How to Select Materials for School-aged Children

Nearly a decade ago, Nell Colburn, Children’s Collection Manager in Hyattsville Maryland laid out 10 tips to building an outstanding children’s collection in an issue of School Library Journal. These tips still hold true today. Below are her tips and some suggestions for putting them into practice:

  1) Start each year with a systematic spending plan

Divide your general funds into categories: new books, replacement materials, audio, video, software, etc. Divide those amounts by 12 to give a monthly spending target amount in each category. This provides an easy way to monitor your budget and ensure you are accessing (adding materials to your collection) effectively. Reserve a set amount for special project(s) identified during long range or annual planning.

    2) Know circulation figures and make them work for you

Divide your budget based upon circulation statistics or regular reference demands. For example, you see heavy 900s (history/geography) circulation but light 300s (sociology) or notice picture books circulate twice as much as juvenile fiction, adjust your budget and accession (adding to collection) focus to meet those needs.

   3) Make replacement purchases a priority

It is commonly suggested that 25 percent of your book budget should go toward duplicate/replacement orders. Many libraries create a systematic replacement plan over a five-year period which works something like this: In year one collection study focuses on 000-200 and easy readers. In year two it is 300-400 and juvenile fiction. Year three covers 500-600 and picture books. Year four is 700-800 and video/audio. Year five looks at 900 and software/ miscellaneous.

   4) Go for more copies, fewer titles

Focus on having more copies of a title that kids want to read such as Harry Potter, Holes, “Young Reader’s Choice” nominees/winners or “Newbery Award” winners, rather than having one copy of every fiction book that comes out.  It is very important to add new and unique titles that will expand the world of your readers, but pick and choose carefully and promote new titles.

   5) Allocate funds to buy popular series paperbacks

Series titles will drive your fiction statistics. They are extremely popular, are excellent for reluctant readers, and serve well the goal of getting kids to make reading a regular habit. Do not avoid series books because you’ve heard they lack literary merit. Neither should you pander to series readers alone by focusing exclusively on them. Ensure you have a balanced, healthy fiction collection, and seize the opportunity to put a stand-alone fiction title in the hands of a series reader.

  6) Buy most fiction in paperback

Paperbacks are cheaper and offer good discount opportunities. They have attractive covers, are lighter for backpacks, and are preferred by kids in grades five and up. One strategy is to buy the first copy in hardcover but additional copies in paperback.

   7) Seek out materials on basic skills

Whether you are in a school or public library you will see regular demand for basic math, grammar, and phonics books. Ensure you have sufficient copies to meet those needs. Try to offer different publishers’ presentation angles to fit teaching strategy with learning style.

    8) Take advantage of vendor services

Collection development services are now commonly offered by vendors. Vendors can access your holdings and print regular lists of new books that fit your needs. They can also set up automatic or standing orders for series paperbacks or new titles. You can use some or all of these to aid you in the acquisition process.

    9) Get the most for your money

Shop around, seek out the best discounts, and fill rates (how many items you order actually come in). If you, or your system, are not under a special contract with any one jobber (middleman from publisher to you), you can make effective use of various vendors.

   10) Weed regularly and systematically

Spot-weed regularly for condition and replace as needed. Look for tattered or dirty books and either discard or mark for replacement before discarding. Also set up a systematic weeding schedule similar to the one discussed earlier under replacements. In this way you are sure that at least every five years your entire collection has been carefully looked at and freshened.

There are a variety of methods for finding quality and popular materials.

• Review journals
  Subscribe to at least a few, and find time to read  periodicals such as School Library Journal, Horn Book, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Kirkus, Booklist, and Book Links. Not only do they have extensive book reviews and assist you in making quick decisions via starred or featured reviews, but they often contain articles on the philosophy and process of selection, trends, and they offer aid materials.
• Popular interest
  Talk to the kids and find out what they are hearing about, watching or reading. Very often television shows spin off into book series and such titles are a path toward turning TV junkies onto books, effective with reluctant readers.
• Word of mouth
  Talk with your peers, subscribe to listserves such as PUBYAC to find out what is out there, what is popular, who has a new book coming out, etc. Talk with teachers and parents who often tap sources you are not familiar with.
• Special booklists (AR, home school, review journal generated)
• Award lists
  Do not only sit back and collect winning titles from lists but become active in choosing winners through the Pacific Northwest Library Association’s Young Reader’s Choice Award, which is the nation’s oldest reader’s choice award: http://www.pnla.org/yrca/index.htm

When evaluating nonfiction materials, there are some general areas of concern:

• Does the material serve the collection development policy and goals?
• Is the author qualified?
• Is the content accurate?
• Is the content free of racial, ethnic or sexual stereotypes?
• Is the content and vocabulary an appropriate match for intended audience?
• Do illustrations clarify and extend the text?
• Is there a well-constructed table of contents and index to assist users?

