The document discusses needs assessment for a media center collection. It defines needs assessment and explains that it is used to identify the needs of the local population to help plan and deliver services. It then provides definitions of needs assessment from a library context, discussing using both formal and informal assessments. The rest of the document provides examples and guidance on conducting needs assessments, with a focus on assessing curriculum needs, student needs and interests, and other factors to consider for a media center collection.

1. LIB 610 Collection Management Summer 2010Needs Assessment in the Media Center

2. June 16, 2010Needs Assessment2Needs assessment?What is needs assessment?Needs assessment is about identifying the needs of the local population, so that services can be planned and delivered to meet those needs. Local needs assessment will help to establish the extent and nature of the drug problem in an area, describe the socio-demographic profile of users and examine the common referral routes. This will help build up a picture of the needs of the population. Needs assessment is an integral part of other strategic initiatives, such as reducing waiting times.Effective Interventions Unit Guide to Needs Assessment Summary

3. June 16, 2010Needs Assessment3A library-related definitionassessment Quantitative and qualitative measurement of the degree to which a library’s collections, services, and programs meet the needs of its users, usually undertaken with the aim of improving performance. Assessment is accomplished by various methods, including direct observation, analysis of feedback obtained through interviews, user surveys, testing, etc. When conducted by the library, rather than an outside agency, the process is known as self-assessment. See also: Measurement, Assessment, and Evaluation Section; outcomes assessment; and quality of service.

4. June 16, 2010Needs Assessment4Needs Assessment in LMC?What is needs assessment?Needs assessment is the process of collecting and analyzing information that can then be used in decision making. It’s likely that you’ll want to conduct needs assessments in many areas of your program.You can conduct a formal or informal needs assessment.Library Media Program: Program Analysis

5. June 16, 2010Needs Assessment5Informal assessmentWhat’s an informal needs assessment? Library media specialists are constantly doing simple needs assessment when they identify a problem, establish a goal, and develop a solution to fill in the gap.What’s the situation? - Where are you now? What does the situation (i.e., event, collection, staffing) look like?Where do I want to be? - Where do you want to be (i.e., successful event, quality collection, productive staff)? What’s the solution to fill the gap? - Where are the gaps and the priorities? Is there a difference between where you are and where you’d like to be?Library Media Program: Program Analysis

6. Consider the age of the collection!Age of materials importantIn a small school library or a small public library, materials are usually evaluated on their current usefulness and their level of circulation. The mission of such libraries is typically to provide up-to-date, popular materials. Except for a few classics, books that no longer reflect up-to-date facts or the current thinking about a subject do not fit into the mission of such a library. In most cases, books that have not circulated in five years also may not fit the mission.Collection Assessment and the Collection Development PolicyAlternative Basic Library Education (ABLE) Course 2: Collection AssessmentJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment6

7. June 16, 2010Needs Assessment7Remembering the LMC contextCurriculumClients Community Carol L. Tilley, Syllabus for L595 Collection Analysis for School Library Media Specialists (Web-Based Workshop)

8. From Beyond Proficiency Program Evaluation RubricJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment8

9. Collection Development ConcernsCriteria for concerns:ContentCurricular correlationCommunityCost and containerAlice Yucht, Collection Development Concernsrepublished from Teacher-Librarian, December 2000 in Alice in InfoLandJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment9

10. Curricular Concerns June 16, 2010Needs Assessment10

11. June 16, 2010Needs Assessment11Curriculum and CollectionCurricular Correlation: Does this material complement, enrich, and extend the educational goals, philosophies, and curriculum of the school and the district? Do you know what new topics are being covered in your classrooms, and do you have materials to support those topics? Are you communicating with your teachers about current and future resource requirements? Don’t wait for the teachers to tell you what they will need: sometimes they haven’t had time to think that far ahead. Alice Yucht, Collection Development Concerns

12. June 16, 2010Needs Assessment12Curriculum mappingcurriculum mapping Comparing the quality and quantity of materials in a school library’s collection with the content of the school’s curriculum at all grade levels to reveal strengths and weaknesses, facilitate collection development, and identify areas that need weeding.

