Lesson 12 - Managing the Reference Collection

Budgets

Budgets are often a discussion topic among teacher librarians. There is never enough money to build the collection to its maximum potential. That being said, in School District No. 57, most school library resource centers are budgeted $5000 per year for the purchase of new materials and the maintenance of the collection. Budgets are determined by the individual school libraries. Some schools, which double as French Immersion and English speaking schools are budgeted $3500 for English resources, and $3500 for Francophone resources.

The District Resource Center is responsible for ordering and purchasing through Baker and Taylor. The DRC keeps records of how much has been spent by the school, but it is also the responsibility of the individual teacher librarian to keep track of the annual expenses. This is due to a division of where purchasing can be allocated. Eighty percent of the budget is set aside for Baker and Taylor purchases, the remaining 20% is for local bookstore purchases.

 Over the past two months I have talked in detail with three teacher librarians in the district about their reference collections, and the responses are all the same, "Our reference collections are pitiful." Two teacher librarians, are really trying to engage students with the e-resources provided by the district. They are encouraging and educating their students to access the materials from home, as well as in the school. The other teacher librarian, has been weeding out may of the reference materials due to age, and has slowly been replacing the resources. She is also trying to show students resources online, but has not been actively using the e-resources.

From my observations, it seems more onus is being put on the non-fiction materials, and less on the reference collections, due to the increasing availability of online references that are more current and regularly updated.