Look for the following criteria as suggested by Professor of Education Charlotte Huck in Children’s Literature in the Elementary School  when evaluating fiction materials:

• Plot – Does the book tell a good story? Is it logical and substantive?
• Setting – Does the book have good structure? Are there anachronisms? Do time and place affect action?
• Theme – Are there several layers of meaning, plot, theme or metaphor? Are there sound moral or ethical principles?
• Characterization – Are people portrayed convincingly? Do animal characters have true personalities? Are they multidimensional? Are they consistent?
• Style – Is style appropriate to plot, theme, and character? Does it mirror setting and background of characters?
• Format – Review size, shape, and design of pages including illustrations, typeface, paper quality, and binding

Books need to be viewed as part of a body of literature and compared with other books on the same subject or theme. When reviewing works in the same series written by different people evaluate each work on its own merits. This goes for fiction and nonfiction materials.

Also, do not automatically assume that all works by a single author will be of the same quality. Ann Rinaldi, for example, has created a great many wonderful children’s fiction books but her contribution to the Dear America series My Heart Is On the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl at Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania in 1880 was found to contain inaccuracies and stereotypes and thus was not recommended for purchase by Native American groups and others.

Ensure your collection is one that incorporates an abundance of multicultural materials. While the need for inclusion is obvious, Boise State University Professor Stan Steiner, in his book Promoting a Global Community Through Multicultural Children’s Literature, provides us with a handy “20 Reasons Why We Need Multicultural Literature”:

1. It provides an opportunity for all children to see themselves in the literature.
2. It fosters development and self-esteem.
3. It strengthens the significance of personal heritage.
4. It helps raise personal aspirations.
5. It provides a means for everyone to learn about people all over the world.
6. It recognizes and values the contributions of all people.
7. It broadens understanding of history and geography.
8. It cultivates respect, empathy, and acceptance of all people.
9. It helps build a global community.
10. It prevents people from feeling isolated.
11. It allows differences and promotes harmony.
12. It provides a multitude of opportunities to discuss similarities and differences.
13. It promotes social consciousness of people afflicted with social problems.
14. It helps overcome denial and fears of differences.
15. It provides daily opportunities to talk about diversity and current events.
16. It promotes positive actions to rectify unjust behaviors and events.
17. It blends easily into themes of study found in schools.
18. It provides the needed balance of literature representative of many cultures.
19. It offers a good option for locating well-written literature.
20. It prepares us for the future.

There are a number of helpful multicultural bibliographies such as Steiner’s to guide you in making effective purchases of quality materials. In addition to regular professional journal book reviews, it is helpful to read and use special journals such as Críticas and Multicultural Review. You can also be ensured of quality when you add materials that have won the “Coretta Scott King” http://www.ala.org/ala/emiert/corettascottkingbookaward/corettascott.htm, “Pura Belpre” http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/belpremedal/belprmedal.htm, and “Americas” http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/CLACS/outreach_americas.html Awards.

When it comes to actually ordering materials, there are a variety of methods at your disposal and your library or system may already have established contracted ordering.

If you do have a level of freedom when it comes to ordering, consider the following:

• Set up an account with a vendor/jobber/distributor such as: Ingram, BWI (Book Wholesalers Inc), Baker and Taylor, etc. This allows you to build and place orders easily, generate records, and pay one bill.
• Use vendor’s automatic services, then sit back and let the materials roll in based upon the profile you have set up, occasionally selecting additional titles and modifying parameters due to any changing needs.
• Use various methods (i.e. jobber, Amazon, or local store specials) depending upon how soon you need the material, the best price, and the billing options.

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