13. Advice on curriculum mappingJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment13

14. Step one in collection developmentJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment14

15. A vital collection/curriculum linkNo Child Left BehindJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment15Beth Yoke, Executive Director, YALSA

16. June 16, 2010Needs Assessment16Karen R. Lowe Library/Media Consultant

17. What is the shelf list?shelflist A nonpublic catalog of a library collection containing a single bibliographic record for each item, filed in the order in which the items are arranged on the shelf (usually by call number), used for inventory because it contains the most current information on copy and volumeholdings. Card shelflists are being phased out by libraries that have converted their catalogs to machine-readable records. June 16, 2010Needs Assessment17

18. June 16, 2010Needs Assessment18What Is Resource Alignment? There are six major steps in the resource alignment process:assessing library media center resources;discarding materials no longer useful or supportive of the curriculum;identifying curriculum gaps in the remaining resources;preparing a prioritized list of needed curriculum resources; writing a three- to five-year resource development plan to address present and projected resource needs; defining a budgetary process to acquire the needed resources.

19. Sources for analysis?Use the library softwareMost library software programs have built-in collection tools that measure the number of books and average age of the collection by Dewey classification. School libraries can also export collection records to TitleWise, a free collection analysis service provided by Follett Library Products and Services.Kirsten L. Marie, “From theory to practice: a new teacher-librarian tackles 1ibrary assessment.” Teacher Librarian 33, no. 2 (2005).June 16, 2010Needs Assessment19

20. Titlewise?TitleWise®TitleWise takes the guesswork out of collection development. It is the quickest, easiest, and most comprehensive online collection analysis tool available! This service is available at no charge to all Follett Library Resources customers. Within minutes of sending us your data, you’ll receive reports detailing the make-up of your collection (paying special attention to those age-sensitive Dewey ranges), comparing your collection to other grade-appropriate recommended school library collections, and detailing incomplete records.TITLEWAVE, TitleWise, TitleCheck & QuizCheckJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment20Paper Sculptures

21. Using the TitlewisetoolCollection Mapping. . . select your automation system under “Circulation System Export Instructions.” You are instructed to pull up all your holdings (or the section you want analyzed), select “all,” name your file, and save to a disk or even the desktop (which is probably the easiest way to do it). Once that step is complete, you export the file you saved. An eighteen-page analysis is returned in minutes. The cover sheet declares it to be a Title Wise Collection Analysis with your school’s name printed on it. The complete analysis is ideal to share with your administration along with a suggested plan for how to bring the collection up to date.From School Librarian’s WorkshopJune 2004.June 16, 2010Needs Assessment21

22. Sample Curriculum Mapping TemplateCurriculum-Collection Map Template Word (296 Kb)Library media specialists are encouraged to use this form to create a curriculum map, which will provide a snapshot of the implemented curriculum in their school, and a collection map which will provide a snapshot of how the current library resource collection can support the school 's curriculum. LMS Word format (155 Kb) June 16, 2010Needs Assessment22

23. ClientsJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment23

24. Step 2 in collection developmentJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment24

25. Alice Yucht on Client NeedsContent: Is this material appropriate for the age, emotional development, ability levels, learning styles, and social development of the students in *this* school, at *this* time? Keep in mind that we are being paid to provide relevant resources, not administer an archive. One particular middle school’s book collection had some glaring gaps as well as aging artifacts – the building had been a Junior/Senior (gr. 7-12) high for many years; . . . and nothing had ever been weeded! Have you carefully checked the age-appropriateness and relevancy of those URL’s, AND posted a disclaimer on your website, just in case? Collection Development ConcernsJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment25

