One of the single most aggrevating parts of visiting a library is when you were certain would have a plethora of a certain topic and you find out that it is in fact the exact opposite case. This can prove even more frustrating to an educator who is trying to properly utilize their own school's library media center to maximize the efficiency of a lesson or group of lessons. In several experiences within elementary school's there have been times where I have seen or taught a single lesson or group of lessons following a brief period of browsing in the library only to wish I had more available resources on my topic, or that the resources were age appropriate in regard to my own specific class. A problem such as this is familiar to both Library Media Specialists and Teachers alike on a variety of academic levels. Understanding that a collection must be flexible and match the specific needs of students and teachers throughout a school is the first step in recognizing the importance of Collection Mapping in a School Library Media Center.
Having measurable a measurable standard is something I have spoken about before in regard to acquiring MARC records, however it is equally important to align your library's collection with the state content standards in as many subject areas as possible. This allows teachers to call on print and digital resources from the library, ask questions about their incorporation into the classroom and collaborate with a school library media specialist. Collection Mapping is a practice that allows a school to examine a collection and directly compare its contents with state standards and school district curriculum initiatives. Of course, libraries are going to have a certain collection of books that are classics and reside in every school library and most of which have stood the test of time in terms of if they are appropriate for the setting you are providing them in. However, Collection Mapping goes as step further and gives broad or detailed reports about the balance, reading level, subject relevance and biases within your school library. An example of utilizing Collection Mapping is if there is a district initiative like I have experienced to create an interdisciplanary unit on "Multi-Culturalism and Historical Figures in American History" there should be appropriate amounts of books on historical figures such as Maya Angelou, Cesar Chavez, Barak Obama, Al Jolson etc.. Having an idea of what is IN your particular collection will most likely reveal what you have left OUT.
Expanding this idea further, Collection Mapping should be a tool that is utilized not in an isolated manner but collaboratively between Library Media Specialists and Teachers. If one department within a school is really lacking in certain topical subject matter, it should be both the Library Media Specialist and Teacher's job to work together to remedy the situation and see which materials are already useful in their collection. If materials are present that have not been utilized in years and are out of date in relationship to updated digital or print material, this can be addressed at this time. Whether in need of organization, recongnition of materials or a simple review of materials http://www.flr.follett.com/index.html or Follet is a automation system that has Collection Mapping built directly into its product available at no charge. Since this service is a integrated system you can see how your particular library stacks up to libraries in charge of students in the same age bracket. Graphs, reports and charts are all available to visualize areas of improvement and how grade and subject appropriate and up to date your individual collection is.
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