Saint Columba House Children s Library and Learning Center

Transcription

1 Saint Columba House Children s Library and Learning Center General Description Saint Columba House Children s Library and Learning Center is housed within Saint Columba House, a ministry of the United Church of Canada in Pointe-Saint-Charles, Montreal, Quebec. The Library serves to supplement programs and activities at Saint Columba House, such as an after school program, and provides program space for intellectually challenged adults. Saint Columba House s mission statement includes the phrase seeking justice through empowerment, education, and social action, and the Library aims to support these goals through enabling access to information, promoting literacy, and providing a comfortable, positive environment for users to explore reading and learning. Pointe-Saint-Charles is a diverse, low-income neighbourhood in southwest Montreal. Although the area is beginning to experience gentrification, it is still one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the city. The families and individuals who use the services provided by Saint Columba House generally have low incomes, and many are recent immigrants. Collection The Library collection is comprised of picture books for reading to very young children, fiction organized by reading level, reference, comic books, magazines, adult and children s nonfiction, and young adult and adult fiction. Materials in both French and English are available. There are also four computers with internet access and an online library catalogue. Because of budget limitations as well as the very small size of the collection (roughly 3,000 items), the Library does not lend items out. Materials are catalogued using a simple classification system devised by volunteer librarians which is easily understood by children or others who may have difficulty reading. Materials are assigned a color and a picture which users can use to determine its type, language, and subject. The cataloguing and all other library-related online activities use free, open-access software and Web 2.0 tools. Users The main users of the library are the approximately forty children who participate in Saint Columba House s After-School Program. These children receive homework and reading help, and also use the library recreationally. The small reference section assists the children in their homework assignments, and supervised internet access is also available to them. Volunteer tutors work individually with the children to help them improve their reading skills. Another group of users are the participants in the Hand-in-Hand program for intellectually challenged adults. This group visits the library frequently and uses it for a variety of activities including independent and guided reading, computer use, and games. Since literacy levels within this group vary greatly, the assortment of materials and reading levels is quite helpful to them. Some members of this group read at an adult level, so the library maintains a small collection of adult fiction. Saint Columba House Library, Collection Development Policy, revised January

2 Goals In the future, the Library aims to expand its collection in order to support other Saint Columba House programs. This expansion would include physical materials in the library, as well as links to resources organized by subject on the website. For example, there are several environmental programs which promote green household practices such as reusing, recycling, composting, and gardening. The Library already has a number of children s books on nature and the environment, but would like to expand the collection to include materials for adults looking to learn more about implementing these practices. Other programs which the library would like to be able to provide resources for in the future are the women s discussion group and the teen program. Possible materials include magazines and books about women s and adolescent issues, as well as a list of online resources on the library s website. Overall, the Children s Library and Learning Center exists to serve the community of Pointe- Saint-Charles and support the mission of and services provided by Saint Columba House. Though small, the library can have a positive effect on the children and adults who use it by building a sense of community, promoting enjoyment of and comfort with books, and making information and learning more accessible. Collection Development Policy Overview This policy serves as a guide for volunteer librarians in the selection and deselection of materials, and to help donors and the community understand the needs of the library. Saint Columba House Children s Library and Learning Center aims to support social justice by enabling equal access to information and promoting literacy, numeracy, and lifelong learning. The library has five primary goals: Improve the collection by increasing its scope and weeding materials that do not support the organization s goals. Upgrade the computer equipment of the Center to support children and intellectually challenged adults in developing their searching, browsing, and reading abilities. Improve internet literacy by raising awareness of open access web resources and critical thinking about reliability of sources. Promote diversity, acceptance of difference, and multiculturalism. Facilitate every child's right to information, recreation and cultural access. The material in this free, in-house collection aims to reflect similarities and differences in cultures, to develop a sense of environmental responsibility and to entice children and intellectually challenged adults to explore the broad world of literature. Saint Columba House Library, Collection Development Policy, revised January

3 The collection has two primary audiences. The first audience is children from the community of Pointe-Saint-Charles, particularly the participants in Saint Columba House s after school program. The second audience is participants in Hand-in-Hand, Saint Columba House s program for intellectually challenged adults. This program provides a sense of community, and opportunities for intellectual and artistic expression. The main limitation of the library is that it relies completely on donations (both monetary and of library materials), which increases the difficulty of developing its collection in specific areas and achieving its goals. Another significant limitation is space. The small room in which the library is housed can only hold so many shelves. For this reason, weeding is an important aspect of collection development for Saint Columba House Children s Library and Learning Center. The Library does not plan to initiate any cooperative collection development programs since it does not circulate materials and many of its users do not visit other libraries. Subjects Areas and Formats Collected The collection covers a number of subject areas in either fiction or non-fiction and reference. While the collection should remain diverse, a particular emphasis is placed on materials discussing the following topics: environment and global warming racism and multiculturalism women's issues history and culture of Québec, the city of Montréal, and Pointe-Saint-Charles While the collection is focused on providing materials for children and intellectually challenged adults, a part of its collection is destined for parents and the education of children. The library mainly collects books. The library has a small collection of children's magazines. Due to the library s small size, some donated materials cannot be included in the collection: microform, maps, music scores, art slides, photographs, rare books, self-published materials, scholarly journals, audio-visual materials, and computer-based resources deemed irrelevant to the mission of the library. These materials, if donated, will be sold to raise funds for collection development in identified priority areas. Levels and Languages Collected Although Pointe-Saint-Charles is a diverse neighbourhood with many linguistic groups, the library collects materials in French and English only. Materials in any other languages are not collected due to the lack of space at the library. Saint Columba House Library, Collection Development Policy, revised January

