Evaluation of a Reference Work
For assignment 1, I wrote a technical essay (view here) evaluating the encyclopedias in a school reference collection. World Book sets can cost upwards of $1000, therefore in my replacement strategy I suggest purchasing subject area encyclopedias more specific to the BC Curriculum. A list and rough price guide begins on page 3. On page 7 there is a rubric that I designed that I used in my evaluation, and it could help others assess the encyclopedias at your school.
Riedling, Shake and Houston, in their book Reference Skills for The School Librarian (2013), support you in your stance that virtual resources are not adequate for young children. Print resources are also required due to developmental issues (p. 14). But, to be the devil's advocate, what happens if there's no money in the budget to replace expensive encyclopedias sets? Likely this is the reason why you have sets from 1995 and the ones I culled from my library last year were from the 1980s. Your idea to purchase smaller subject area references focused on specific areas of the curriculum is a good, albeit still expensive, solution. Many of these resources are not going to be as outdated in the five years as would a complete encyclopedia set containing technology, world happenings, etc. In this way, we might get a bit more “bang for our buck”.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
Riedling, A., Shake, L. Houston, C. (2013). Reference skills for the school library media specialist: Tools and tips, (Third Edition). Santa Barbara, CA: Linworth.
Thank you for the feedback. Yes, budget halts a lot of hopeful thinking! If in that situation, perhaps I would try to spend the majority of the budget on making sure the non-fiction was up-to-date, and not spend too much or any money on fiction for a short time.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I would get creative about acquiring new fiction, not buy new (but only add things in good condition!), and see what I can collect for free as donations. I think it would be easier to do this with fiction than non-fiction, as I feel that should be closely assessed by a TL for quality.