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This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------39B7A9200FECBAB258E7A418 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Apologies. Someoone has brought to my attention the fact that I sent this doc out previously in html. As such non-html browsers seem to be a tad confused. Reposting as text here. Sorry. 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: * While it is important for us to support curriculum, we also have a mission of creating life long learners and readers - and supporting the "interests" of our clientele - and this is how I "justify" magazines not directly curricula related. I get Right-On, Nintendo Power, Teen, American Girl, Jet, People, Better Homes & Gardens, Hockey Digest, Baseball Digest, Basketball Digest, Field & Stream, Boys Life, Girls Life, BMX, Hot Rod-- most popular being Right On, Seventeen, Teen, and Nintendo PowerMagazines. I get for curriculum - and the kids never touch unless they have a specific assignment - Russian Life, Japan, Popular Science, Popular Photography, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, China Today, Nutrition Action Newsletter, National Geographic, Classroom Connect. I have dropped Scientific American, Flower & Garden (but we have a horticulture club who never used it), Discover, Oasis. Each year I wrestle with this - and don't reorder magazines that kids don't read. I have lots of kids who would never read a book but will read a magazine - and as long as they are reading - I'll grab for whatever I can get. * While this area is not within my expertise, may i suggest you contact your local public library, to see if there is any policy in place regarding age-related guidelines for magazine checkout (you implied that parents might be unhappy about the choices made available to their children, but do those children already have access to these materials anyway?). * I buy magazines that support the curriculum only. I try to pick some that are generally interesting (Popular Science, Good Housekeeping) as well. Some years ago I got the idea that we didn't have much that was interesting to the girls, so I subscribed to three girls magazines, only to see them stolen almost as fast as I put them out. I dropped the subsriptions. I agree with you when you say that faculty/staff should buy their own magazines. I also think that magazines that are strictly for the personal enjoyment of a small group of students should not be purchased with school funds. I have no problem with someone donating the subscription price and then the magazine is placed in the library. That's how I would handle Ebony. * If you have a limited budget for subscriptions, I would slash People magazine first. ;-) I'd look for mags that support the curriculum - your local university probably carries some decent selection tools you can use to make wise decisions. Try Magazines for Young People (ed. Bill Katz and Linda Sternberg Katz). The other possibility, if you can offer it, is to create a list of websites of magazines on the web. Typically, mags do not offer their current issue to non-subscribers, but you can access their archives, which include last month's issue. Look up Electronic Newstand on the WWW. I would offer ethnic-type mags for your 6% minority. My daughter is of Asian extraction and the only non-white in her class. She would have really appreciated having her race acknowledged in a place where she spends one-third of her life. I wouldn't lose any sleep over not offering mags for every ethnic minority there is. You are on a budget, after all. And speaking of budgets, I've heard of librarians who take care of that issue easily; they do a brisk business in getting members of the community to contribute subscriptions (from an approved list, of course). * Re: magazines. I do not believe that all magazines have to have "redeeming features" or be educational in the sense that Cobblestone is educational. More than half of my magazine purchases are for leisure reading, and, in fact, with the easy availability of full text on cd-rom or on-line, I will probably go even heavier on leisure reading. Our leisure reading magazines such as dirt bike, hot rod, transworld skatboarding, American Girl, Teen, Seventeen, Guitar Player, etc. are truly read to death (I give away the "remains" of this type of magazine at the end of the year.) I may wish that the kids read more books and less magazines, but I do not think that lowering the number of leisure type magazines will accomplish that. (and p.s. - we have a large number of students (grades 6-8) who read People in the library and who take it out when it is available for borrowing. I guess that different schools have differing "cultures".) * I don't "buy" mags that aren't listed in an index like Info Trac or Reader's Guide. That way I know it supports the curriculum or, at the very least, it can be found in an indexing source so kids will use it after it hits the back room. I get donations for "fun" mags and do a student survey for what they should be. EBSCO has a gift department and they do the leg work. I get 10 mags from McDonald's through them. Sports clubs sponsor mags for their clubs like tennis, skiing, etc. If the kids don't ask for it, we don't get it. Teachers work, I'm here for the kids. I work with the teachers but the mags I buy them are Phi Delta Kappen and Education Digest. We get People but it's in reader's guide and kids use it in bio research often. * I make my decisions based on MY knowledge of what is read. I would choose skateboarding over archaeology because more students are interested. I am in charge of the choices. I choose American Girl, Astronomy (we have a science teacher who inspires interest), Outdoor Life, and others because I truly feel that it is MY library and I will purchase what I feel will meet the most needs. I always listen to suggestions, and I revamp each year. We are a K-6 school and some classes