With a renewed emphasis on facilitating learning, supporting multiple literacies, and advancing equity and inclusion, the thoroughly updated and revised second edition of this trusted text provides models and tools that will enable library staff who serve youth to create and maintain collections that provide equitable access to all youth. And as Hughes-Hassell demonstrates, the only way to do this is for collection managers to be learner-centered, confidently acting as information guides, change agents, and leaders. Based on the latest educational theory and research, this book
- presents the argument for why collection management decisions and practices should focus on equity, exploring systemic inequities, educational paradigm shifts, developments in the information environment, and other key factors;
- lays out the theoretical foundation for developing and managing a library collection that facilitates learning, supports the development of multiple literacies, and provides equitable access to an increasingly diverse group of young learners;
- touches upon current competencies and standards by AASL, YALSA, and ALSC;
- uses a learner-centered and equity perspective to cover core issues and criteria such as selection and removal of materials, budgeting, and cooperation among libraries;
- shows how a business viewpoint can assist the learner-centered collector in articulating the central significance of the collection to learning;
- discusses how library staff can work collaboratively to create policy and negotiate budgets; and
- includes customizable tools and templates, including a Stakeholder Contact/SWOT Analysis, Decision-Making Model for Selecting Resources and Access Points that Support Learning and Advance Equity, and Collection Development Analysis Worksheet.
This resource will be as useful to current school librarians and supervisors, youth librarians in public libraries, and educators as it will to LIS students.
Sandra Hughes-Hassell, Ph.D., is <!--StartFragment-->a professor in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill<!--EndFragment-->. In her 25-year career she has been an elementary school teacher, a school library media specialist, and director of the Philadelphia Library Power Project. In her current research she focuses on social justice issues in youth library services and the role of school library media specialists in education reform. Dr. Hughes-Hassell has experience as both an editor and author. Her most recent edited volume, School Reform and the School Library Media Specialist: Principles and Practices (with Violet H. Harada, Libraries Unlimited, 2007) was named the most important school library book of 2007 by Teacher Librarian. Recent journal publications include articles in Library & Information Science Research, School Library Media Research, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and Knowledge Quest. She teaches courses related to materials and services to children and youth, and school library media programs.
