Collection Development

• Licensing digital content : a practical guide for librarians, 2^nd ed., by Leslie Ellen Harris (ALA, 2009, 161 p., $_____, ISBN: 9780838909928)

  One of the major considerations now in collection development is deciding what to own and what to provide access to. Increasingly, the later is the challenge. This reviewer has always maintained that any good bargain hunter in the real world and the person who knows how to bargain clerverly is already equipped with the major skills needed to license digital content ranging from multimedia to online databases, to any other proprietary information resources. Harris, however, provides excellent advice to the negotiator and helps you “read the fine print” and know how, what, when, and the various questions that need to be addressed. Of course, some contracts will be done at the district level, some at regions, some at the state and even federal levels, but also some at the building level. You probably already know if you are in a position to need this book. And, if you are not yet negotiating licenses, you may be soon. This book is recommended. Does the author know more or less than you do? I find lots of times that if I think I know a fair amount about a particular topic, it is good to check from another source to compare my knowledge with theirs. Inevitably, I get help I did not realize I needed or just a fresh perspective on a problem like this one. We owe it to our patrons to provide the very best at the lowest possible cost. The commercial entities have lawyers helping them write the contracts…

   

• Libraries got game : aligned learning through modern board games by Brian Mager and Christopher Harris (ALA, 2010, 134 p, $_____, ISBN: 9780838910092)

  Board games in the school library? In these days of technology? You have got to be kidding! Yet, our authors make an excellent case for something other than getting on line to develop 21^st century skills. They explore various board games and how they can be used to advantage in inquiry and information use, and then they provide a great guide for elementary, middle, and high school game collections. Yes, they talk about missing pieces and all that bothersome stuff when trying to keep a box with “stuff” in it across time. Have you been noticing at the bookstore that there are a wide assortment of new board games available? It is not just chess and Monopoly any more. Thanks, authors for bringing this forgotten genre to our attention! This one is worth its price to reconsider and rethink. And, when the Internet is down…; and even when it isn’t…

• Visual media for teens : creating and using a teen-centered film collection by Jane Halsall and R. Wilia Edminster (Libraries Unlimited, 2009, 158 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781591585442)

Designed for the public librarian who is building a separate film collection to be housed in the teen section of the library, this pair of authors have built an annotated list of many films within a wide variety of genres that might appeal to teens. The first discuss the reasons behind building a film collection, involving teens in the selection of titles, and the many issues such as movie ratings, cataloging, and in particular, the choice of formats to stock They also discuss the opportunities for film screenings and joining or forming various film festivals featuring teen film creators. For schools, the list is an interesting one to use in the wider discussion of film in the popular culture but probably not for creating a circulating collection. Rather, teacher librarians would serve teens better by promoting the idea of creating videos and films and helping teens in those content creators that are around us in larger and larger numbers. Serve as a place to store, promote, and disseminate a wide variety of creations created by both kids and teens. It is the day of creation as well as the appreciation of commercial products. Recommended for public libraries.

• Green reads : best environmental resources for youth, k-12 by Lindsey Patrick Wesson (Libraries Unlimited, 2009, 219 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781591588351)

Wesson has collected materials about global warming, earth’s resources, pollution,  recycling and and conservation. He includes fiction, , nonfiction, multimediaand activity suggestion sources. This is a credible list and dovers both elementary and secondary sources numbering some 500 items. Given the currency of the topic, if you are looking to build an environmental emphasis collection, this is an excellent source to consult. Our quarrel is not with this list but the receding effectivness, in our opinion, with creating printed annotated bibliographyies that are ourdated before they are published and dated quickly. Title Wave and other electronic selection tools seem to be a green selection tool worthy of consideration. But authors who spend so much time creating quality information and reference lists would like some return on their investment and would we be willing to pay for such collection development advice? Of course this guide has complete indexing but  a digital searching tool would be more effective than a printed one. Quality information on requested topics continue to be a very important role for the teacher librarian. What is the best way to collaboratively build lists of quality information sources. Is this the next folksonomy of teacher librarians?

• Popular series fiction for K-6 readers : a reading and selection guide by Rebecca L.Thomas and Catherine Barr (Libraries Unlimited, 2009, 1002 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781591586593)

  You’ve got to be kidding! Over 1,000 pages listing series books for children? This book provides the evidence for what publishers obviously know about series books. Kids love them. And, if you are a teacher librarian worth your salt, of course you are going to have complete sets of all of them…well, that is what they expect and you know it. Isn’t it easy to track down this stuff on the Internet? Publishers catalogs? Folksonomies?  Well, convenience in a five-pound book does seem attractive. We think, however, the teacher librarians horde such a work rather than put it on a dictionary stand for kids to use, we mean, series aficionados to use. So, with is annotations of the series as a whole and the ordered listing by number and year, and all the indexing, here is more about , or perhaps a never up-to-date list to stock, promote, and most importantly buy from. Can’t you just see those begging eyes wanting the next one just like the one they just finished? Give in. There are worse things thank the series-addicted life.

   

• The inside scoop : a guide to nonfiction investigative writing and exposés by Sarah Statz Cords (Libraries Unlimited, 2009, 449 p., $52.00, ISBN: 9781591586500)

  There is an entire genre of investigative reporting that comes in a variety of flavors including the exposé, immersion journalism, character profiles, , political reporting, and business reporting as the broad general categories with many sub-flavors under each type. These are the tpse of books we hear covered on television news shows when they are promoting the latest book of many celebrities. For older teens – those budding activists, here is their fodder for those power lunch book clubs with a few faculty readers mixed in. Among the several hundred fully annotated titles complete with the various indexes, there is certain to be something to please the sophisticated reader. And, why not? And, how much of this stuff is just wild ideas and speculation? Lots of reads sure to promote argument, debate, and maybe stimulate some powerful writing across the blogs and Internet by that group of students ready and willing to go national and global. They deserve our attention too!

   

• Mixed heritage in young adult literature by Nancy Thalia Reynolds (Scarecrow, 2009, 243 p., $_____, ISBN: 0810859696)

  Many children are now part of the mixed racial generation. Tiger Woods, and Pres. Obama may or may not identify with one culture the other but can often identify with both or just consider themselves as Americans. Are these children and young people appearing in YA literature? At first, I thought that Reynolds would provide an annotated list of books for collection development. Not so. Reynolds writes a critical work that looks at a number of issues in the mixed heritage culture and then discusses in essay form these issues giving various examples of actual YA books both fiction and non-fiction. So, the book is valuable in a discussion of issues or doing research on this topic in the literature. Books discussed are listed at the end of each chapter so in some sense, one can get an idea of the range of titles now beginning to appear in collections. Thus, if you are having a round-table discussion on this topic to researching for a paper or talk on the subject, this is a valuable work.

   

• Recommended books in Spanish for children and young adults, 2004-2008 by Isabel Schon (Scarecrow, 2009, 412 p., ISBN: 9780810863866)

  Isabel Schon has been publishing annotated books in Spanish for many years in various series. This one is her latest and covers fiction, information books, graphic novels, reference books, easy books with a subject index and sources for acquisition. Schon does not include a book just because it is in Spanish and according to a personal interview with her, there is plenty of “junk” out there with terrible translations and cultural boo-boos just trying to catch the market from teacher librarians who may not know the language or culture in enough depth to make good choices.  Schon has the experience and cultural background to select the best and most authentic Hispanic culture. Trust this list.