about the Métis in under three minutes. I think even they were surprised by this.

We then went to the computer with the library catalogue. They were all familiar with the program but most did not use it. They said that when they were doing their earlier Social Studies 10 assignment they would just go to the section of books, much like we did earlier, and browse until they found what they wanted. They said they also relied on friends to tell them where the "good" books were. When I showed them the catalogue they said things like "cool" and "wow, this would be great". One deterrent they mentioned to using the catalogue, is that they have to log on to the computer to use it and it just takes too long. They wondered if it might be possible to have one computer that is always logged on just for the library catalogue.

I spent quite a bit of time just standing in front of the shelves in the 970 and 971 sections. I tried to see what kids would see and realized they would walk away unless they had searched for a specific book and knew the call number. There are, on average, 30-35 books per shelf and because of the narrow depth of the shelves and the different shapes and sizes of the books themselves, they are very difficult to see. A couple of things stood out to me more than others; there are a lot of very "thin" books in this section and turning a book so that the spine is facing up instead of out because it is too tall for the shelf means that no one will even look at it (except teacher-librarian students who are curious). Noticing the "thin" books was my teenager eye. This would be important to a kid, regardless of how idiotic it is as criteria for selecting a book. Many of the thinner books also offered great images and easy to read sections that would appeal to the students. As an example, I pulled a book called //From the Atlantic to the Pacific: Canadian Expansion, 1867-1909// (2008). This book was part of a series called //How Canada Became Canada.// The book was nicely organized and the information was given in a succinct manner. I also liked the small size and simple table of contents and index. I looked up several key words from the Social Studies 10 curriculum and easily found references in the book. I pulled other books from the series and all were quality publications. Probably the only thing I didn't like was that the books were published in the United States. Unfortunately, none of these books had been signed out, EVER. I have no way of knowing if they were ever used in the library but it was sad to see that they had never left the room
 * Observations: **

Although the teacher-librarian and I agree that a quality resource does not have to be published in the last 5 or 10 years, and that much of the information from this period in Canada's history has gone unchanged, it became obvious that the books are dated and need some attention once I actually saw them on the shelf. It was fine to look at the quantitative data and say "What's wrong with the average age being 1981if the information is accurate?" It's a different story when you stand in front of the shelves and see yellowed pages, torn spines and even dated graphics and colours on covers.

In looking for specific topics as related to the Prescribed Learning Outcomes for Social Studies 10, I did not notice any obvious gaps in our collection while looking at the book shelves. I did feel that there are gaps with respect to visual resources and teacher resources. I would like to see more Historica material and resources for teachers.

I also did not like that the new First Nations resources were separate from the resources we already had in the library. I know this was done as a bit of P.R. when the books were first given to the school, but I think they can be added to the general collection now. It may be possible to add a book plate that gives some information about where the resource came from instead of having them on a shelf with a sign that says "New First Nations Resources".

 Collection Map: from //Evaluating, Selecting, and Managing Learning Resources: A Guide//, BC Ministry of Education: 1. Collection Mapping This involves analyzing the collection in three ways: i. as a base collection that serves a wide variety of interests and needs ii. as a collection that has large segments which serve broad curricular areas over and above the base collection e.g. Canadian History, Botany, English Literature iii. as a collection that serves particular units of study e.g. the Riel Rebellion, Conifers, Shakespeare

I felt that the number of items in our collection was strong and was actually surprised by this number. I found myself looking around trying to do the math in my head. The number of items however, does not compensate for the age of our collection. I think this is a real area for improvement.

Circulation numbers confirmed my fears. Students are not signing books out. Of the 73 items loaned to students 16 items are related to the Social Studies 10 targeted areas. 9 visual items (video and DVD) are loaned to staff in the targeted area, but only 1 of those staff members is teaching Social Studies 10. (the others teach First Nations Studies 12, English First Peoples 12, and Social Studies 9)



This was the one "map" of the collection that I find troublesome. I tried so many different reports and calculations but could not account for the 1503 items that don't show up in my individual reports. The current teacher librarian feels some of those items may be teacher resources but if they have a call number, why do they not show up? I believe that this is a problem created by inconsistent data entry over the past ten years. I am not sure how to fix this but it may be an on-going project for me beginning next year.



These numbers show that there are potentially 1159 items for use in this subject area. That means there are 2.9 items per student in the school and 15.25 items per Social Studies 10 student.

Although I had fun exploring the Alexandria catalogue available for student use on one computer in the library, I was skeptical of the results. For example, why would I get three books with "confederation" in the title, and then only one book with "confederation" as the subject? I think this is more evidence that the search feature is only as good as the data that was originally inputted about the resource.

Total Library usage by all classes = 187 of 416 possible class bookings. 124 of those are social studies, the other 63 classes were mostly English and planning. None of the classes booked in to use the library were science, math, physical education, art or industrial arts.

Summary: Although not necessarily surprised by the results of this evaluation, it did provide some focus for me as I plan for my transition into the role of teacher librarian. I feel fortunate that the retiring teacher librarian is so helpful and that he is encouraging the changes I am planning for the library. I saw many strengths and weaknesses in our library as a result of this assignment, which is both affirming and intimidating.

