1. Shauna Sanders
Reference: Evaluation
FRIT 7737, Dr. Repman
Fall 2010
Evaluating an Elementary School’s Reference Collection
For this assignment I chose to evaluate our elementary school’s reference collection for its currency and coverage. I
chose my elementary school for this evaluation because in my two years in the media center, I have seen maybe one or two
teachers use the reference materials and no one else. Most of our non-fiction selections remain on the shelves with their
Dewey classification. The best time of the year to determine what areas we may be lacking coverage is when the students are
creating their informational writing pieces within their rooms. During this time, many students and teachers will come to the
media center requesting books on specific topics. My assistant and I quickly realize some topics or areas that we are lacking
during this time.
The first part of this evaluation consisted of learning how to run specific circulation or analysis reports using our
Surpass checkout system. I ran an age analysis report just on the books that are cataloged in the Reference section. We have
over 25 books that are from the 1980’s and before. Several of the books on presidents stopped with Bill Clinton or were
copyrighted 1989. The two sets of encyclopedias had a copyright date of 1992. Many things have happened and changed since
then. For example, Pluto is no longer considered a planet, yet according to the set of encyclopedias we have on our shelves, it

2. is.
One problem with the age analysis report is that it showed we have over 100 books that were published within the
2000’s. However, after further digging, those books were in fact only 3 titles and we just had a bunch of them. They were
books like Almanacs, dictionaries, class atlases, and thesaurus. After taking these titles out, we basically had around 10
books written in the 2000’s. Not counting these titles, I ran a dewey divisions report with an average age of each division. The
reference division’s average age was 19 years old. We seriously need to think about weeding some of these older books and
replacing them with newer more up to date reference materials. Instead of buying new sets of encyclopedias, I have included
several online resources in my reference 2.0 tool required for this assignment.
The next part of this assignment involved me examining the collection of books on specific topics that are used quite a
bit. One of the most popular topics for informational writing is animals. Unfortunately, the conditions of many of our 590’s
books are poor. There are quite a few reference books on animals, but many of them are very high reading levels, which
prevents many of our elementary students being able to gain any information. Also, many of the “animal” books in the
reference section are about birds. I’m not quite sure why we have so many nice, expensive and oversized books on birds, but
we do. These books are pretty, but not really applicable to what our students are required to learn about.
The final part of my evaluation consisted of finding any gaps in our media center related to our state standards. After

3. carefully comparing the science, social studies and math standards to what we have in the media center, there were some very
obvious areas where we are definitely not providing adequate information for the students. For example, students in third
grade are required to conduct some comparisons between ancient Athens and the USA and our governments. Third graders
are also responsible for being familiar with the Georgia habitats, animals and plants. Each of these sections do not have many
books providing students with the support they need in order to learn these topics. Also, students in second-fifth grades
spend some time focusing on biographies and many times the teachers want to cover more recent famous people, like Barack
Obama, Miley Cyrus, etc. , people that the students would actually enjoy learning about. I was able to find several good
websites for the students to use when working on biographies and added it to my web 2.0 tool.
After my evaluation was complete, I created a list of titles and other possible resources that I would recommend for our
media center to purchase in order to update and complete our reference collection. Below is my list.
Titlewave.com or Follett Online Order

4. Follett
Online
Order
Number
Title Author(s) Publisher Year
Published
Review Value to the
Collection
Cost
0034PA6
(372.89)
Brother can you spare a
dime? The Great
Depression & the New Deal
Marsh,
Carole
Gallopade
Internationa
l
2005 School Library
Journal
Our fifth graders learn
about the Great
Depression and the New
Deal. Many of them are
quite interested in the
Great Depression and
focus their
informational writing
pieces on this topic.
However, we generally
do not have enough
interesting and up to
date books on this
subject.
$29.99
07348P7
(577)
Food chains and webs:
from producers to
decomposers
Spilsbury,
Luise
Heinemann
Library
2004 No Reviews Our fourth graders learn
all about food chains
and need help with
decomposers. We only
have a few books about
food chains and they are
easy readers for the
primary grades. We
need books for our
fourth graders.
$21.75
1400F6
(599.93)
Amazing Schemes within
your Genes
Balkwill,
Frances R.
Carolrhoda
Books
1993 Hornbook;
Kirkus Review
One of the newer
standards for fifth grade
is learning about
inheriting traits and
genes. We don’t have
any materials to cover
this topic.
Unfortunately, I have
been unable to find any
appropriate resource for
our fifth graders beside
this book.
$14.95
26537X2
(973.917)
Climbing out of the Great
Depression: the New Deal
Price, Sean Raintree 2009 Hornbook Our fifth graders learn
about the Great
$21.75

5. Amazon.com Order

6. Title Author(s) Publisher Year
Published
Review Value to the
Collection
Cost
Faces of World War One:
The Tragedy of the Great
War in Words and Pictures
Arthur, Max First
Impression
2007 Customer
Reivews
The students in just
about all grades love
learning about and
reading about wars. We
don’t have many new
books on any of the
wars. This book would
add a newer title to our
collection with lots of
great pictures.
$25.51
Scholastic Encyclopedia of
the Civil War
Clinton,
Catherine
Scholastic 1999 Booklist and
School Library
Our fourth and fifth
graders cover the Civil
War and we currently
do not have many books
at all specifically on this
war. These two books
contain many pictures of
tools and actual photos
used or taken in the war.
Students will find both
of these books quite
interesting.
$17.94
Eyewitness: Civil War Stanchack,
John
DK Children 2000 Booklist and
School Library
Journal
Our fourth and fifth
graders cover the Civil
War and we currently
do not have many books
at all specifically on this
war. These two books
contain many pictures of
tools and actual photos
used or taken in the war.
Students will find both
of these books quite
interesting.
$11.55
Tools of the Ancient
Greeks: A Kid’s Guide to
the History & Science of
Ancient Greece
Bordessa,
Kris
Nomad
Press
2006 Customer
Reviews and
Metrokids
Pennsylvania
Third grade social
studies’ standards
require students to
compare ancient Greece
with our society today.
These books provide
these comparisons in a
$11.53

7. Follett Order $487.45
Amazon Order $164.63
Total for Both Orders $652.08