Kimberly Kingman SLIB 510

Collection Development for All

Using the schools’ demographics is relevant and crucial to decision making for the
library’s collection. My school community is composed of many different types of student
populations: English language learners, preschoolers, and transient students. The library’s
collection needs to be filled with materials representing these populations. By creating an
awareness about these populations, this will allow students to better understand and relate to
students within them. I would specifically include nonfiction selections about these topics and
fiction materials with diverse main characters & authors. Allowing students to see themselves or
their life experiences in materials is important. We also want to make them feel welcomed and
embraced within our library culture; while at the same time, providing opportunities to learn
about new & different things from other populations.

For my ESOL population, I would include tablets or audiobooks that could be checked
out to help students learn/practice their English. I also could designate some of the library’s
computers/tablets to ESOL students. They could be preloaded with games/apps or website to
help students read and learn English. Any media materials (or audiobooks) that read English to
students could also help this population. Students could come during a scheduled time (during
breakfast or DEAR) for 15 minutes of practice daily. Spanish language magazines are currently
popular with older elementary ESOL students, so I would also include these in my collection. I
would collect materials that are: bilingual, on countries of different origins, multicultural, have
diverse characters with different ethnicities & on immigration. Having picture books or
nonfiction books with lots of photographs will be helpful in these students learning new English
words. Including books with authors and main characters of different ethnicities & languages is
important. I would use guidance from the ALSCA awards for keeping up on the latest books of
different cultures, countries & languages. For example, the following two awards are ones I
would keep in mind for my ESOL students: the Pura Belpré award & (Mildred L.) Batchelder
Award. One example is Dreamers by Yuyi Morales. This book is currently popular and would be
a perfect book for an ESOL student. It is a beautiful autobiography about a girl who came to
America and used library books to teach herself English; she is now a famous author.

Preschooler needs are vastly different than elementary age students. Since they have
shorter attention spans, they need shorter books with more interactive elements. I would address
this population by ensuring the collection contained materials appropriate to their age, maturity
level, & developmental stages. My collection would need to include: big books, picture books
(words with lots of writing and little pictures will not keep their attention), rhyming or repeating
materials (preschoolers love to call out words while reading), fairytales, felt boards to retell
stories, interactive stories (act out with props, masks or puppets) & materials with themes of life
situations that they can relate to: visiting the farm, first day of school, going to the doctor/dentist,
etc. Preschool materials will also need to include foundational school skills: numbers, letters,
colors, shapes, opposites etc. Media materials might include songs, sign language, videos,
cartoon/drawn characters, and book characters. The collection will need different materials
(beyond the normal K-5 materials) to service the needs and interest of such young students.

My school has a high transient population due to its proximity to a military base. The
library will need to adjust the collection to includes materials on some of these themes: moving,
military life, soldiers, deployments, making new friends, starting at a new school & military
bases. If there is a military base where multiple students transfer from (like a certain city) having
materials on that location might be helpful. Helping transient students to make text-to-self
connections will help them feel right at home in the library. It also will create empathy for
students who aren’t transient to understand that lifestyle. I could have a military event in the
library where we invite military parents to thank them for their service. Students could come to
the library to speak with soldiers & learn more about the military. I also might have a USA map
in the library where we locate and mark military bases. This would be a good tie in for
geography & map skills. I could have students who just moved here mark on the map where they
came from (which military base). I could also collaborate with classroom teachers to have new
students video chat with their old class. With prewritten questions to ask the old class, students
could learn about what life is like where they live (where the new student came from). They
might be able to find some similarities to help connect them (ex. studying same science unit).
Moving can be hard on young children so adjusting the library’s collection to help them feel
welcome is important.

References:
Morales, Y. (2018). Dreamers. New York, NY: Neal Porter Books/Holiday House.