4 90% of the collection is dedicated to materials for children and young adults. 20% to 30% of the materials in this category are picture books (meant to be read aloud to children rather than independently). Materials for adults and intellectually challenged adults represent 10% of the collection. According to the Research Libraries Group Collecting Level System, the numerical value that applies to the collection of Saint Columba House Children s Library and Learning Center is 0 (zero) because the library does not have a specific collection in any particular subject. However, one of the goals of the library is to improve the collection by weeding materials that do not support the organization s goals, and increase the scope of the collection. This would allow the library to move in the medium-term from level 0 to level 1, which refers to libraries owning a limited collection of general material related to the subjects that supports the organization. The library uses its own organizational scheme, which has been developed by volunteer librarians with the needs of its users in mind. Different colors are used to identify picture books to be read aloud to children, books for children to read independently, comic books, reference books, and books about spirituality and religion. The children s section is divided into six levels of reading difficulty. Books in French are differentiated from the English books by a piece of red tape on their spines. Collection Responsibility Saint Columba House Children s Library collection relies completely on donations and gifts. The Librarians have final responsibility for selection of the donated materials. This responsibility is shared among the team of librarian volunteers so as to avoid bias. Suggestions are taken into account. The library has a suggestion box so that the community can make its interests known. These suggestions are included in the wish list maintained by the volunteer librarians. Selection Criteria Materials are selected on the basis of their relevance to the mission of the library and of Saint Columba House in general. The following criteria are used to evaluate materials: 1. Needs of community 2. Popular demand 3. Quality (through reviews, etc.) 4. Materials should not reflect stereotypes 5. Space considerations 6. Physical format 7. Materials that glorify violent or offensive behaviour or with sensational content will not be collected 8. Balance of view point (insofar as possible, the library will present all viewpoints on controversial topics) Saint Columba House Library, Collection Development Policy, revised January

5 E-resources should likewise be open-access and free. They should also be produced by reliable organizations whose values do not conflict with those of Saint Columba House. Gifts and Donations Are Welcome! As Saint Columba House Children s Library collection relies completely on donations and gifts, the following guidelines apply: Gifts become the sole and exclusive property of the library. No condition or specific stipulation from donors will be accepted. All gifts will be accepted, but just the ones that meet the general criteria for selection will be added to the collection. Items that don't meet the general criteria for selection will be given away to program participants or sold. The money will be used to buy pertinent material. Donation deemed highly inappropriate will be discarded. Donations are evaluated by a committee of volunteers. Tax receipts will not be provided for book gifts. Evaluation The internal evaluation of the library collection takes place once a year. At the beginning of each year, the team of librarian volunteers establishes priorities and objectives for the following twelve months. At the end of this period, the collection is evaluated according to the objectives and priorities that have been agreed upon by the committee the year before. Strengths and weaknesses are pointed out in terms of the subject areas, the formats available, and the levels of readings of the materials. Following this, the team makes decisions concerning its priorities and objectives for the following year. Deselection and Discard Following the evaluation process, librarian volunteers will perform an annual deselection and discard in the library in order to make efficient use of shelf space and to make ensure that the collection supports the mission and goals of the library. During this process librarians will discard: Materials that are outdated, obsolete or inaccurate Materials that do not support the values of the library Materials that lie beyond the scope of the collection Duplicates of items given this is a small in-house collection Materials that are in very poor physical condition. Final decisions regarding weeding may be voted on amongst the librarian volunteers in the case of disagreement. Saint Columba House Library, Collection Development Policy, revised January

6 Censorship Saint Columba House Children s Library and Learning Center has adopted the CLA Position Statement on Intellectual Freedom. ( Complaints Complaints or objections to any of the material in the collection will be considered. Users need to fill a request form that will be reviewed by the volunteer librarians team and the executive director of Saint Columba House, who will determine whether the disputed item meets the selection criteria. The final decision for retention or withdrawal will be made by the executive director. Sources American Library Association. (2010, January 22). Workbook for Selection Policy Writing. Retrieved from materials/essentialpreparation/workbookslctn/index.cfm Anjejo, R. (2006). Collection Development Policies for Small Libraries. PNLA Quarterly, 70(2), Retrieved January 29, 2010, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database. Evans, G. E., & Saponaro, M. Z. (2005). Developing library and information center collections. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited. International Children's Digital Library. (2010, January 22). Collection development policy. Retrieved from International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. (2001). Guidelines for a collection development policy using the Conspectus model. [The Hague]: IFLA, Section on Acquisition and Collection Development. Saint Columba House. (2010, January 22). Retrieved from Document revision This document was written by Julia Kleinberg, librarian volunteer in March This document was revised in January 2015 by Sharon Rankin, Megan Laflin and Jennie Ferris, librarian volunteers. Saint Columba House Library, Collection Development Policy, revised January