Collection Evaluation Report

Resource Evaluation Report:

Curriculum: Socials Studies Grade: 1

Theme: Community

A TitalWise digital analysis of the South Meridian Elementary LLC collection was conducted by Learning Resource Services on September 25, 2018.  The purpose for the analysis was to collect some general information about the entire collection to help with planning needs moving forward, and to gain more specific information about a subset within the collection: grade 1 community.  This subset is integral to curriculum instruction and directly connects to the Big Ideas about community roles and responsibilities, healthy diversity and environmentalimpact.  The South Meridian collection has an average age from 2002 with a total of 11 389 items which works out to 29 items per student.  Provided in the report is a breakdown or collection mapping which shows the Social Sciences section (300’s) having an overall age from 1997.  The Technology section (600’s) has a more current general age from 2002.  The subset of resources that have been evaluated in this report reside in the 300’s, 600’s, easy fiction and online digital resources. 

Titalwise Collection Quantitative Analysis

Collection Mapping

The subset collection for the Grade 1 Community theme, roughly consists of 11 picture books, 33 nonfiction texts, 189 Learn 360 videos and 1 National Geographic Video.    The TitalWise report collects quantitative data only for the print items and not digital content.  The report shows that the currency of this subset dates between 2005-2018, which is more current that the overall collection.  The picture books and nonfiction texts are all in excellent physical condition.  These texts have many relevant photographs, pictures, and include multiple nonfiction text features that support reading comprehension.  Many resources included additional features to support instruction with extra activities and links to promote further learning opportunities. 

As far as can be determined the collection is being used by classroom teachers.   While evaluating this subset, there is no information to indicate how resources are being used in the classrooms, only that teachers were the patrons to have signed out the materials in recent years.  Some resources had high circulation statistics, but the majority of the subset circulated very little to not at all.  This collection is being accessed only by teachers because the texts reside in a separate resource room at the back of the LLC. 

In order to understand possible student interaction with these resources, a survey was conducted with new grade two students, who were last year’s grade one students.  They were asked to explore the resources in partners and to answer four questions.

1.  
       Did they remember reading the books in the classroom either with the teacher or independently last year?

Most students did not remember or were not sure.

2.    
    Were they able to read some of the text and/or understand information based on the pictures and nonfiction text features?

Most students had difficulty reading these texts but could understand information being given in the photographs, pictures and some nonfiction text features.

What did they learn from the book?
 This question was too difficult or general for them to answer and most students     gave a one-word response, such as “farms”.

3.    
     Do you think this book should remain in the collection for the new Grade ones to use this year?

More than half of the students felt that these texts were too difficult for the new grade one class this year.

While most of the content in the subset is current and relevant to the school population, the reading levels were generally too difficult for these students to read independently.   This shows that these resources need to be used during instruction for optimal student comprehension. 

Evaluation Reubric created with ERAC Learning Resource Evaluation Guidelines

Evaluation Criteria was taken from the 2008 ERAC Learning Resource Evaluation Guidelines and was made into a rubric to create a basis for evaluation which is seen above.  After using this Evaluation Rubric to assess each resource in the subset, an excel spreadsheet was created to capture the data that reflects the subset as a whole.  The rubric had a total of 28 points per resource and the results tabulated a variation in scores ranging from a perfect 28 (Learn 360 video content) to a low 9 (dated picture book). 

A handful of resources need to be weeded and more current options made available.  For example, Farming the Land: Modern Farmers and Their Machines 1987 by Jerry Bushy received a 9/28 on the resource evaluation rubric which was the lowest score of this subset.  Farming still plays a role as an industry for the community, but not to the level with which it did in previous years.  This book doesn’t accurately reflect the ethnicities of those involved in surrounding farming communities, unless looked at from an historical perspective, and therefore, it is no longer relevant to the collection. 

Students are experiencing life in this community that is not accurately reflected by many of the resources in the collection as a whole.  A book such as On Our Street: Our First Talk About Poverty 2018 by Jillian Roberts which scored 25/28 (only because it has not circulated yet), better reflects some of the current situations in the neighbourhood that students of this community are witnessing or are a part of.  Hillary Clinton’s It Takes a Village 2017, would make a valuable addition to this subset helping kids to understand that when people in communities come together, real change can be experienced.  Resources that explore community growth in industry and construction would also better serve this subset because of the extreme growth that is occurring nearby.

Recommendations to improve quality and circulation of these materials:

• Reorganize the subset locations to make more accessible to student patrons as well as for teachers
• Assign new Dewey classification numbers to keep these resources together rather than spread out throughout the collection and resource room to prevent them from being missed.
• Weed resources scoring low on the evaluation rubric
• Purchase a set of resources about community helpers that highlights the roles and responsibilities of individual community workers (nurses, doctors, bus drivers, construction workers, teachers, business owners, farmers) and are an easier reading level for grade 1s to interact with these books more independently.
• Sit down with grade 1 teachers to make sure they have their login information and know how to access the digital resources in Learn 360, as the video content is very current and accessible to project in the classroom.
• Find access to other resources that can be made available to the students from outside the school such as community workers

In reflection of this evaluation process the TitalWave analysis was an excellent tool that helped provide concrete quantitative data, where qualitative data was less accurate in helping to support my findings.  I was able to look into the specific Dewey ranges that I needed and then compare the report to what was actually on the shelves.  One part of the report that I have yet to explore is where the analyses located gaps in the collection.  Qualitative findings will be more accurate after having spent a year in the position where I can more effectively observe how the resources are being used and who they are serving.  The analysis will act as a new baseline for future collection decisions that have to be made.   

It was difficult wrapping my head around what needed to be done, and how information needed to be synthesized in order to create this report.  It was very time consuming and I can’t see how I would be able to conduct other evaluations in this detail for every other subset of the collection.  I now have a larger understanding of general aspects of the collection as a whole, and a clearer understanding of how this part of the curriculum needs to be supported through resource-based instruction.  I found the rubric tool I created with the help of the ERAC guidelines very useful and will have these criteria in mind when making purchases or weeding in the near future. 

This project encouraged me to think about how and where things were organized and who was able to have access to these materials.  I began to think about our collection in a different way than I had initially.  I started to see the entire collection as the sum of smaller parts, just like the one I had evaluated.

Work Cited:

Witowich, Kelsey. South Meridian Elementary School Library Collection. Titalwave.com- Library, Classroom and Digital Solutions, 25 Sept. 2018, www.titlewave.com/titlewise/dispsingle?caid=3163199.

Mardis, M. A. (2016). The Collection Program in Schools: Concepts and Practices, 6th Edition: Concepts and Practices (Vol. Sixth edition). Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Simon, and Schuster. “It Takes a Village.” Simon & Schuster, Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2014, www.simonandschuster.com/books/It-Takes-a-Village/Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/9781481430876.

Bushey, Jerry. “Farming the Land: Modern Farmers and Their Machines (Photo Series).” Amazon, Amazon, 1 Aug. 1987, www.amazon.com/Farming-Land-Modern-Farmers-Machines/dp/0876143141.

ERAC, Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium. “Learning Resource Evaluation Guidelines.” Evaluating, Selecting and Acquiring Learning Resources: A Guide, BC Ministry of Education, 2008, www.bcerac.ca/resources/whitepapers/docs/erac_wb.pdf.

Sykes, Judith, and Carol Koechlin et al. “Glossary.” Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada, Canadian Library Association, 2014, apsds.org/wp-content/uploads/Standards-of-Practice-for-SchoolLibrary-Learning-Commons-in-Canada-2014.pdf.