Assignment+4

=Assignment 4 - Weeding Project =

Weeding Report
I began this assignment by selecting 50 resources from the shelves of the [|LA Matheson library] that were potential candidates for weeding. I made my decisions primarily based on the information in the Ministry of Education guide and the School District 36 teacher librarian, removing items that were irrelevant to the instructional program, out of date, duplicates, biased, or in poor physical condition. After checking circulation data, the number of copies available locally, and examining the appearance and content of each of the items more closely, I chose the following ten as a representative sample:

Item 1 - Global Warming: Climate Change and BC
This kit is composed of 3 VHS tapes and a teacher's guide. It was published in 2002 by the Knowledge Network and Open Learning Agency. The kit is was intended to support Geography 12, Resource Science 12, and Forestry 12.





__Justification for weeding__:
 * The kit takes up a lot of space in the collection
 * It has never been checked out of the library
 * VHS technology is becoming outdated - very few classrooms have VHS players
 * Our school does not offer Resource Science or Forestry classes
 * The information is too out of date for the subject matter - stats and figures related to global warming have changed a lot in the last ten years
 * It does not support the outcomes of the Science 10 curriculum
 * Copies of the item are available at 8 other sites in the district

Item 2 - The Visual Dictionary of the Earth
This book is part of the Eyewitness Visual Dictionaries Series and was published in 1993. It could potentially support the Science 10 curriculum, as it contains high quality images and explanations of the atmosphere, weather, earthquakes, and volcanoes.





__Justification for weeding__:
 * It has not been checked out of the library since 2007
 * The cover is torn and folded in the corners
 * The binding is broken
 * Several pages are folded and torn
 * Copies are available at 42 other sites in the district

Item 3 - The Great Global Warming Swindle
The Great Global Warming Swindle is written and directed by Martin Durkin, and produced by Eliya Arman in 2007. It was intended to provide a counterpoint to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth by claiming that the cause of global warming is not human activity, but rather solar radiation patterns.



__Justification for weeding__:
 * Misrepresents opinions as scientific facts
 * Misrepresents graphs and data
 * Propaganda
 * No circulation in the last two years
 * Copies available at 12 other sites in the district

Item 4 - Patterns of Climate
This VHS tape was released in 1981 by PEMC as part of the North America: Growth of a Continent series. It explains the different climatic regions within North America through animations and "dramatic visuals".





__Justification for weeding__:
 * It has not been checked out in the last two years
 * As mentioned previously, VHS technology is outdated and not supported by tape players at the school
 * The case is plain and ugly - it is unlikely that a teacher would want to pull it off the shelf
 * The animations and visuals presented in the tape, which may have been cutting edge thirty years ago, are poor compared to what is available through other sources

Item 5 - Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens
Originally released in 1986 by Bradbury Press, Patricia Lauber's account of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens plus the regeneration of life on the mountain was a winner of the Newberry Medal in 1987.







__Justification for weeding__:
 * It has never been checked out of the library
 * The book is starting to look old - there is some minor damage to the cover, and the photos and diagrams inside look out of date
 * Mount St. Helens is no longer a current example of a volcanic eruption
 * In the last 25 years, the recovery and succession of the local ecosystem has advanced well beyond what is described in the book
 * There are copies of the book at 4 other sites in the district

Item 6 - Chemical Principles
This is the second edition of a popular university level chemistry textbook, written by Steven S. Zumdahl and published in 1995.







__Justification for weeding__:
 * This book is large, heavy, and full of text (very few images)
 * The material and reading level is very difficult
 * As described in my school and community analysis, our school has a high proportion of ELL and immigrant students, with no honours, AP, or IB courses
 * The book has never been checked out
 * The average age of this part of the collection was the second oldest of the ones I evaluated in Assignment 3 - older books need to start being replaced with more current selections

Item 7 - Earthquakes and Volcanoes
This book was written in 1992 by Basil Booth, with maps by Jillian Luff and illustrated by Andrew Calvert. It was published by Evan Brothers as part of the Repairing the Damage series, and describes how to predict and survive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.





__Justification for weeding__:
 * The book is ugly - the cover art looks out of date, the corners and spine are breaking, and it is dirty
 * The examples provided of major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are old
 * It has only been checked out one time ever, by a staff member
 * The curriculum deals with what causes earthquakes and volcanoes and where they occur - not how to predict and survive them

Item 8 - Chemistry
This book was written in 1993 by Dennis Field, and published by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Guidance Centre as part of the Student, Subject, and Careers Series. It outlines what chemistry does to improve our lives and society, as well as describing what jobs are available in the different fields of chemistry.







__Justification for weeding__:
 * Has never been circulated
 * It is surprisingly text-heavy - many pages have no images
 * The images, when present, are in black-and-white and look out of date
 * The information is no longer accurate - chemistry and careers in chemistry have changed a lot since 1993
 * The book is small and is easy to miss on the shelf
 * The cover art is not appealing

Item 9 - Force & Motion
This book was written by Peter Lafferty and published in 1992 by Stoddard as part of the Eyewitness Science series. It examines how the principles of force and motion have been applied by humans in the past and in the present.







