[LM_NET] Poetry in the Elementary Library

[Lane Young <lyoung@NSCDS.ORG>]

Short summary:  I need to decide how large of a poetry collection is
appropriate and would appreciate input from other Elementary librarians on
how large of a collection they have (relative to their overall Dewey
holdings).

 

Detailed explanation of what I'm facing:

 

This year will be my second as a School Librarian and so I am starting to
get to some of the projects that need to be done, that I simply did not have
time to do last year.  One of these is standardizing the cataloging in the
poetry section, where authors can be found in 3 different spots (no doubt
reflecting 3 different of my predecessors).  

 

It seems like this would also be a sensible time to weed the section.  But
this is causing me to have to decide how much poetry is right for our school
library.  For the most part poetry books in the 800s are ignored (versus
books which are essentially poems, but are cataloged as picture books).
While the occasional Prelutsky or Silverstein will circulate during checkout
time, most of the books are ignored by both students and teachers.  Poetry
is taught a little in 4th and 5th grade, but the teachers use their own
books and based on the circulation statistics it doesn't seem to cause
students to want to read other poetry.  The collection development policy
states that the nonfiction collection is designed to first support the
curriculum, then pleasure reading, and finally to offer information on a
diverse matter of subjects.  The section on policy on deslection talks of
use/need, timeliness, book condition, and other available resources with-in
the library.  Using this criterion, I purchased very few poetry books last
year and it would suggest that I could weed 80% or so of the collection.  It
feels wrong, to a certain extent, to not be collecting poetry and to so
prune the collection, so I'm reaching out to you to see what your library is
like, or even what your dream library would be like.  If it's desired I will
post a HIT.

 

Lane Young

lyoung@nscds.org
Lower School Librarian and Technology Coordinator

North Shore Country Day School

Winnetka, IL


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