LM_NET: Library Media Networking
- Subject: HIT: Magazine Subcriptions (LONG!)
- From: High Commander <sjp@eee.org>
- Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 09:52:02 -0800
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Wow! I AM impressed with all the folks who were kind enough to point,
nudge, or push me in what they considered the right direction. Of
course now I've got more to do than solicit opinions on the subject!
Replies to my original posting concerning how we go about choosing/refusing
magazines for our libraries follow:
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR> * While it is important for us to support curriculum,
we also have a
<BR>mission of creating life long learners and readers - and supporting
the
<BR>"interests" of our clientele - and this is how I "justify" magazines
<BR>not directly curricula related.
<BR> I get Right-On, Nintendo Power, Teen, American Girl,
Jet, People,
<BR>Better Homes & Gardens, Hockey Digest, Baseball Digest, Basketball
<BR>Digest, Field & Stream, Boys Life, Girls Life, BMX, Hot Rod-- most
<BR>popular being Right On, Seventeen, Teen, and Nintendo PowerMagazines.
<BR> I get for curriculum - and the kids never touch
unless they
<BR>have a specific assignment - Russian Life, Japan, Popular Science,
<BR>Popular Photography, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report,
China
<BR>Today, Nutrition Action Newsletter, National Geographic, Classroom
<BR>Connect.
<BR> I have dropped Scientific American, Flower &
Garden (but we have a
<BR>horticulture club who never used it), Discover, Oasis.
<BR> Each year I wrestle with this - and don't reorder
magazines that kids
<BR>don't read. I have lots of kids who would never read a book but
will
<BR>read a magazine - and as long as they are reading - I'll grab for
<BR>whatever I can get.
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR>* While this area is not within my expertise, may
i suggest you contact your
<BR>local public library, to see if there is any policy in place regarding
<BR>age-related guidelines for magazine checkout (you implied that parents
<BR>might be unhappy about the choices made available to their children,
but
<BR>do those children already have access to these materials anyway?).
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR>* I buy magazines that support the curriculum only.
I try to pick some
<BR>that are generally interesting (Popular Science, Good Housekeeping)
<BR>as well. Some years ago I got the idea that we didn't have much that
<BR>was interesting to the girls, so I subscribed to three girls
<BR>magazines, only to see them stolen almost as fast as I put them out.
<BR>I dropped the subsriptions.
<BR> I agree with you when you say that faculty/staff
should buy their own
<BR>magazines. I also think that magazines that are strictly for the
<BR>personal enjoyment of a small group of students should not be
<BR>purchased with school funds. I have no problem with someone donating
<BR>the subscription price and then the magazine is placed in the
<BR>library. That's how I would handle Ebony.
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR>* If you have a limited budget for subscriptions,
I would slash People
<BR>magazine first. ;-) I'd look for mags that support
the curriculum -
<BR>your local university probably carries some decent selection tools
you
<BR>can use to make wise decisions. Try Magazines for Young People
(ed.
<BR>Bill Katz and Linda Sternberg Katz). The other possibility, if
you can
<BR>offer it, is to create a list of websites of magazines on the web.
<BR>Typically, mags do not offer their current issue to non-subscribers,
but
<BR>you can access their archives, which include last month's issue.
Look
<BR>up Electronic Newstand on the WWW.
<BR> I would offer ethnic-type mags for your 6% minority.
My daughter is of
<BR>Asian extraction and the only non-white in her class. She would
have
<BR>really appreciated having her race acknowledged in a place where she
<BR>spends one-third of her life. I wouldn't lose any sleep over
not
<BR>offering mags for every ethnic minority there is. You are on
a budget,
<BR>after all.
<BR> And speaking of budgets, I've heard of librarians
who take care of that
<BR>issue easily; they do a brisk business in getting members of
the
<BR>community to contribute subscriptions (from an approved list,
of
<BR>course).