I believe the number of items in our collection is good considering the size of our school. I believe we have a good mix of fiction and non-fiction and that our visual resources are adequate and growing to reflect the visual nature of our students. The 900 section of the library seems especially strong, possibly reflecting its use, and the collaboration of the Social Studies Department with the teacher librarian.
 * Strengths: **

I also think the quality of the items in the sections I looked at is a strength. Although I saw aging books, the shelves were not in disarray and books did not fall apart in my hands. There is usual "wear and tear" that I think, in some cases can be mended or weeded.

The fact that the students I spoke to knew where the history section of the library is and that they knew about the computer catalogue was a relief to me, and a sign that they are getting these lessons either from the librarian or their classroom teachers. It was also encouraging to see them know how to use the books and how to find the information they were seeking.

I think our district's commitment to our First Nations people is a strength and despite the error in selecting resources for our library, the intentions were good. I would like to expand this by honouring these resources in a way that does not segregate them from the rest of the collection.

The most important improvement that I would like to see made is the quality and consistency of the data being inputted into our library system. I'm not sure if past errors can be corrected, or if that would just be too large of a task, but I definitely plan on being more detailed and accurate with new resources once I begin working in the library. Having a gaping 1500 items that cannot easily be accounted for is not acceptable. I'm sure that once I compare a complete listing of the "items" listed in our system, I will find those "missing" items, but the question remains, why don't they come up in the reports for each category?
 * Areas for Improvement & Recommendations: **

Another area for improvement is the visual impact of the resources in our collection. I would like to find a better way for the books to "live" on the shelves so that they can be viewed easier. I have been looking at photos of other libraries and like how most try to keep all the spines of the books to the edge of the shelf. I'm not sure if the shelf depth in our library will allow this, but it is something I want to experiment with. This also relates to better promotion of our materials. The library need better signage. The walls are blank and there is nothing hanging from the ceiling. I can already envision arrows hanging over the 970's "Social Studies 10: LOOK HERE!"

I would also like to see the average age of our collection improve. My goal will be to get the average age into the 1990's and then go from there. I do not believe a collection has to be only 5 years old, that would be unrealistic and would negate many valuable publications. I think just weeding the Video section of our collection may accomplish this task.

The library catalogue needs to be more accessible. I would like to see a dedicated computer for the library catalogue that is logged on all the time. I believe this will encourage students to use the catalogue and it will make it easier for me, as the librarian, to show them how to search for their own resources.

I would like to somehow incorporate non-fiction options into the history sections of the library. I don't think it is necessary for the social studies teachers to do literature lessons as part of their units (although that would be nice), but I could promote non-fiction books that are related to the time period. A display of Lucy Maud Montgomery or Susanna Moodie (who unfortunately, we do not have in our library, but I have in my personal library), or even Pierre Burton who writes about Canada's history could give students another option for pleasure reading or an interesting project/essay idea. I think students need to see more of the connections between the disciplines. This could also apply to science resources - things that were discovered or invented during the period in history being studied. I see lots of opportunities for cross curricular integration, something that has not been done in our library.

Reflection: Although I was initially very intimidated by this assignment, and overwhelmed by the steps I needed to take to get the information I wanted, the end result was rewarding. I am a very reflective learner and found myself making notes about things I want to try or do next year, as I was going through this process.

Probably the most important thing I learned through this process is how to use the Alexandria system used in our library. I feel confident running reports and checking for resources. I found the program to be very user friendly but only as good as the data it is provided. Hopefully I can change this next year.

Looking at the shelves really had me thinking about the physical space of our library and how it is organized. I know there is a better way to do this and am hoping to enlist the help of my cousin who does all of the office planning and ergonomics for the Ministry of Forests. I am hoping she will be able to give me some advice about flow and visibility that will help make our collection more accessible. I think that reconfiguring the fiction section of the library will be important in this process. Currently, fiction is spread into four parts of the library and in some cases, shares shelf space with non-fiction. There is also no comfortable place to read in the library. Fiction will bring the kids in, and then hopefully they will become more familiar and comfortable, and start using the non-fiction more.

The phrase that kept running through my head during this process is "there has to be a better way". There has to be a better way to get the reports I want; there has to be a better way to get kids to use the books; there has to be a better way to involve staff in the selection of items for the library; there has to be a better way promote our materials and library in general. My plan is to tackle one thing at a time and find a "better way".

I also realized how knowledgeable and caring our current teacher librarian is. He started at Hope Secondary a year before I did after several years in other schools. Although he has become our school-based technology expert, he is a true lover of books and provided some thought provoking insight for me in this process. I am especially grateful for his complete faith in me. At times I am concerned that I am stepping on his toes and pushing him out the door before he is done but he has made me feel nothing but welcome.

While researching for this assignment I spent most of my prep and lunch times in the library. I cannot remember how many people came up to me, staff and students, and said "you look good in here". It was a good feeling to know that others are as excited about my move to the library as I am. After 18 years in the classroom I am excited for this new "adventure" and this assignment, while difficult, confirmed for me that this will be a good move.