RUSA CODES panel 7/12/2009

1. Dark Matter: Using Collection Data in Schools Buster Free Marcia A. Mardis, Ed.D. Assistant Professor Associate Director, Partnerships for Advancing Library Media (PALM) Center College of Information & Communication The Florida State University July 12, 2009

2. No trees (or dogs) were harmed in the creation of this presentation. Woody

3. In humble beginnings… Detroit Catholic Central HS The Keystone School of San Antonio University of Michigan School of Information (UM SI) Merit Network, Inc. Wayne State University SLIS

4. Then and now…

6. Support and share in the craft of instruction

7. Help children feel safe, happy, challenged, and supported

8. Create a collection of resources that are the basis for everyone’s learning

9. Be an advocate for what you and your library do to make a differenceLead with your collection

10. Collections (genres, age levels, subject balance, currency, community) Instigate booktalks, book clubs, battle-of-books Facilitate Collecting for children is different Programming Telenovela, Fandom, Gaming Battle-of-the books, author visits, poetry reading

11. What do we know? Large collections correlate significantly with strong student achievement in reading and science (Lance 1993-2005; Mardis 2005) Large budgets correlate significantly with strong student achievement (Lance 1993-2005; Mardis 2005) Collection development is the perceived hallmark of school librarianship (Mardis 2006; Mardis 2007) Collections are strong in areas of librarian “topical confidence” (Webster, 1999; Mardis 2005; Mardis & Hoffman, 2007) Kids need to activate and build upon prior knowledge (Hirsch, 2007) External factors influence resource selection (Mardis, 2009)

12. What do SLMS need to do? Link subject area collections to standards and benchmarks Link circulation statistics to student achievement How are your strong library users doing in class? How are your class users doing overall? How are do your non-users compare? Be able to show the need of each expenditure Create an environment of resource equity What is the school’s proportion of students with IEPs to students not on a caseload? How does the collection content reflect that? (differentiation) Do you balance formal and informal information needs? Do you promote digital resources? How?

13. Where can they find data? Catalog data Circulation data Collect qualitative data from all stakeholders(includingkids) to surface issues in addition to preference Suggestions Focus groups and interviews Surveys SHARE THE DATA, TOO. TitleWave/TitleWise

14. How is access ensured?

15. What else would be helpful? Have preparation courses or continuing ed specific to subject areas Integrate cataloging and collection development for SLM (rhetorical metadata) Understand and be involved in infrastructure (e.g., bandwidth) Make annual reports mandatory and revisit policies in them. Ensure that SLMs have the skills to make use of TitleWave and TitleWise data Link to student achievement and ROI Create tools to make integration of digital learning objects with physical objects easier (new IMLS project) Stay young!