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR>* Re: magazines. I do not believe that
all magazines have to have
<BR>"redeeming features" or be educational in the sense that Cobblestone
is
<BR>educational. More than half of my magazine purchases are for
leisure
<BR>reading, and, in fact, with the easy availability of full text on cd-rom
<BR>or on-line, I will probably go even heavier on leisure reading.
<BR>Our leisure reading magazines such as dirt bike, hot rod, transworld
<BR>skatboarding, American Girl, Teen, Seventeen, Guitar Player, etc. are
<BR>truly read to death (I give away the "remains" of this type of magazine
at
<BR>the end of the year.) I may wish that the kids read more books
and less
<BR>magazines, but I do not think that lowering the number of leisure type
<BR>magazines will accomplish that.
<BR> (and p.s. - we have a large number of students (grades
6-8) who read
<BR>People in the library and who take it out when it is available for
<BR>borrowing. I guess that different schools have differing "cultures".)
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR>* I don't "buy" mags that aren't listed in an index
like Info Trac or
<BR>Reader's Guide. That way I know it supports the curriculum or,
at the very
<BR>least, it can be found in an indexing source so kids will use it after
it
<BR>hits the back room.
<BR> I get donations for "fun" mags and do a student
survey for what they should
<BR>be.
<BR> EBSCO has a gift department and they do the leg
work. I get 10 mags from
<BR>McDonald's through them. Sports clubs sponsor mags for their
clubs like
<BR>tennis, skiing, etc.
<BR> If the kids don't ask for it, we don't get it.
Teachers work, I'm here for
<BR>the kids. I work with the teachers but the mags I buy them are
Phi Delta
<BR>Kappen and Education Digest. We get People but it's in reader's
guide and
<BR>kids use it in bio research often.
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR>* I make my decisions based on MY knowledge of what
<BR>is read. I would choose skateboarding over archaeology because
more
<BR>students are interested. I am in charge of the choices.
I choose
<BR>American Girl, Astronomy (we have a science teacher who inspires interest),
<BR>Outdoor Life, and others because I truly feel that it is MY library
and I
<BR>will purchase what I feel will meet the most needs. I always
listen to
<BR>suggestions, and I revamp each year. We are a K-6 school and
some classes
<BR>are more "into" a subject than others (horses, etc.).
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR>* I also struggle with those issues. I didn't
have much of a problem with it while I was at an elementary school, but
find that it's alot more "sticky" at the junior high level. For the
last couple of years we have had a very
<BR>conservative school board, and they have instructed the librarians
not
<BR>to subscribe to YM and Seventeen. We were upset about it for
awhile,
<BR>but decided it wasn't worth the fight. We have Infotrac's SuperTom
<BR>Periodical database on a monthly CD-ROM subscription and internet access
<BR>to UMI's ProQuest Direct, so our students can get any research
<BR>information from magazines that way.
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR>* On a limited budget, I buy a few generic professional
magazines for staff
<BR>(Mailbox, Phi Delta Kappan, etc.). I don't buy subject specific
anymore
<BR>because (1) use rate was low, (2) each department has a budget, (3)
<BR>justifying my choice of math over health/p.e. became too stressful.
I
<BR>don't buy popular mags for staff; they can buy their own or drive to
the
<BR>public library. Subscriptions for students is tough enough: a
history mag
<BR>or a music mag? I've finally gone to a full-text CD-ROM for most of
our
<BR>curriculum-support mags with popular reading in paper. My biggest
problem now is newspapers; we can't get enough!
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR> * I agree with you that teachers should purchase
their own subscriptions to
<BR>People, et.al. I do purchase some professional journals
for the teachers'
<BR>shelves, but otherwise I only buy what the students will use.
I sometimes
<BR>even wonder why we carry three newspapers when that seem to be
<BR>predominately staff read.
<BR> For multiculturalism, have you seen Faces Magazine?
(by the publishers of
<BR>Cobblestone)
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR>* I think you should try for a good mix--magazines
that support the
<BR>curriculum and magazines that provide pleasure to the reader.
