Library Material Selection Process

Collection development involves the identification, selection, acquisition, and evaluation of a collection of library resources to fit the needs of its users and potential users.

◼The primary objective of instructional resources selected for the library media center is to support, enrich, and assist in implementing the LISD‘s educational program.

◼Minimum best practice dictates that books considered for purchase be favorably reviewed in at least two of these professional review journals. The review must include at least one grade level served by the purchasing campus.

The District shall provide a wide range of instructional resources for students and faculty that present varying levels of difficulty, diversity of appeal, and a variety of points of view.

The Board shall rely on District professional staff to select and acquire instructional resources that:

• Enrich and support the curriculum, taking into consideration students’ varied interests, abilities, learning styles, and maturity levels.
• Stimulate growth in factual knowledge, enjoyment of reading, literary appreciation, aesthetic values, and societal standards.
• Present various sides of controversial issues so that students have an opportunity to develop, under guidance, skills in critical analysis and in making informed judgments in their daily lives.
• Represent many ethnic, religious, and cultural groups and their contributions to the national heritage and world community.
• Provide a wide range of background information that will enable students to make intelligent judgments in their daily lives.

Per board policy, in the selection of instructional resources, professional staff shall ensure that the resources:

1. Support and are consistent with the general educational goals of the state and District and the aims and objectives of individual schools and specific courses consistent with the District and campus improvement plans.

2. Meet high standards for artistic quality and/or literary style, authenticity, educational significance, factual content, physical format, presentation, readability, and technical quality.

3. Are appropriate for the subject area and for the age, ability level, learning styles, and social and emotional development of the students for whom they are selected.

4. Are designed to help students gain an awareness of our pluralistic society.

5. Are designed to provide information that will motivate students and staff to examine their own attitudes and behavior; to understand their duties, responsibilities, rights, and privileges as citizens participating in our society; and to make informed choices in their daily lives.

6. For library selections, are integral to the instructional program, are appropriate for the reading levels and understanding of students, reflect the interests and needs of the students and faculty, are included because of their literary or artistic value and merit, and present information with the greatest degree of accuracy and clarity. Administrators, teachers, library media specialists, other district personnel, parents, and community members, as appropriate, may recommend instructional resources for selection. Gifts of instructional resources shall be evaluated according to these criteria and accepted or rejected in accordance with CDC(LOCAL). Selection of resources is an ongoing process that includes the removal of resources no longer appropriate and the periodic replacement or repair of resources that still have educational value.

A district possesses significant discretion to determine the content of its school libraries. A district must, however, exercise its discretion in a manner consistent with the First Amendment. Students’ First Amendment rights are implicated by the removal of books from the shelves of a school library. A district shall not remove materials from a library for the purpose of denying students access to ideas with which the district disagrees. A district may remove materials because they are pervasively vulgar or based solely upon the educational suitability of the books in question.

To read the additional pieces to the policy, please visit- EF Local and EF Legal