__Justification for weeding__:
 * This was the weakest part of the collection, both in terms of number of copies and age of the collection - it is in the greatest need of updating
 * This book is 20 years old - the "modern" examples are no longer current
 * The concepts are too simple to support any part of the grade 8-12 science curriculum, Science 10 in particular
 * The text is too complicated to adequately support ELL students
 * There are two copies in the library, which have only been checked out once each

Item 10 - Energy Problem: Nuclear Solution
This VHS tape was produced in 1985 by the BC Ministry of Education. It claims to provide an "objective" overview of the planet's decreasing energy supplies, how energy can be provided by nuclear fission and fusion, and the safety and reliability of nuclear technology.



__Justification for weeding__:
 * It has only been checked out one time, by a staff member
 * The graphics and voice-overs are not engaging to students
 * It was produced a year before the Chernobyl accident, and doesn't include previous nuclear disasters, such as Three Mile Island
 * Heavily biased - underplays the environmental, health, and safety risks associated with nuclear power
 * Nuclear power has actually become more efficient and more widespread since this video was released - the data and statistics used are inaccurate

Reflection
Bishop states that weeding is "psychologically one of the most difficult tasks of beginning media specialists", a claim which I can now completely understand. Although the amount of work in this assignment was less than in previous assignments, I found this one to be the most difficult so far.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The initial steps in the process were easy. Based on my collection evaluation, I knew that all of the sections related to my grade and subject area were in need of updating, so I scanned all of the shelves in the print and non-print sections in the library. Our teacher librarian handbook in Surrey suggests the MUSTIE tool for weeding the collection. Books should be removed that are **M**isleading or factually inaccurate, **U**gly, **S**uperseded by a new edition or better source, **T**rivial**, I**rrelevant to the needs and interests of your community, and/or **E**lsewhere (easily borrowed from another source). I started out by searching for books that looked old, in poor shape, unattractive to staff and students, too easy, too difficult, or present in multiple copies. The next step was to look through the text (or in the case of some of the videos, view part of the program) to see if the information inside was both current and relevant to the curriculum. I ended up pulling fifty items in total. Realistically, there were many more items on the shelf that should have been pulled. It's likely that there were some books that looked great on the outside, with fresh covers and engaging images and titles, that had little to offer on the inside. These books would have been missed by my initial screening. I was also conscious of the fact that our teacher librarian was in the middle of her year-end inventory. I didn't want to pull hundreds of books, which would later need to be reshelved, so I tried to limit myself to items which fit into multiple MUSTIE criteria. As outlined in the CREW method, weeding should be done continuously and in small, targeted sections at a time. The section of the library that I was focused on was much too large to weed in a short period of time. Ideally I would choose a smaller section in the future and examine each book carefully inside and out to make sure that no items are missed.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The next step in the process was to check the copy and circulation data for the items on my short list. As Dickinson mentions, the CREW and "MUSTY" principles should be used in cooperation with the last checkout date. A book that I find to be irrelevant or trivial may be very popular with staff and students, and therefore remain in the collection. I moved fifty items off the shelf and onto a cart and wheeled them to the circulation desk. I scanned each item into a resource list, then checked for the number of copies available, original copyright date, and circulation statistics. Our library implemented the Destiny system in May of 2007, so unfortunately circulation and acquisition data was unavailable before that time. However, if an item showed no circulation, that meant it had not been checked out in the past 5 school years, which is a strong indicator that it is not well-used, especially since our staff has a high turnover rate.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">With a combination of all of this information, I was able to narrow down my selection to the ten items listed above. I was not able to physically remove the items from the catalogue or from the collection, but our district policies on removing learning resources require us to discard them in an environmentally sound manner. The teacher librarian handbook recommends giving them to teachers for classroom use, sending them to the district resource swap meet, recycling, or shredding. The item number must also be deleted from the automated system. If it is the last copy of an item in the district, when the item number is deleted, all other information about the resource is removed with it. The majority of the fifty items I pulled off the shelf should be recycled or shredded. Dickinson's spoiled milk analogy was really enlightening for me. It is difficult to throw out or recycle books and it is tempting to want to donate them to a classroom, to another school or to an organization in need of reading materials. For the resources that were duplicates, or that were in good shape but at the wrong interest or grade level, I would likely pass them along to another school through the district swap meet. The resources that are misleading, outdated, or in rough shape need to be discarded.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The part of the assignment that I found most difficult was the idea of removing resources. I understand the value of weeding. Limited space in the library needs to be filled with the best possible resources, uncluttered shelves are more appealing to clients, staff and students are more drawn to attractive books, and information needs to reliable and relevant. Even with this in mind, I often found myself trying to justify why the item should stay in the collection rather than why it should be removed. Perhaps a difficult textbook would be useful to a grade 12 student who wants to find out what her university courses are going to be like. Maybe the old, outdated video provides a great historical perspective on how scientists used to view a problem. While a few of the resources had everything going against them, many of them had one or two redeeming qualities that I could see the potential use for. I can see this being an ongoing challenge for me. Looking at the circulation statistics helps. If no one is using it, it isn't useful. I will likely need to keep reminding myself that the media centre is a place where students need to be engaged and able to find resources that help them to learn. One good diagram in an old, ugly book doesn't make it worth keeping it if it devalues the usefulness of the entire collection.