One new
<BR>magazine that has been very popular and surprisingly wholesome is Teen
<BR>People. I buy very few magazines that simply support one class,
but I
<BR>even break that rule with School Arts. I got it because the art
teacher
<BR>requested it and promised to use it. Now that we have cd-roms of research
<BR>magazines I have cut down on some of the reference titles. I
try to have
<BR>one title for each big leisure interest and I do have Ebony and Hispanic.
<BR> Every year I re-evaluate the collection, look at
what is used and
<BR>enjoyed and try some new titles the next year.
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR>* I struggle with this problem at my school. I really
think of the
<BR>magazines as recreational readling and not "curriculum" related. I've
<BR>put in a big old sofa, easy chairs, coffee tables for the kids to curl
<BR>up and read magazines. I have all the girl ones (17, YM, All about
you,
<BR>Teen, Teen People) the guy ones (hot rod, skateboard, snowboard, Sports
<BR>Ill, boys life, hunting, cars, Next, games, etc) I have some special
<BR>ones for writers (new moon, and blue jean) as well as scientific
<BR>america, history, discover, popular science, time, and so on. I have
an
<BR>airplane magazine, and our MOST popular--Guitar World. Yes there is
junk
<BR>there, but tons of kids come to read, give me ideas for other magazines,
<BR>talk about books, current events, giggle and take those tacky tests
in
<BR>the girl magazines (even the boys). Reading is FUN, and teachers don't
<BR>EVER read the serious magazines or the professional journals I order.
<BR>They like all the people, good housekeeping etc. I am cutting
back next
<BR>year on some of the expensive school related magazines and ordering
more
<BR>things the kids want to read. Isn't that the purpose of a reading area?
<BR>I want them in the library so I can tempt them with books :-)
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR>* I used the magazine index as my guide. If
somebody came in asking for
<BR>the purchase of a magazine I'd check in the magazine index we used.
If
<BR>it was in there, then maybe. If it wasn't, then I would ask for
a
<BR>different suggestion. Worked really well for me. Doesn't
help with
<BR>people, but you could look at it from the standpoint of, research
<BR>projects over the year, how many times is it accessed? If it
isn't
<BR>holding up it's end of the research projects, then I would change it.
I
<BR>gave it a two year test. Depending on who is using the library
and what
<BR>their projects were.
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR>Thanks for acknowledging the problem...it's a big one I struggle with
every
<BR>year. I used to try various magazines, but recently I've just
stuck to the
<BR>same old ones. I do get Seventeen...can't remember if I get 'Teen
or not. I
<BR>get Hot Rod, Dirt Bike, and a few others like that. I'd love
to get a
<BR>snowboarding and skate boarding magazine, if I could find good ones.
I
<BR>cancelled American Heritage years ago because nobody ever used it,
and felt
<BR>disloyal to the academic world. Having Newsbank and Infotrac
has changed
<BR>our use of magazines. But I still have to really stretch the
dollars. I
<BR>wonder how much other schools spend on magazines for middle level?
We
<BR>have grades 6-8, 720 students, and I spend about $700 on magazine
<BR>subscriptions. I suspect that is low compared to other schools.
<BR> Your comment about Ebony really hit home.
I'm the person in the school
<BR>who advocates multi-culturalism with every breath. But do I subscribe
to
<BR>a "hispanic" or "african-american magazine?" Afraid not.
<BR>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<BR> Interesting that a recurring theme appears to be
money. Who would have thought ;-) Again, my thanks to
those responding. Should more insights arrive, I'll post a sequel.
<BR> (I wonder if the fact that I did not receive a single
flame means I'm becoming p.c. If so, I must work harder in this area!!!)
<BR>
<BR>sjp
<BR>--
<BR>S. J. Peterson
<BR>Library/Media-Technical Support Coordinator
<BR>E. M. Cope Middle School
<BR>1000 W. Cypress Avenue
<BR>Redlands, CA 92373
<BR>909 307 5420 x 344
<BR><A HREF="mailto:sjp@eee.org">Home</A> or <A
HREF="mailto:steve_peterson@redlands.k12.ca.us">Work</A> </HTML>
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