26. Considering student needs and interestsMakes senseIncluding children’s preferences in the building of school library collections makes sense because children are the actual consumers of the resources.An important part of becoming an effective reader is to be able to select reading materials with relative ease and facility. Regrettably, what children prefer to read is often not available in schools. Thus, every effort should be made to purchase materials that children will actually read and enjoy.Joseph Sanacore, Teacher-librarians, Teachers, and Children as Cobuilders of School Library Collections. Teacher Librarian 33, 5 (June 2006).June 16, 2010Needs Assessment26

27. How do you discover student interests/needs?Ask them!Informally:Learners . . . benefit from meeting with their teacher or teacher-librarian to talk about books they are currently reading or just finished reading. These conferences help educators gain insights about children’s decoding and meaning-making strategies through such activities as conducting running records, encouraging retellings, and motivating personal responses. These immediate connections to children’s self-selected materials are important venues for determining children's reading interests.Joseph Sanacore, Teacher-librarians, Teachers, and Children as Cobuilders of School Library Collections.June 16, 2010Needs Assessment27

28. Asking formallyJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment28

29. Evidence of student interests/needsCirculation recordsThrough circulation analysis, I could identify strengths and weaknesses from patterns of use, with the goal of making the collection more relevant and responsive to the needs of its users. I could also identify little-used items that could be discarded completely.June 16, 2010Needs Assessment29

30. Collecting controversial subjectsExample: Homosexuality. . . according to the 2003 National School Climate Survey, a biannual study by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (see “Out and lgnored,” pp. 46-50) . . . nearly 50 percent of the high school students surveyed say they have no access to gay-related resources in their media centers.June 16, 2010Needs Assessment30

31. Considering teacher needsCreating a professional collectionThe professional collection in a school library should be carefully selected to meet the demands of the teachers, administrators, counselors and teacher-librarians who are to use them. The hallmark of an outstanding professional collection in library resource centers is heavy usage of the resources by faculty members (Wilson, 2000).In order to have an outstanding professional collection, the teacher-librarian must identify the needs of the instructional curriculum and identify the teachers’ characteristics, preferred teaching methods, instructional needs and information needs (Van Orden, 1995).Jordan, J. The Professional Collection: The Teachers’ Professional Collection Materials: Stimulating Use. Teacher Librarian [serial online]. December 2001;29(2):18. June 16, 2010Needs Assessment31

32. The CommunityJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment32

33. But what is the (a) community?communityMain Entry: com·mu·ni·tyPronunciation: \kə-ˈmyü-nə-tē\Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural com·mu·ni·ties1 : a unified body of individuals: as a : state, commonwealth b : the people with common interests living in a particular area; broadly : the area itself <the problems of a large community> c : an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location 33June 17, 2010Needs Assessment

34. Community includes parentsParents can also be clientsJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment34

35. Considering community valuesReflecting community values or diversity?The librarian’s value judgments must be kept secondary to what the community of patrons wants and demands. It is the community’s values which are primary. Apponequet Regional High School Library. Collection Development and Mission Statements.If education is to be founded on the principle of exposure to diverse ideas, then it is almost mandatory that exposure to controversial material is possible. However, if schools should be a place for transmitting community values, then censorship becomes almost compulsory.Many parents choose schools precisely for the latter purpose. Amanda Credaro©2001. Double Jeopardy: Censorship in School LibrariesJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment35

36. A Community ServiceJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment36

37. Collection Development Humor From Warrior LibrarianOriginal Library Humour: In Dewey (Shelf) Order 025.2 Collection DevelopmentFictional Titles: Books Not Yet WrittenNew Book Titles (Covers)Math For the Masses: Fiction and Non-fictionMore New Books for Realistic LibrariesSerials with Popular AppealThin Books for Busy LibrariansJune 16, 2010Needs Assessment37<>June 16, 2010Needs Assessment

38. A Vital Latin Phrase for collection developmentIn response to patron evaluation of a book:“This book sucks”Your response: “Nullusestliber tam malusut non aliqua parte prosit.”Translation: “There is no book so bad that it is not profitable in part.” (Pliny the Younger).Biblia’s Warrior Librarian, “Vital Latin Phrases for Librarians.”38