Reply To: Inquiry Learning and Collection Development

[Elizabeth Hutchinson Participant]

Hello Kay

I am so excited that you have joined our conversation here on the FOSIL forum.

Your post above is really important in highlighting that buying books and resources for a school library is not as basic as everyone thinks. You explain beautifully why we need to talk about what school librarians do in this area. The idea that ‘anyone could do this’ is just not true. The link to the curriculum and understanding the needs of the teachers and students in a school is so important. I think where schools have employed library assistants rather than librarians however, the focus is less on curriculum books and more on fiction and if you are just buying the popular fiction then I agree anyone could do this.

The expertise of the school librarian is so important in collection development and you put it beautifully when you say “Inquiry and collection development should be considered inextricably connected if we wish to offer students access to information resources which are suitable not only for their content but also for their alignment with students’ learning levels and research capacity.” It is so much more than just ordering from the best sellers list.

Elizabeth