Development in School Library Media
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Objective Indicator
No – not according to our online catalog, which supports searches only by title, author and subject. But high school students don’t look for books this way – they want genres: sci fi, occult, romance. They want urban stories, Chinese authors. To help them find what they want to read, I created an online database that presents our new books according to the genres students actually ask for. Through request forms and an ongoing tally of requested titles, authors and topics, I collect ideas on what students want to read and use this information in book orders. I also order books for students based on the topics they choose to research in their English classes; recent additions include biographies on Tupac Shakur and Curt Kobain for the 10th grade Tragic Heroes research paper. Since graphic novels circulate more than any other format at our school, I order graphic novel titles in a variety of genres and shelve them separately near the circulation desk. And because our school has a large population of native Spanish speakers, I order popular titles in both English and Spanish, including the entire Harry Potter series. When I first began working as a media specialist, it killed me to lack a ready answer when a student asked for a good whodunit, or a great sci fi read. By paying attention to what they want, then ordering and organizing our books accordingly, I’ve come a long way in helping students find themselves in books. |
Artifacts Links: New Books Database File: Book Request Form (PDF) File: Spanish Book List (PDF)
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McDaniel
College |
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