are more "into" a subject than others (horses, etc.). * 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 conservative school board, and they have instructed the librarians not to subscribe to YM and Seventeen. We were upset about it for awhile, but decided it wasn't worth the fight. We have Infotrac's SuperTom Periodical database on a monthly CD-ROM subscription and internet access to UMI's ProQuest Direct, so our students can get any research information from magazines that way. * On a limited budget, I buy a few generic professional magazines for staff (Mailbox, Phi Delta Kappan, etc.). I don't buy subject specific anymore because (1) use rate was low, (2) each department has a budget, (3) justifying my choice of math over health/p.e. became too stressful. I don't buy popular mags for staff; they can buy their own or drive to the public library. Subscriptions for students is tough enough: a history mag or a music mag? I've finally gone to a full-text CD-ROM for most of our curriculum-support mags with popular reading in paper. My biggest problem now is newspapers; we can't get enough! * I agree with you that teachers should purchase their own subscriptions to People, et.al. I do purchase some professional journals for the teachers' shelves, but otherwise I only buy what the students will use. I sometimes even wonder why we carry three newspapers when that seem to be predominately staff read. For multiculturalism, have you seen Faces Magazine? (by the publishers of Cobblestone) * I think you should try for a good mix--magazines that support the curriculum and magazines that provide pleasure to the reader. One new magazine that has been very popular and surprisingly wholesome is Teen People. I buy very few magazines that simply support one class, but I even break that rule with School Arts. I got it because the art teacher requested it and promised to use it. Now that we have cd-roms of research magazines I have cut down on some of the reference titles. I try to have one title for each big leisure interest and I do have Ebony and Hispanic. Every year I re-evaluate the collection, look at what is used and enjoyed and try some new titles the next year. * I struggle with this problem at my school. I really think of the magazines as recreational readling and not "curriculum" related. I've put in a big old sofa, easy chairs, coffee tables for the kids to curl up and read magazines. I have all the girl ones (17, YM, All about you, Teen, Teen People) the guy ones (hot rod, skateboard, snowboard, Sports Ill, boys life, hunting, cars, Next, games, etc) I have some special ones for writers (new moon, and blue jean) as well as scientific america, history, discover, popular science, time, and so on. I have an airplane magazine, and our MOST popular--Guitar World. Yes there is junk there, but tons of kids come to read, give me ideas for other magazines, talk about books, current events, giggle and take those tacky tests in the girl magazines (even the boys). Reading is FUN, and teachers don't EVER read the serious magazines or the professional journals I order. They like all the people, good housekeeping etc. I am cutting back next year on some of the expensive school related magazines and ordering more things the kids want to read. Isn't that the purpose of a reading area? I want them in the library so I can tempt them with books :-) * I used the magazine index as my guide. If somebody came in asking for the purchase of a magazine I'd check in the magazine index we used. If it was in there, then maybe. If it wasn't, then I would ask for a different suggestion. Worked really well for me. Doesn't help with people, but you could look at it from the standpoint of, research projects over the year, how many times is it accessed? If it isn't holding up it's end of the research projects, then I would change it. I gave it a two year test. Depending on who is using the library and what their projects were. * Thanks for acknowledging the problem...it's a big one I struggle with every year. I used to try various magazines, but recently I've just stuck to the same old ones. I do get Seventeen...can't remember if I get 'Teen or not. I get Hot Rod, Dirt Bike, and a few others like that. I'd love to get a snowboarding and skate boarding magazine, if I could find good ones. I cancelled American Heritage years ago because nobody ever used it, and felt disloyal to the academic world. Having Newsbank and Infotrac has changed our use of magazines. But I still have to really stretch the dollars. I wonder how much other schools spend on magazines for middle level? We have grades 6-8, 720 students, and I spend about $700 on magazine subscriptions. I suspect that is low compared to other schools. Your comment about Ebony really hit home. I'm the person in the school who advocates multi-culturalism with every breath. But do I subscribe to a "hispanic" or "african-american magazine?" Afraid not. 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. (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!!!) sjp -- S. J. Peterson Library/Media-Technical Support Coordinator E. M. Cope Middle School 1000 W. Cypress Avenue Redlands, CA 92373 909 307 5420 x 344 Home or Work --------------39B7A9200FECBAB258E7A418 Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii; name="vcard.vcf" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: Card for High Commander Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="vcard.vcf" begin: vcard fn: High Commander n: Commander;High email;internet: sjp@eee.org x-mozilla-cpt: ;0 x-mozilla-html: FALSE version: 2.1 end: vcard --------------39B7A9200FECBAB258E7A418-- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-= To quit LM_NET (or set NOMAIL or DIGEST), Send an email message to listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST * NOTE: Please allow time for confirmation from Listserv. For LM_NET Help & Archives see: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=