File:  IJL - MEDIA SELECTION

Responsibility For Selecting Media

The selection of library media is the responsibility of the professionally trained employees of the school system. Selection of materials involves many people: administrators, teachers, supervisors, and school library media specialists.

Definition of Library Resources

Library resources are those materials, both print and non-print, found in school libraries which support curricular and personal information needs.  Print items include books, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, microfiche or microfilm.  Non-print items include films, disc records, filmstrips, slides, prints, audiotapes, videotapes, compact discs, and computer software.

Objectives For Selecting Media

The primary objective of each school's library media program is to enrich and support the instructional program of the school. The school library media program makes available, through the school library media collection, a wide range of materials on varying levels of difficulty with a diversity of appeal compatible with the different needs, interests, and viewpoints of students and teachers.

To this end, The Ashland School Committee, in keeping with the ideas expressed in the Library Bill of Rights, asserts that the responsibility of the school library media program is as follows:

•  To provide school library media that will enrich and support the curriculum, taking into consideration individual needs and the varied interests, abilities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and maturity levels of the students served.

•  To provide school library media that stimulate the growth in factual knowledge, literary appreciation, aesthetic values, and ethical standards.

•  To provide a background of information enabling the students to make intelligent judgments in their daily lives.

•  To provide materials on opposing sides of controversial issues so that students may develop, under guidance, the practice of critical thinking and critical analysis of all media.

•  To provide materials representative of the many religious, ethnic, and cultural groups in our nation and the contribution of these groups to our American heritage.

•  To place principle above personal opinion and reason above prejudice in selecting school library media of the highest quality in order to assure a comprehensive collection appropriate for users of the school library media center.

Criteria For Selecting School Library Media

Individual learning styles, the curriculum, and the existing collection are given consideration in determining the needs for library media in individual schools. Materials considered for purchase are judged on the basis of the following criteria:

•  Purpose: Overall purpose and its direct relationship to instructional objectives and/or the curriculum

•  Reliability: Accurate, authentic

•  Quality: Writing and or production of merit

•  Treatment: Clear, comprehensible, skillful, convincing, well-organized, unbiased

•  Technical production: Audio and/or visual clear and well-crafted

•  Construction: Durable, manageable, attractive

•  Special features: Useful illustrations, photographs, maps, charts, graphs, etc.

•  Possible uses: Individual, small group, large group instruction, in-depth study

Procedures For Selecting And Maintaining The School Library Media Collections

The school library media professional, in conjunction with teachers and administrators, will be responsible for the selection of materials. In coordinating this process, the school library media specialist will:

•  Arrange, when possible, for firsthand examination of items to be purchased

•  Use reputable, unbiased, professionally prepared selections aids when firsthand examination of materials is not possible

•  Judge gift items by standard election criteria and, upon acceptance of such items, reserve the right to incorporate into the collection only those meeting these specified criteria

•  Purchase duplicates of extensively used materials

•  Weed continuously from the collection worn, obsolete, and inoperable items

•  Purchase replacements for worn, damaged, or missing materials basic to the collection

•  Determine a procedure for preventive maintenance and repair of equipment

Procedures For Reconsideration Of Materials

Occasional objections to some materials may be voiced by the public despite the care taken in the selection process and despite the qualifications of the persons selecting materials.

When a parent is concerned with a particular library media the first step is to contact the Principal in an attempt to resolve the issue. In the event that parties are unable to resolve the issue informally the Principal will designate a Materials Review Committee which is comprised of the school librarian, the Principal and any teacher who may be involved in assigning or using the media in question. This Committee will consider the request for reconsideration of material and render its decision in writing to the parent within thirty (30) days of the receipt of the concern.

The following procedures should be observed:

1.  Inform the complainant of the selection procedures and make no commitments.

2.  For submitting a formal complaint to the Materials Review Committee, invite the complainant to file his or her objections in writing and send him or her a copy of the form: Request for the Reconsideration of School library Media Materials.

3.  The Materials Review Committee will:

•  Re-examine the challenged material

•  Survey appraisals of the material in professional reviewing sources

•  Determine the extent the material supports the curriculum

•  Weight merits against alleged faults to form opinions based on the materials as a whole and not on passages isolated from context

•  Discuss the material and prepare a written recommendation to the Superintendent and School Committee

•  Inform the complainant of the Material Review Committee's recommendation

4.  The final decision of the School Committee shall be delivered to the complainant and staff members in writing.

Disclosure of Information/Privacy of Circulation Records

Circulation records shall not be made available to anyone except pursuant to such process, order, or subpoena as may be authorized by law.

The Policy Committee shall be responsible for the routine review of this policy.

SOURCE:  Ashland