There's a policy for that...

Well, I have taken a bit of a break from blogging for my course. I thought I would continue on with my sharing my thoughts to anyone who is brave enough to read them! The new format will be less formal than previous posts, but I will be speaking from experience and shooting straight from the hip with my posts.

So, this entry is dedicated to the Library Policy and Procedure manual that I have created for my own school library.

Once upon a time (about two and a half years ago to be more exact) several school divisions became one large division. Now there is one huge division, that has many, many schools under its umbrella. This new division doesn't have a library policy- yet!! So, as a little project for myself I decided to make my own policy and procedure manual.

You may ask why I need to have a policy, so I will answer that with the following quote from the American Library Association:

Every school system should have a comprehensive policy on the selection of instructional materials. It should relate to and include all materials; for example, textbooks, library books, periodicals, films, videocassettes, records, audiocassettes, and CDs. The reason should be obvious: haphazard patterns of acquisition will result in waste because some—perhaps many—materials will overlap in content, or will be unrelated to changing patterns of instruction.

A comprehensive policy on the selection of instructional materials also will enable school professionals to rationally explain the school program to the community. And, most important in a crisis, when there are complaints about social studies texts, human development materials in the media center, or fiction in the English class, the use of the “objectionable” item can be explained more easily.

A good policy on the selection of instructional materials will be relevant to your particular system and include basic sections on objectives, responsibility, criteria, procedures for selection, reconsideration of materials, and policies on controversial materials.

I think it answers the question about why very nicely. I also wanted a way to be able to say to people- "yes, this is how I select material, delete material, etc." I have been asked that and now I will be able to refer them to my document. I also thought it would be a great idea to have some kind of procedure in place for challenged material. The previous librarian told me that she has never had anyone challenge material before, but knowing my luck, someone would challenge a book and I would have little or no recourse to fall back on. I do now!

I have "borrowed" heavily from the old document that the "legacy" division had in place. It is still applicable and it seems to make sense.

I've told the powers that be and now a couple of division people have the policy and are looking at it. Hopefully, there will be a division policy soon and I hope that I can help them with it!

That's what I think about library policies (for now!)...

Katie