Selecting materials for school libraries has always been a challenging task, but it has become much more complicated in the 21st Century. A school librarian at a junior high in the late 1990s could allot a certain portion of her budget for reference books, the general circulating collection, a few audiovisual materials, and newspapers and…

Aging covers and those that miss their mark and lead to sluggish sales are often targeted for makeovers, many times with good results. Up to 75 percent of Viking's books get redesigned, says Assistant Art Director Jim Hoover, because the publisher sees it as a chance to reintroduce a book to the market. Makeovers are considered the fountain of…

One of the hardest administrative duties for teacher-librarians seems to be collection development. One would think that the selection of books would be effortless, especially with the number of online bookstores offering used book discounts or free shipping for large orders. Deepening budget cuts and limited or untrained staff means collection…

This book focuses on the selection of books in an elementary school and on the resources designed to help in that process. Resources that support other aspects of collection development are identified, along with a number of established surveys of children's literature that discuss specific titles. The following chapters are included: (1)…

Lists 91 sources, most of which are journal articles, for identifying notable materials for children and young adults, including books, multicultural materials, nonprint materials, special features and noteworthy bibliographies, reference books and electronic sources, free and inexpensive materials, and periodicals. (KRN)

This publication lists current reference sources that serve the information needs of school library users, including books, CD-ROMs, and World Wide Web sources in all curricular and some extracurricular areas. Criteria for selection include usefulness for curricular applications by elementary and secondary students and teachers, interest for…

This resource, designed to help school library media specialists select the most exciting, curriculum-related literature for teachers and students in grades 5-9, contains approximately 300 contemporary and classic fiction and non-fiction titles selected on the basis of the quality of writing, interest level, appropriateness of illustration (if…

This collection development aid lists more than 10,000 titles of children's materials available in a variety of formats (in addition to print materials, the guide also includes sound recordings, video cassettes, microcomputer software programs, CD-ROM products, and videodiscs). This 20th anniversary edition contains several special features,…