What Makes a Great School Library?
A high-quality school library is one of the building blocks of a great school district. What makes a school library great? Dedicated, professional staff, a high-quality collection, a wide range of options, and a commitment to every student’s right to read.
Kettle Moraine school district library services begin with a highly trained, professional staff. Each building–KMHS, KMMS, and all four elementary schools–has at least one licensed Library Media Specialist on staff. (KM exceeds both state requirements and many other local school districts in this regard. Few districts have a dedicated LMS in every school building.) All KM Library Media Specialists hold bachelor’s degrees in education, as well as a special license in school libraries. Most also hold Master’s degrees in library science. These highly trained individuals select and maintain the school’s library materials, both physical and internet-based.
The selection process for library materials is informed by the American Library Association’s school library selection criteria, state law, and district policy, as well as teacher and student input. In practice, this means that KM Library Media Specialists use a software called Follett Titlewave to regularly audit the school libraries’ collections, identify areas for improvement, and choose materials according to reading level, reviews, and awards. Although LMS staff do not always read the entire text of each item, they do select each item individually on the strength of these recommending factors.
Teachers and students also play an important role in the selection of library materials. Students with special needs often require different formats, such as audiobooks, or specialty materials. Library media specialists also work closely with teachers to choose materials that directly support curriculum, such as collections of monologues for a drama class. Students can request materials too. They can ask the LMS to acquire books to help with their research on a special project, and the district has funds set aside to fulfill teacher and student requests. Of course, “holes” in the collection still exist, but the staff are constantly working to align the collection to their students’ educational needs.
KM school libraries do not just include the materials that are physically held in the school buildings; students and teachers also have access to a range of ebooks through Sora and Epic software. These online resources only account for about 3% of the district’s total library holdings, but they are subject to additional controls for age- and reading level-appropriateness. LMS staff assign a content access level to each item in the Sora collection, denoting it Juvenile, Young Adult, or Adult. Students’ access to these levels is determined by their grade. The Epic collection, used primarily in the district’s elementary schools, is leveled according to Guided Reading Levels, and students are presented with reading options targeted to their skills.
Offering a wide range of options is key to meeting student needs where they are and serving all KM students as well as possible. The KM libraries have what is called a core collection, which constitutes basic nonfiction materials, classic fiction, and curriculum-based materials. The core collection does not change much, other than updating to newer editions. Beyond the core collection, however, KM library media specialists have discretion in choosing library materials. LMS staff regularly survey their library collections to find out how often materials are being checked out. Materials may be used less because they are no longer relevant or are out of date, or even because they are in poor physical condition. Some of these items are easy to identify: a “current events” book published before the fall of the Soviet Union is a good candidate for removal! Others are more dependent upon student reading taste: novels that were popular in the 1990s may not seem relevant or interesting for 2020s students. It is up to the librarians, trained in materials selection and with input from teachers and students and guidance from the ALA, to replace these dated media with high-quality materials that appeal to current students. Reports on circulation can help inform these decisions: if students are checking out Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novels daily, the LMS staff will probably choose to order the author’s next new release.
The LMS staff also have a duty, based in state law, to choose materials that reflect a variety of experiences and viewpoints. Wisconsin State Statute 121.02 (Section H) reads, “Each school board shall…provide adequate instructional materials, texts and library services which reflect the cultural diversity and pluralistic nature of American society.” Kettle Moraine district policy echoes this statute in KMORR 3505. To fulfill this requirement, KM school librarians select some materials, both fiction and nonfiction, that focus on topics like minority experiences and alternative viewpoints–applying the same standards of high quality, intellectual rigor, and student interest that they apply to all other acquisitions. For example, the KMHS library recently acquired a biography of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to balance a collection that already held biographies of several other sitting justices.
KM’s professional librarians work diligently to provide reading options for students of all interests and skill levels, but not every book is right for every student. Kettle Moraine school district policy, in concert with the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, asserts that students have a right to check out any book held by their school library (KMORR 3504). However, Wisconsin state law allows the parent or guardian of a child up to age 16 to have access to their child’s library checkout records (Wisconsin State Statute 43.30 [Section 1m]). The slight discrepancy between these two policies means that LMS staff must sometimes strike a balance between the student’s right to read and parent or guardian preferences. Should a parent or guardian prefer that their under-16 student not check out certain materials, they can simply contact the LMS staff and request that their student not be allowed to check out that item.
The school district also has in place a mechanism for district staff or parents/guardians to request that an item be removed from the collection entirely. The first step in the case of a potential challenge is always for the complainant to contact the school’s LMS directly. Almost all concerns are resolved in this manner. If the complainant and the LMS staff cannot reach a resolution informally, a Challenged Materials Complaint Procedure form is available on the district Web site. A person wishing to file a complaint must read the material in its entirety before submitting a formal complaint, and clearly delineate why they are challenging the item. The challenge then goes to the assistant superintendent for resolution. Because the KM school district is firmly committed to defending students’ right to read, challenges are examined very critically.
The Kettle Moraine school district’s professionally trained library staff work hard to provide students with a variety of quality materials to enhance their educational experience. Very occasionally, parents or guardians may have concerns about the content of an item in the school library. A conversation among the parent/guardian, LMS staff, and the student is the best way to resolve these concerns while respecting the right of all students to read.